Tim May said:
Besides the trend of people to give positive endorsements more than negative endorsements (fear of lawsuits is also an issue), it's apparent that most people are simply reporting on whom they have...
I thought this paper might be of interest, which lends further support to what Tim said. The gist, as I'm sure most of you know, is that people compete to be heard and seek to validate their personal choices. This is why MOST books on Amazon have 5-star reviews. Noisytalk.com: Broadcasting Opinions in a Noisy Environment http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?cfid=451800&cftoken=34547406&abstract _id=255318 ANAT R. ADMATI Stanford University PAUL C. PFLEIDERER Stanford University I sent this to a particular ABA official as support for my contention that consumer lawyer-rating communities could construct their dynamics in like fashion - misleading consumers while putting forth an appearance of impartiality. The paper was a little too mathematically-inclined for my audience. ~Aimee