This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Before buying a product, booking a hotel or streaming a movie, many people check online reviews. But not every glowing recommendation or one-star takedown reflects a genuine customer experience.
David Schuff, a professor at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce, studies how online review platforms shape consumer behavior. In a July commentary in Nature Human Behaviour, written with Susan Mudambi, professor emeritus of marketing at Temple University, they examine the rise of "review bombing" and its effects on consumers and online platforms. Schuff explains why the practice has become more common, how it can undermine trust in reviews and what consumers should watch for before making a purchase.
Initially, the ubiquity of online reviews and consumers' power to shape product perceptions made this an interesting area to study. Consumer-generated reviews are such an integral part of our daily lives. Understanding their influence explains a lot about how consumers make decisions about which product to buy, which movie to see or which restaurant to visit.
But then we started noticing people were using these review platforms in unexpected ways that were not really about assessing product quality at all. We call this "review platform appropriation." It seems like a subset of people uses these platforms in a very performative way. We were curious about the impact of funny, absurdist reviews about a shirt or a pen, or a burst of scathing reviews of a movie with little or no detail about it beyond the perceived politics behind the casting choices.
Entertainment products like movies, television shows or video games are frequent targets of review bombing. They are often part of franchises with a large, devoted fan base, and some fans react strongly when their expectations are subverted. For movies and television shows, this is an open question.
"The Odyssey" has been very successful despite being review bombed. It's a similar story for movies like "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" or TV shows like "Marvel's She-Hulk." They performed well despite being review bombed. In those cases, other loyal fans may be simply ignoring the negative reviews.
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