Average product ratings are displayed on many major websites, including online retailers, search engines, and social media sites. Research in both academia and industry has shown that consumers rely heavily on product ratings when making purchase decisions. Websites may show customer ratings in different shapes, colors, or formats. For example, some websites present their rating in a numerical format (e.g., 4.0/5) while others utilize an analog format (e.g., êêêêê). The present research investigates how a website’s rating presentation may influence magnitude perceptions of the rating, which subsequently affect choices and purchase intentions. We propose and find that when the average customer rating is at or above the midpoint (i.e., .5 - .9) of each rating level (i.e., 1 – 5 on a 5-pt. scale) the numerical (vs. analog) rating format is perceived to be lower in magnitude due to left-digit anchoring, leading to differences in choice likelihood, purchase intent, and ad click likelihood for products and services. Across nine experiments, including an eye tracking study, and a multiple-ad study without holdout, we show robust evidence for our proposed effect.

中文翻译：

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EXPRESS：星级评级的力量：客户评级格式对程度感知和消费者反应的不同影响

平均产品评级显示在许多主要网站上，包括在线零售商、搜索引擎和社交媒体网站。学术界和工业界的研究表明，消费者在做出购买决定时严重依赖产品评级。网站可能会以不同的形状、颜色或格式显示客户评级。例如，一些网站以数字格式（例如，4.0/5）呈现其评级，而其他网站则使用模拟格式（例如，êêêêê）。本研究调查了网站的评级呈现如何影响评级的大小感知，从而影响选择和购买意图。我们提出并发现，当平均客户评级等于或高于每个评级级别的中点（即 0.5 - .9）（即 5 分制的 1 – 5）时，数字（与模拟）由于左位数字锚定，评级格式被认为幅度较低，导致产品和服务的选择可能性、购买意图和广告点击可能性存在差异。通过九项实验，包括眼球追踪研究和没有坚持的多广告研究，我们为我们提出的效果提供了强有力的证据。