# Ratings Inflation: New paper from NYU suggests Uber ratings more meaningless than ever



## mrpjfresh (Aug 16, 2016)

Interesting (though not surprising) read on ratings and the psychology and social pressure to give all drivers 5 stars.
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_How did Uber's ratings become more inflated than grades at Harvard? That's the topic of a new paper, "Reputation Inflation," from NYU's John Horton and Apostolos Filippas, and Collage.com CEO Joseph Golden. The paper argues that online platforms, especially peer-to-peer ones like Uber and Airbnb, are highly susceptible to ratings inflation because, well, it's uncomfortable for one person to leave another a bad review.

The somewhat more technical way to say this is that there's a "cost" to leaving negative feedback. That cost can take different forms: It might be that the reviewer fears retaliation, or that he feels guilty doing something that might harm the underperforming worker. If this "cost" increases over time-i.e., the fear or guilt associated with leaving a bad review increases-then the platform is likely to experience ratings inflation...._

(more at the link below)

https://qz.com/1244155/good-luck-leaving-your-uber-driver-less-than-five-stars/

Fortune's article on the same paper:
http://fortune.com/2018/04/05/uber-negative-ratings-stars/


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

Because of the 4.6 threshold...
everything under 5 IS A bad rating...

That's the cause of this.

if a 4/5 rating was in fact a "good" rating... well people would actually give 4 star ratings...

If the threshold was instead 3.6?

Well i might actually give an uber driver 4 star rating if i had to give him directions but he was fine otherwise...


This article is great at showing how much crap the whole rating system really is.


Let's be honest... personally don't believe that an uberX vehicle can EVER be classified as a 5 star ride...

However an uberSelect vehicle? Some of them are 5 star rides.

An uber driver in a 2006 mini van with 200,000 miles?

Are we really going to expect that to be a 5 star rating?

I mean really?

Taxi- 1-3 stars (just being honest here, you can't polish a turd)
UberX 2-3 stars (just being honest here, you can't polish a turd)
UberSelect 4 stars
Uberblack/SUV 5 stars


Just like no one in their right mind is going to call Denny's a 5 star meal... i'd give Dennys 3 stars... nothing wrong with denny's but giving them that rating is like giving 711 

1 star- 711
2 stars- Mcdonalds, sheetz, wawa
3 stars- Dennys, Steak and Shake ect
4 stars- olive garden, red lobster ect
5 stars- Ruth Chris, Benihana, ect.


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## Julescase (Mar 29, 2017)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> Because of the 4.6 threshold...
> everything under 5 IS A bad rating...
> 
> That's the cause of this.
> ...


You're not ratiing anything about the car except maybe cleanliness- and air quality. Otherwise all lux SUVs would be 5 and pool, x would be 3.

It's about the driver. Were they polite? Did they get you from A to B safely and smoothly? If so, 5 stars. If they were kind enough to stop somewhere you wanted or helped with bags, or a fun friendly genuine person who suggested some good places to eat or visit, 5 stars + $ tip.

If it was only about the KIND of car, it would need to be a curved scale since obviously a $10k car isn't as nice as a $70k car


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

Julescase said:


> You're not ratiing anything about the car except maybe cleanliness- and air quality. Otherwise all lux SUVs would be 5 and pool, x would be 3.
> 
> It's about the driver. Were they polite? Did they get you from A to B safely and smoothly? If so, 5 stars. If they were kind enough to stop somewhere you wanted or helped with bags, or a fun friendly genuine person who suggested some good places to eat or visit, 5 stars + $ tip.
> 
> If it was only about the KIND of car, it would need to be a curved scale since obviously a $10k car isn't as nice as a $70k car


In a world of limousines you can't honestly rate a taxi a 5/5


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## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> Because of the 4.6 threshold...
> everything under 5 IS A bad rating...
> 
> That's the cause of this.
> ...


Most people can account for and compartmentalize the financial context of their experience. I can 5* a McDonalds if it's clean, safe, friendly, serves the order accurately and at the appropriate temperature. I can't 1* them because their filet mignon sucks, because I don't go to McDonalds to get filet mignon, because I know that's not within the scope of their service.

So when pax are rating me for an UberX ride, I expect that they're rating me against other UberX rides and their expectations for an UberX ride. They aren't rating me against a stretch limo with a hot tub, because that's not what they ordered or are paying for.


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## Grahamcracker (Nov 2, 2016)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> In a world of limousines you can't honestly rate a taxi a 5/5


In a world of limousines, if the driver's are horrible, then they are not worth 5 star's.

I would gladly take a 5 star taxi driver any day as long as the taxi was clean, didn't smell bad and ran well.

I mean, why does it have to be so complicated? I just need a ride from A to B.


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## kc ub'ing! (May 27, 2016)

No pax rates based on car type alone. The rapport they have with their driver is a much more important factor. 

An ahole in a Mercedes will not have higher ratings than a convivial fellow in a beater.

As with all other walks of life, likability determines success in rideshare. 

A genius poster here once said, 'charm and guile is how you succeed in rideshare'. So true. What an eloquent sob!


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## Cdub2k (Nov 22, 2017)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> *Because of the 4.6 threshold...
> everything under 5 IS A bad rating...
> 
> That's the cause of this.
> ...


I agreed what you typed in bold. Everything else was a little bit off because most people rate the driver based on how well they communicate with themselves or how clean the vehicle is and whether or not the driver knew where they were going (navigation). It's not about the vehicle type.


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## Julescase (Mar 29, 2017)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> In a world of limousines you can't honestly rate a taxi a 5/5


If you're judging taxi to taxi, and limo to lino, ratings are fair and the vehicles being graded have a common denominator. But rating l a taxi compared to a limo is like apples and oranges - or quite literally, taxis and limos. There are two completely different forms of transportation: different costs, comfort levels, availability, socioeconomic inclination, etc. etc. etc.

Is there anyone out there who would prefer a taxi ride to a limo ride? I highly doubt it.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

THIS IS HOW THE 5 STAR RATING SYSTEM IS SUPPOSED TO WORK!









(I would rate the taxis I drive as a 3/5 for the vehicle itself, i would not rate myself above a 4 since i have to use a GPS a lot. Normally i would put myself as a 3/5 because you can never get that smell out of a taxi.

NOT LIKE THIS!










Which one of these is a more correct version of reality on the uber platform?

The second one?


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## Butterdog (Apr 12, 2018)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> In a world of limousines you can't honestly rate a taxi a 5/5


But you're not paying for a limo. If that was a great taxi ride they would get 5 stars. A shitty limo ride would get less than 5 stars.


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