Do Customer Ratings Influence Consumers Who Have Already Experienced a Product?

Abstract

This study investigates whether the subjective experiences of consumers are altered by exposure to others’ ratings of the same experience. On the basis of theories of memory reconstruction and conformity, the authors conducted two experiments in Sweden and found that consumers’ quality perceptions, ratings, and customer satisfaction were, indeed, affected by the postexperience viewing of others’ ratings, in two different product categories. The findings reflect a desire to maintain a correct representation of reality in which people use others’ ratings as an accuracy heuristic.