Negative feedback useless? Or is it all about passion?
In a blog entry, Seth asks: is negative feedback worth less? He goes on to suggest that the reason negative feedback is rated less useful is because:
I think the reason is classic cognitive dissonance. For unrelated reasons, you've already decided to buy. Now, the negative feedback needs to be ignored in order to validate your earlier hunch that you wanted to buy.
I think the reason is actually a little different. Who is going to bother looking at an item's page? Fans, or someone who - as Seth points out - has probably "already decided to buy".
I can't imagine that I'd ever look at the product page of some Michael Moore abomination-cum-satire-cum-claptrap. If I did, I am pretty sure I'd rate the negative feedback useful and positive feedback useless. Conversely, I am pretty sure I've rated positive reviews of Bullshit (season 1, season 2) as useful and negative ones as useless when I ordered the DVDs or periodically when I go to see what people are saying about it.
The point I am trying to make is that people aren't going to put any effort into things they are not passionate about. And people generally love things more than they hate them. I should point out that I am talking about love and hate so charged that it inspires people to go out and do something about it.
Case in point, I love Penn And Teller's Bullshit so I decided to go to Amazon and get links to the product offerings on Amazon. Previously this also inspired me to post an event listing of Penn's movie, The Aristocrats on upcoming. And I didn't just post something about the movie playing, I also posted a link to some of his essays too.
Just one example, surely, but I am sure if you too think on it, you'll see where passion for something has led you to do far more. However, despite the occasional examples thereof, passion against something, - i.e. hate, - is a far less common phenomena which is why suicide bombings seem so strange and bizzare to us. But we don't seem too surprised when people die in the course of doing something they love or belive in.
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