Nowadays, as reading online reviews has become an integral part of individuals’ online shopping experience, plenty of them are written and read everyday. However, it is often argued that they are not as reliable as they might seem to be, due to the psychological incidents and the growth of professional review writers.
First and foremost, the psychological aspect should not be ignored. Since people do not tend to write a review as long as they have been fully satisfied with the product or service. They are more likely to do so, when they feel dissatisfied and therefore, might concentrate on the drawbacks owing to their anger and even a possible willing to retaliate. My sister, for instance, once went to a cafe, where she believed the way she was served was not as appropriate as expected and, as a result, she wrote the harshest reviews on the cafe’s Instagram page. She had been to the cafe before and she had never written one and if she had been satisfied, she might not have done it even on that day.
Apart from the psychological factor, the increase in the number of professional review writers must be considered. There are many individuals, hired by business owners, whose job is to write persuasive reviews. Take a friend of mine as an example, who has been working for a famous department store in Tehran for many years. Recently he has become responsible for writing the reviews by which people get encouraged to go shopping there. If he were not my friend, I would assume he was a true costumer, just like he will be assumed by the readers who do not know him and might believe his words.
In conclusion, although not all the reviews written and read everyday are biased and unreliable, there might be a significant number of them which should not be easily trusted. People are more probable to write negative reviews when they have experienced something terrible, than positive ones after a pleasant experience. In addition, businesses have started to employ some people to be in charge of writing reviews and convincing the readers.