Why We Trust Online Reviews

You buy a backpack because five people said it is good.

A man buys a new phone. He reads reviews on his computer. He sees five people say the battery is good. Then he buys it. This happens every day on the internet.

Some people read many reviews before they buy anything. They want to be sure the item is good or cheap. They look for reviews from people who bought it a long time ago. These old reviews feel more real to them than new ones.

Other people do not read any reviews at all. They just buy the first item they see on a page. They think if it looks nice, then it must be good enough for them to use.

Most people trust reviews because they think other people are honest. They hope that strangers will tell the truth about a product. But some reviews can be fake, so we should not trust them too much.