Sean Taylor, who received his PhD from NYU and now works for Facebook, has studied how existing ratings and comments influence subsequent ratings.8 He found that if you manipulate the ratings so that the first review is glowing, the likelihood of other positive reviews increases by 32 percent and the final rating is enhanced by 25 percent! This means that the difference between a restaurant with an average rating and one with a phenomenal rating can sometimes be attributed to the first person who happened to log on and register their opinion. The ability of one person, one rating, to influence
...more
