ABOUT

Working with Which?, the largest independent consumer body in the UK, we developed a project to explore how consumer behaviour can be influenced by online fake reviews.

Methodology
For that purpose we designed a consumer experience, created to simulate a well-known retail platform (mobile and desktop). Different elements of the user experience, including platform-endorsement labels, varying degrees of suspicious fake review text or the famous 5-star rating system were explored. We also designed a possible solution that could help to mitigate the influence of fake reviews: a banner positioned on top of the page, alerting users to the potential for fake reviews, with some simple tips for identifying them (like spotting text reviews with abnormal grammar or no punctuation).

Results
All the features we tested had an effect on consumers, so when altered, they make them up to 14.5% more likely to choose the lowest quality product in comparison to when participants were not exposed to altered features.

We also found that the solution we designed, a relatively easy-to-implement information banner, significantly reduced the chances that people would be swayed by the fake reviews on the low quality product. While this solution did not completely mitigate the allure of the fake reviews, it did make participants much less likely to go for the lowest quality products compared to when any solution was implemented.