Who decides what you like?

Have you ever been to a restaurant that was written about poorly and yet thoroughly enjoyed it? Chance are, you’ve experienced the reverse — gone to a restaurant that people were raving about only to find it to be rather mediocre.

There are thousands of restaurants in a large-ish city. You would have a hard time trying them all. So it’s reasonable that you would narrow your decisions based on the opinions of others. Whether you use something more crowdsourced like Yelp or Google reviews; or something very curated like the Zagat or Michelin food guides, you can’t help but be swayed away or towards certain places.

Many restaurants in such food guides are in business for years — even the poorly rated ones. Those greasy diners with 2 stars… they are for some people. Some of them are even whatever the equivalent of “cult classic” would be for a restaurant with a loyal core following, even if the broader public or critics rate them poorly.

What does it take to be a critic? For crowdsourced reviews, all you need is a phone or computer. In more curated publications, you need to create a portfolio to get noticed and hired. In neither case do you need any sort of qualification — you just need to be able to sell the story that you can be trusted.

So what do restaurant reviews have to do with health research? Well, research reviews are much like restaurant reviews. They give an opinion. You don’t need any qualification to write one — you just need to be able to sell the story that you can be trusted. But even trusted reviews of restaurants can’t substitute for the specific and varied tastes of all customers. And likewise, the opinion of a research review cannot substitute for knowing the specific context of your audience or patients.

If every restaurant isn’t for everyone, then every study isn’t for everyone. Restaurants are seen differently by different people, hence how “poor” restaurants can still be viable businesses. Depending on research reviews is like expecting to never be disappointed by a restaurant that has a great review.

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