CognitionReasoning and Decision Making

eBay Ratings: Largely Positive Records and Negative Feedback

An eBay customer scans the site for a laptop. Although the seller has a 98.3% positive feedback rating, there were twenty instances of negative feedback in the last month.

To find the negative feedback left by buyers, any potential buyers will have to wade through multiple pages of positive feedback. It is argued that eBay uses this tactic, much like the availability heuristic, to manipulate buying attitudes and bidding behavior.

How does eBays feedback system resemble the availability heuristic? What other examples of the availability heuristic have you encountered in your own life?

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