According to a study published this month in the Journal of Consumer Research , consumers shouldn't be so quick to let online user ratings guide their purchase decisions. Indeed, the study suggests that the belief that online user ratings, which virtually all retails provide on their websites, are good markers of product quality is largely an illusion. For the study, researchers investigated user ratings for over 1,200 products across 120 product categories, from blood pressure monitors and bike helmets to air filters. Their analyses reveal a very low correlation between average user ratings of items on Amazon.com and product ratings, based on objective tests, found in consumer reports. Further, the likelihood that an item with a higher user rating performs objectively better than an item with a lower user rating is only 57 percent, which casts some doubt on the validity of user ratings. The study also examined what information consumers rely on when judging the quality of ...