[reblogged from ReviewMeta]
If you’ve read reviews on Amazon within the last few years, you’ve surely noticed a disclaimer at the bottom of many that look like this:
“I received this product for free or at a discount in exchange for my honest, unbiased review”
At ReviewMeta, we call these “Incentivized Reviews”.
Consumers have growing distrust and even disdain for incentivized reviews, especially when it seems every single one is a glowing 5-star review. We wanted to confirm or deny this seemingly anecdotal opinion, so we analyzed 7 million reviews.
After looking at over 7 million reviews, here’s what we see
We found that reviews containing language that would indicate the reviewer received the item for free or at a discount in exchange for a review (incentivized reviews) on average rate the product .38 stars higher than reviews that did not contain this disclosure (non-incentivized reviews).
Non-Incentivized:
5,071,232 reviews (70%), 4.36 average rating
for more follow this link
38 Caliber Reviews 