Online Ratings Can Be Deceptive and New Research Explains Why Shoppers Often Get It Wrong

Online reviews have become one of the most powerful forces shaping how people shop today. From electronics and home appliances to books and beauty products, star ratings often act as a shortcut for judging quality. But new academic research suggests this shortcut is deeply flawed. According to a recent study, online ratings frequently mislead shoppers, not because reviewers are dishonest, but because most people misunderstand what those ratings actually represent.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder have uncovered a significant blind spot in how consumers read and interpret online reviews. The study shows that star ratings are rarely pure measures of product quality. Instead, they are influenced by price expectations, emotions, and personal context, which many shoppers fail to account for when making buying decisions.

The findings are particularly important given how dominant reviews have become in online shopping. Studies show that up to 98% of consumers check online ratings before making a purchase. Most assume a simple rule: higher stars equal better quality. The new research challenges this assumption head-on.

How Price Quietly Shapes Online Ratings

The study, published in the journal Psychology & Marketing in November 2025, was co-authored by marketing researchers including Ying Zeng, an assistant professor at the Leeds School of Business. The research highlights a consistent pattern: price has a powerful but often invisible influence on ratings.

When people buy expensive products, they tend to have higher expectations. If the product does not fully meet those expectations, even if it performs well objectively, reviewers are more likely to give lower ratings. On the other hand, cheaper products benefit from lower expectations, which can lead to surprisingly positive reviews even when the actual quality is average.

This means that a star rating is often less about how good a product truly is and more about whether it felt “worth the money” at the time of purchase. Researchers describe this as a kind of “vibe rating”, where emotional reactions, perceived value, and expectations blend into a single number.

The Rater-Reader Mismatch Explained

One of the most important insights from the study is what researchers call a rater-reader inconsistency. The person leaving the review (the rater) is strongly influenced by price and expectations. The person reading the review (the reader), however, largely ignores price and treats the rating as a direct signal of quality.

This mismatch creates systematic misunderstandings. Readers often underestimate the quality of higher-priced products because those products tend to have lower ratings. At the same time, they overestimate cheaper products that benefit from glowing reviews driven by low expectations.

In other words, ratings reflect relative satisfaction, not absolute quality, but shoppers interpret them as objective scores.

What the Experiments Revealed

To test these ideas, researchers conducted six controlled studies using common consumer products such as power banks and home theater projectors. These items were chosen because they are familiar to many shoppers and exist at a wide range of price points.

The results were consistent across experiments. Participants who paid more for a product judged it more harshly, even when the product’s performance was identical to a cheaper alternative. Meanwhile, people evaluating products solely based on ratings often believed that lower-priced items were better than higher-priced ones, despite evidence to the contrary.

In some cases, shoppers even concluded that cheaper products were superior in quality simply because they had higher star ratings. This happened even when participants were told that the higher-priced product was objectively better.

Why Discounts Make the Problem Worse

Another key insight from the study involves discounted products. Ratings are usually written when a product is sold at its original price. If an expensive product later goes on sale, the ratings remain shaped by earlier expectations, not by the new, lower price.

This creates a strange situation where a high-quality product on discount may still carry mediocre ratings, while a cheaper product maintains high ratings earned under low-expectation conditions. Shoppers who do not account for this dynamic may skip over better deals simply because the star ratings look less impressive.

According to the researchers, this is a major reason why consumers often feel disappointed after choosing highly rated, low-cost products over discounted premium options.

Why Star Ratings Feel So Convincing

Star ratings are appealing because they simplify decision-making. A single number feels objective, clear, and easy to compare. But this simplicity hides complexity.

Ratings compress many factors into one score: price paid, design, performance, durability, delivery experience, and even the mood of the reviewer at the time of writing. The study emphasizes that ratings are not standardized measurements, even though they look like they are.

This illusion of precision makes ratings powerful, but also dangerous when misunderstood.

The Psychology Behind Expectation Bias

The findings align with broader psychological research on expectation bias. Humans tend to evaluate experiences not in isolation, but relative to what they expected beforehand. Paying more increases expectations, which raises the bar for satisfaction. Paying less lowers expectations, making it easier for a product to exceed them.

This explains why cheap products often receive enthusiastic reviews and expensive ones are judged more critically. The rating reflects emotional contrast rather than technical performance.

Importantly, readers of reviews rarely adjust for this bias, even though it consistently affects ratings across categories.

How Shoppers Can Read Reviews More Smartly

The research does not suggest abandoning reviews altogether. Instead, it encourages consumers to read them more thoughtfully.

Shoppers should look beyond the average star rating and consider price history, timing, and context. A lower rating on an expensive product may not mean poor quality. Likewise, a high rating on a cheap product does not guarantee superior performance.

Reading written reviews, checking reviewer expectations, and comparing products within similar price ranges can lead to better decisions.

What This Means for Online Marketplaces

The study also raises questions for e-commerce platforms. If ratings systematically misrepresent quality, platforms may need to rethink how reviews are displayed. Possible solutions include showing price at the time of review, separating quality ratings from value ratings, or providing clearer context around expectations.

For now, however, the responsibility largely falls on consumers to interpret ratings more carefully.

The Bigger Picture of Online Reviews

This research adds to a growing body of evidence showing that online reviews are complex social signals rather than objective measurements. While they remain useful, treating them as straightforward indicators of quality can lead to wasted money and disappointing purchases.

Understanding how price and expectations shape ratings gives shoppers a clearer lens through which to view online reviews—and may help them spot better products hiding behind less impressive stars.

Research paper:
A Rater-Reader Inconsistency: Underjudging the Influence of Price in Consumer Ratings
https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.70050