You're Probably Getting Scammed By the Crowdsourced Hive Mind - CityLab - 0 views
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researchers found that reviewers are easily manipulated by “social influence bias,” a feedback loop in which positive reviews beget more positive reviews
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The Italian newspaper Italia a Tavola recently proved how necessary that enhanced insight is. Staffers scammed the ratings system by creating a profile for a fake restaurant in Moniga del Garda then posting 10 glowing ratings (under different usernames) over the course of a month, Jezebel reported. Within weeks, La Scaletta had the highest TripAdvisor ratings in town—despite the fact that it didn’t exist.
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Why were people so quick to take the reviews at face value? “Stories that come from other people [are viewed as] much more believable than information from companies, because our working assumption is that [individuals] don't have an ulterior motive,” says Sarah G. Moore, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Alberta. Additionally, given a lack of identifying information, we