Polarity Self-Selection

Polarity Self-Selection

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

The tendency of customers with extreme evaluations to be more likely to write a review, which makes review sets polarised.

What it is

Schoenmueller, Netzer and Stahl (2020) found it an important driver of polarity across 25 platforms and reported that it makes reviews less informative. It is drawn from work by Verena Schoenmueller, Oded Netzer and Florian Stahl (2020).

In effect

In the article on why we leave only extreme reviews, it serves as the main account of the J shape.

What it does not say

It is one driver among several reported across the 25 platforms studied. It does not say that individual reviews are untrue, only that the set of reviews leans to the extremes.

Sources

  1. Schoenmueller, V., Netzer, O., & Stahl, F. (2020). The polarity of online reviews: Prevalence, drivers and implications. Journal of Marketing Research, 57(5), 853-877.