Why Aren´t the Stars Aligned? An Analysis of Online Review Content and Star Ratings

Consumer-generated product evaluations posted on online retailer or third party web-sites have been shown to increase buyer trust and aid consumer decision making. These online reviews typically have two components: star ratings and review text. This can communicate a complex, conflicting message to consumers, as the text of a review carries more nuance than what can be communicated through a simple numerical score. Misalignment between the star rating and the text can lead to increased consumer cognitive processing costs, suboptimal purchase decisions, and lower overall utility of the review site. This study seeks to understand where this misalignment is mostly likely to occur. We find that star rating/review text misalignment occurs more often for (1) experience goods, and (2) goods that receive high star ratings. Misalignment is especially pronounced for experience goods with high star ratings.