Why We Trust Strangers Online

You see a five-star rating and click buy, even though you do not know the person.

A young man stood in a supermarket and picked up a bottle of juice he had never tasted before. He looked at his phone, opened an app, and read a review from someone named Tom who wrote that the drink was very sweet. He did not ask his friends for advice, so he decided to trust Tom and put the bottle in his basket.

Some people buy things because they want to feel safe without asking anyone else for help. They think a high number of stars means the item is good, even if they have never met the reviewer. This feeling makes shopping easier and faster for them because they do not want to waste time reading long descriptions.

Other people are more careful and look at the text of the review before they make a choice. They want to know exactly what others felt and saw when they used the product. These readers often check if a review is written in detail, because short comments do not give enough information to them.

Most reviews are written by people who really used the product, but some are fake and paid for by a company. We cannot always tell if a review is true, because we do not know the person who wrote it. This makes us still use reviews even though we are sometimes confused about what to believe.

The next time you go shopping, think about why you read a review before buying something new.