Imperfect Progress: An Objective, Quality Assessment of the Role of User Reviews in Consumer Decision Making

User reviews aggregate word of mouth and often greatly enhance consumers’ ability to estimate product quality. Consumers decide for themselves whether and how to incorporate user reviews with other sources when evaluating options (e.g., a small minority uses Consumer Reports). Despite the extraordinary diligence of Bart de Langhe, Philip Fernbach, and Donald Lichtenstein and their use of a variety of data sources and methods, I have concerns about the purpose of the research, the evidence and distinctions they rely on, and the overstated conclusions. However, studying how user reviews and other currently available quality sources of information affect consumers is important and offers new directions for judgment and decision-making researchers.