TAMPA - Mathematically speaking, scoring 3.5 out of 5 is the same as receiving three
and a half stars on a five-star scale. But visually speaking, the numbers don’t add
up.
When it comes to enticing potential consumers to either click on an ad or buy a product,
formats matter. Shapes outweigh numbers in the online review ratings battle.
A new study in the Journal of Marketing Research found that consumers view a 3.5-rated product to be higher — and better — when the
score is illustrated in shapes like stars, circles and bars, versus numbers.
“Simply changing a rating’s format from numbers to stars increases the perception
of the rating as higher,” said Carter Morgan, an assistant professor in the School of Marketing and Innovation in the Muma College of Business, who co-authored the study.
“This study sheds light on how small changes in the presentation of product ratings
can have significant effects on consumer behavior in the online marketplace,” he said.
Morgan said this is the first research to compare the presentation of online ratings
across distinct formats.
Researchers found that consumers perceived numerical ratings in the 3.5-3.9 range
as lower than if that same rating were presented in stars due to left-digit anchoring.
Left-digit bias is a psychological phenomenon where people place more emphasis on
the leftmost digit. A consumer’s brain tends to process numbers digit by digit with
a focus on the left most digit when interpreting numbers.
For a rating of 3.5, consumers typically focus on the digit 3 instead of the full
number 3.5, therefore believing the rating to be lower than it is, Morgan said.
The study’s findings have practical implications for online retailers, marketing managers
and website designers and public policy makers.
Researchers recommend using stars, circles, or bars as opposed to numbers in product
ratings because shapes can boost a consumer’s likelihood of choosing a product, their
intent to buy it, and even their likelihood of clicking on related advertisements.
Consumer advocates and government agencies have pushed to increase transparency for
online ratings and reviews.
Public policy makers may want to consider standardizing rating formats so that customers
are not unintentionally biased in their decision-making, Morgan said.
The article titled, “The Power of a Star Rating: Differential Effects of Customer Rating Formats on Magnitude
Perceptions and Consumer Reactions,” was accepted in March and has been published online for early access in the Journal of Marketing Research, a flagship academic journal in the marketing field and among the list of top 24
leading business journals compiled by the University of Texas at Dallas’ Naveen Jindal
School of Management.
Aside from Morgan, the article’s co-authors include Annika Abell and Marisabel Romero,
both from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. To read the article, go here.