The Value of Bad Ratings: An Experiment on the Impact of Distortions in Reputation Systems

Claudia Keser and Maximilian Späth

CIRANO Working Papers from CIRANO

Abstract: We study the robustness of reputation management systems against distortions in rating behavior. In a laboratory trust experiment with reputation management, we mimic a positive bias by exclusively offering the option to rate positively or to give no rating. As predicted by theoretical considerations, this bias leads to significantly less trust than a system that additionally offers a negative rating option. A system relying solely on negative ratings does not have such an adverse effect. This highlights the importance of negative ratings for the effectiveness of reputation systems.

Keywords: Trust; Trustworthiness; Reputation System; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C73 C91 L14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-04-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cirano.qc.ca/files/publications/2020s-22.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cir:cirwor:2020s-22

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CIRANO Working Papers from CIRANO Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Webmaster ().