Good News: Why Hype Works and Negative Comments Don't

A new research into marketing has revealed something that is counter-intuitive but oh, so encouraging to anyone, writers especially, who have received bad reviews of their work. It seems that a thumbs-down view elicits a counter-reaction from other readers. By contrast, hype can work and feeds on itself as well.

 Who says so? Not just anybody. Those are the very words of one of the researchers, Sinan K. Aral, a professor of information technology and marketing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Besides Mr. Aral, other scholars from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and New York University were involved in this new internet study. 

The question they sought to answer is key to figuring out what works in marketing:
is something popular because it is actually good or just because it is popular?

 More details on how they answered that question can be found in an article by NYT's science reporter  Kenneth Chang here.

The implications for marketing are enormous and suggest a way forward to ensure success. The downside is that quality of work may not matter as much as one might like.

When searching for a good read on Amazon, what do you read first, the negative reviews or the good ones? Which do you believe in and why?

What do you think works, thumbs up or thumbs down?


Comments

Caleb Pirtle said…
That's good information from someone who studies behind the scenes in marketing. As P. T. Barnum always said, print anything you want about me, but be sure to spell my name right.
August 9, 2013 at 11:25 AM
Claude Forthomme said…
Caleb, that's very funny, yes, that's exactly what's at the bottom of it. Notoriety is good publicity!
August 9, 2013 at 1:13 PM
Renee Pawlish said…
That's interesting because I read in a book that bad reviews can do more harm than good reviews can do good for you. Thanks for sharing this!
August 9, 2013 at 4:37 PM
Anonymous said…
Pierre Burton said he didn't care what reviewers said, he only measured how long the column was in the paper and the longer the better. Darlene
August 9, 2013 at 8:44 PM
Claude Forthomme said…
Darlene and Renee, thanks for the comments! Yes, I found this such an uplifting bit of news...particularly as I got recently a one star review on Goodreads! Those always hurt and it's good to know that there is now a scientific basis for believing that they don't matter!
August 10, 2013 at 6:19 AM
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