Interesting Results

Peer-to-Peer Opinion Sharing

It has become common for Web sites to offer visitors the opportunity to offer advice and opinions to one another. Since those posting are often unknown to one another and in many cases are anonymous, visitors need to decide which opinions and advice are likely to be most valuable to them. A 2008 study¹ suggests some factors that may influence these value judgements. These include:

The speed of response. (Faster responses tend to be perceived as more valuable.)
Response history.
- A history of posts relating to the same subject area tends to result in the current post as being perceived as more valuable. This is particularly true when the objective is to learn (as opposed to making a decision).
- A history of posts across a diverse range of subject areas tends to result in the current post being perceived as less valuable. This is particularly true when the objective is to make a decision (as opposed to learning).

¹ De Wilde, Els, Alan Cooke, and Chris Janiszewski (2008), “Listening to Strangers: Whose Responses Are Valuable, How Valuable Are They, and Why?”, Journal of Marketing Research, 45(4), 425-436.