# Psychology of Amazon.com reviews: why so many? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 15, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-of-amazon-com-reviews-why-so-many/279988 "2004-12-15T16:44:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Emilio\_Lizardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Emilio\_Lizardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emilio_Lizardo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-of-amazon-com-reviews-why-so-many/279988/1 "2004-12-15T16:44:50Z")
Simply put: why on earth do so many people post clearly redundant product reviews on Amazon? Looking at [The Fellowship of the Ring](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000065U3Q/qid=1103128806/sr=8-12/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i12_xgl74/002-1800522-2245616?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846) DVD, I note that there are 3,509 reviews! Three and a half freakin’ thousand reviews! How much text is that? Was anyone after the first 500 reviews actually adding anything new? Did the 3,509th guy to post a review actaully READ all of the prior reviews to make sure he wasn’t just repeating what someone else has already said? What compels people to continue to post so long after the signal to noise ratio has shrunk to such alarming level? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-of-amazon-com-reviews-why-so-many/279988/2 "2004-12-15T16:56:37Z")
Because they have something to say. And really, what’s the harm? ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-of-amazon-com-reviews-why-so-many/279988/3 "2004-12-15T19:18:55Z")
I wonder that too. But, think of how many ‘me too’-ish posts end up here, and [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) has a much larger traffic volume. People just like to be heard, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Jadis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jadis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jadis)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-of-amazon-com-reviews-why-so-many/279988/4 "2004-12-15T19:28:18Z")
I never understood the whole [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) reviewing phenomenon in total. Basically, people only tend to write a rewiew on an item if they loved it or hated it, so there’s usually a complete polarity in the reviews which makes the system almost worthless, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-of-amazon-com-reviews-why-so-many/279988/5 "2004-12-15T19:30:45Z")
Uh, yeah. Me too. I never understood posting posts to simply repeat what everyone else said, which makes you come off as if you didn’t read any of the posts before yours. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-of-amazon-com-reviews-why-so-many/279988/6 "2004-12-15T19:31:47Z")
Review of **Jadis’s post** by **Eonwe** : I loved it. Concise, to the point, and insightful. It’s on my top ten list! 9.4 ---
**Author:** ![AmericanMaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@AmericanMaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmericanMaid)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-of-amazon-com-reviews-why-so-many/279988/7 "2004-12-15T19:35:57Z")
Also wasn’t there a recent flap about publishing companies hiring people to write raving reviews about their own books? Yeah Amazon reviews are worthless yet those links to similar items people bought are a real goldmine. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-of-amazon-com-reviews-why-so-many/279988/8 "2004-12-15T20:00:05Z")
The thing I find odd is when one reviewer feels the need to respond directly to another reviewer. Post your review, don’t worry about the other’s opinions. ---
**Author:** ![Jadis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jadis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jadis)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-of-amazon-com-reviews-why-so-many/279988/9 "2004-12-15T20:55:26Z")
**Review of Eonwe’s post by Jadis:** Hated it. Awful, terrible piece of tripe. 0.6 (Amazon average user review: 5.0) 😃