5 ms·

To address the question, bad reviews can affect popularity based on how things are listed and sorted online. If a restaurant has bad reviews then it will be low

To address the question, bad reviews can affect popularity based on how things are listed and sorted online. If a restaurant has bad reviews then it will be lower on the list when sorted by average review. This will affect their popularity by not being as visible, and possibly the poor reviews affecting people’s desire to eat there. I personally don’t go online and immediately sort by restaurants with 1 or 2 stars. I tend to sort by those with higher ratings. Fake bad reviews by competitors and mean spirited people do know their actions have an affect on that business.

nkurz 6y ago
> To address the question, bad reviews can affect popularity... That's not the question that others are referring to. Everyone agrees that bad reviews affect the popularity. The question others want answered is how one distinguishes a "decent restaurant with bad reviews" from a "bad restaurant with bad reviews". Yes, initial bad reviews are likely to affect the number of total reviews a restaurant receives. But it's also clear that a bad restaurant is likely to get bad initial reviews. The press release says that the ratings of the initial reviews determines (causes) the total number of reviews and hence the eventual popularity of the restaurant, but doesn't explain how the researchers eliminated the apparently obvious alternative causal explanation that bad restaurants are more likely to get initial bad reviews, leading to fewer total reviews. One hopes that the paper (which I haven't read yet) answers this better than the press release: https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1080/23754931.2020.1791942 https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1080/23754931.2020.179...
- Hello71 6y ago
  > One hopes that the paper (which I haven't read yet) answers this better than the press release The paper: As the number of reviews is statistically significant and positive in all of the regression models, the more reviews a restaurant receives, the higher rating it has.
- NaOH 6y ago
  > The question others want answered is how one distinguishes a "decent restaurant with bad reviews" from a "bad restaurant with bad reviews". But it's also clear that a bad restaurant is likely to get bad initial reviews. A helpful move for new establishments—especially independent ones which don't have the organizing strategies of large corporations—would be to delay allowing comments for 3–6 months. I've worked in food for a long time, still do, and it's so difficult to have all aspects of an establishment in a good place at the outset. Give restaurants the time to work out those kinks before accepting comments.
  - yoz-y 6y ago
    One other option would be to display something like “this restaurant did not receive enough ratings to show them” like some online stores do.
chrisseaton 6y ago
That wasn't the question. The question was - how do they know it's the bad reviews that hurt the restaurants, or if it's actually the bad service (which caused the bad reviews) that hurts the restaurants. They observe an effect - hurt restaurant - they see bad reviews - they blame the bad reviews. But was it actually the bad service (evident from the bad reviews) which hurt the restaurant?
- mlthoughts2018 6y ago
  Is it possible for there to be such a thing as bad service which is not bad reviews? The actual physical activities the restaurant does, such as choosing a menu, cooking food, handing food to customer, playing low music, cannot be good or bad on some independent scale. What you may see as bad service, I may see as great service. I think the only possible thing is “what does the market think.” So the entire problem is correlation. “Bad service” is, literally by definition, the name we give after the fact to types of service that correlated with bad reviews and low revenue.
  - sigstoat 6y ago
    > The actual physical activities the restaurant does, such as choosing a menu, cooking food, handing food to customer, playing low music, cannot be good or bad on some independent scale. at a minimum, the health department disagrees, re cooking and delivering food.
    - mlthoughts2018 6y ago
      I don’t see how health / sanitation law is related to the discussion.
      - wutbrodo 6y ago
        Health/sanitation law is intended to stop people from getting sick from restaurant food. If you get sick from restaurant food, that would universally be considered a bad experience (and for those inclined, a bad review). That's a direct counterexample to the GP claim that there's no agreed-upon way to distinguish "bad" and "good" experiences.
wincy 6y ago
My psychologist had a bad review saying that he made her talk about her problems and said that it sounded like it was her fault. She got all defensive and put him on blast. I don’t remember the specifics but reading her “bad” review made me think he’d be a good psychologist, tough but fair type. He was!

nkurz 6y ago

> To address the question, bad reviews can affect popularity... That's not the question that others are referring to. Everyone agrees that bad reviews affect the popularity. The question others want answered is how one distinguishes a "decent restaurant with bad reviews" from a "bad restaurant with bad reviews". Yes, initial bad reviews are likely to affect the number of total reviews a restaurant receives. But it's also clear that a bad restaurant is likely to get bad initial reviews. The press release says that the ratings of the initial reviews determines (causes) the total number of reviews and hence the eventual popularity of the restaurant, but doesn't explain how the researchers eliminated the apparently obvious alternative causal explanation that bad restaurants are more likely to get initial bad reviews, leading to fewer total reviews. One hopes that the paper (which I haven't read yet) answers this better than the press release: https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1080/23754931.2020.1791942 https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1080/23754931.2020.179...

Hello71 6y ago
> One hopes that the paper (which I haven't read yet) answers this better than the press release The paper: As the number of reviews is statistically significant and positive in all of the regression models, the more reviews a restaurant receives, the higher rating it has.
NaOH 6y ago
> The question others want answered is how one distinguishes a "decent restaurant with bad reviews" from a "bad restaurant with bad reviews". But it's also clear that a bad restaurant is likely to get bad initial reviews. A helpful move for new establishments—especially independent ones which don't have the organizing strategies of large corporations—would be to delay allowing comments for 3–6 months. I've worked in food for a long time, still do, and it's so difficult to have all aspects of an establishment in a good place at the outset. Give restaurants the time to work out those kinks before accepting comments.
- yoz-y 6y ago
  One other option would be to display something like “this restaurant did not receive enough ratings to show them” like some online stores do.

chrisseaton 6y ago

That wasn't the question. The question was - how do they know it's the bad reviews that hurt the restaurants, or if it's actually the bad service (which caused the bad reviews) that hurts the restaurants. They observe an effect - hurt restaurant - they see bad reviews - they blame the bad reviews. But was it actually the bad service (evident from the bad reviews) which hurt the restaurant?

mlthoughts2018 6y ago
Is it possible for there to be such a thing as bad service which is not bad reviews? The actual physical activities the restaurant does, such as choosing a menu, cooking food, handing food to customer, playing low music, cannot be good or bad on some independent scale. What you may see as bad service, I may see as great service. I think the only possible thing is “what does the market think.” So the entire problem is correlation. “Bad service” is, literally by definition, the name we give after the fact to types of service that correlated with bad reviews and low revenue.
- sigstoat 6y ago
  > The actual physical activities the restaurant does, such as choosing a menu, cooking food, handing food to customer, playing low music, cannot be good or bad on some independent scale. at a minimum, the health department disagrees, re cooking and delivering food.
  - mlthoughts2018 6y ago
    I don’t see how health / sanitation law is related to the discussion.
    - wutbrodo 6y ago
      Health/sanitation law is intended to stop people from getting sick from restaurant food. If you get sick from restaurant food, that would universally be considered a bad experience (and for those inclined, a bad review). That's a direct counterexample to the GP claim that there's no agreed-upon way to distinguish "bad" and "good" experiences.

wincy 6y ago

My psychologist had a bad review saying that he made her talk about her problems and said that it sounded like it was her fault. She got all defensive and put him on blast. I don’t remember the specifics but reading her “bad” review made me think he’d be a good psychologist, tough but fair type. He was!