Imagine hiking through the woods in search of wild berries. One looks perfectly ripe, so you pick it and take a bite, only to discover it’s sour.
The experience might leave a bad taste in your mouth, and new research from Washington State University suggests online shoppers often experience something similar while reading online reviews.
Many retailers highlight a handful of “featured” product reviews to help shoppers sort through hundreds or even thousands of customer opinions. However, what makes those reviews useful isn’t how many people vote them “helpful,” but whether they reflect an individual shopper’s priorities, the study finds.
“When reviews don’t align with a consumer’s priorities, they can create confusion and lead to poor decisions,” said Long The Nguyen, assistant professor of information systems in WSU’s Carson College of Business and lead author of the study. “Even highly rated reviews can steer people in the wrong direction.”
The researchers call this phenomenon the “sour fruit” effect. Co-authored with Zachary Sheffler of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the study suggests featured reviews are most effective when they present information that aligns with an individual shopper’s priorities rather than simply highlighting the most popular opinions.
When faced with hundreds of reviews, consumers naturally gravitate toward the featured reviews retailers place front and center, even if they don’t reflect their priorities, Nguyen said. Like many online shoppers, he has experienced the same frustration of discovering that the most visible reviews still left him searching for information that better matched what he actually needed.
“The purpose of featured reviews is well intentioned,” he said. “Online retailers are trying to help consumers reduce the amount of information they have to process.”
That experience led Nguyen and Sheffler to ask a simple question: Do highlighted reviews actually help consumers make better decisions? To find out, they analyzed more than 2,000 smartwatch reviews from Best Buy and conducted a series of controlled experiments. The researchers found shoppers typically rely on only a handful of reviews before making a purchase, making those reviews especially influential.
The findings showed consumers made better decisions when reviews matched what mattered most to them. Someone shopping for a smartwatch to monitor health and fitness, for example, may instead encounter reviews focused primarily on appearance or style instead of the features they value most. “The review isn’t necessarily bad,” Nguyen said. “It’s simply bad for that particular consumer.”
When reviews and consumer priorities don’t align, shoppers may abandon a purchase, buy the wrong product only to return it later, or keep a product they ultimately find unsatisfying.
“There’s a negative effect to both the business and the shopper,” he said. “Returns increase operational costs, and negative experiences can reduce trust in the platform or retailer.”
To explain why this happens, the researchers drew on information foraging theory, which compares the way people search for information to the way animals forage for food. Just as animals look for cues that signal a promising food source, consumers look for cues that signal a promising source of information. Featured reviews send exactly that signal, encouraging shoppers to invest their limited time and attention in reviews that may not match what they actually need.
“Featured reviews seem like an obvious place to start,” Nguyen said. “But once consumers engage with information that doesn’t match what they actually need, they’ve already spent time and mental effort and may still make the wrong choice.”
Like the berry that looks ripe but turns out to be sour, a featured review can appear useful while leading shoppers away from more helpful information.
The findings suggest online retailers could improve review systems by emphasizing relevance rather than popularity. One option, Nguyen said, would be to ask shoppers a few simple questions, such as whether they care more about functionality or style, and then prioritize reviews that match those preferences.
More advanced systems could use artificial intelligence to personalize featured reviews automatically, although Nguyen cautions that greater personalization should not come at the expense of consumer privacy.
“There’s a balance between personalization and privacy,” he said. “Consumers should have control over how their data is used.”
Until review systems evolve, Nguyen encourages shoppers to take a more intentional approach. Rather than relying solely on featured reviews, consumers should use filters or search tools whenever possible to find feedback that best aligns with what they care about most.
“Be intentional about what you’re looking for before you start reading,” he said. “That can help you avoid information overload and focus on what actually matters for your decision.”
Media Contacts
- Long The Nguyen, WSU Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship, long.the.nguyen@wsu.edu
- Eric Hollenbeck, WSU Carson College of Business, 509-335-3597, edhollenbeck@wsu.edu
