How five-star ratings influence our behaviour
Feedback is a powerful thing
4.6. That’s my Uber rating. About average in the U.K. (slightly poor in the U.S.). How does this make drivers react when they see me pop up requesting a ride? How should it make me feel when I check my app and my rating has crept up… or down? What does it mean for Uber when I rate one of their drivers after a trip?
Star ratings are a central design feature at the core of many digital products. They are relied upon to ensure quality, drive decision-making, provide feedback and much more. They also directly impact how we interact with each other, particularly with the phenomenal rise of the platform and peer-to-peer business models, where the rating centre of power shifts from a small number of experts (e.g. movie critic reviews) to the masses. They influence the behaviour of humans both at the giving and receiving ends of the process. They form an integral data set upon which organisations, from lone-wolf startups to trillion-dollar companies, base critical business and design decisions. And—in the monumental quest for user convenience—they are determined within a split second and sealed with a single click.
Apart from Uber, whose rating system seems to have somehow achieved a sort of cult status holy grail, we encounter five-star rating systems every day across many…
