Consumer Attitudes Toward Online Reviews, December 2013 [CHART]

7 in 10 adult consumers in the US and UK read consumer reviews before making purchase decisions, details Bazaarvoice in newly-released survey results. The company says reviews are consulted more than any other content – a result not too hard to believe given other research suggesting that 8 in 10 American consumers trust online customer reviews as much as personal recommendations. At the same time, Bazaarvoice finds a healthy level of skepticism about the validity of those reviews: roughly 1 in every 2 survey respondents believe one or more reviews they read online is fake.

A majority also believes that companies remove negative reviews.

Consumers have good reason to believe that some of the reviews they read are fake – and perhaps more than half should be skeptical of them. A study released [PDF] earlier this year by MIT’s Sloan School of Management suggested that even loyal customers post negative product reviews. Yelp has acknowledged that somewhere in the realm of one-quarter of reviews submitted are fake, though it said that while touting its review filter. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.

Half of Adult Consumers Believe Some Online Reviews Are Fake