Some Negative Reviews = More Customers?

No one wants to receive a negative review, but there may be a silver lining as this week's Economist points out...

"Initially, publishers and authors were worried that allowing negative reviews would hurt sales. Online retailers have generally been reluctant to allow users to leave comments, says John McAteer, Google’s retail industry director, who runs shopping.google.com, the internet giant’s comparison-shopping site. But a handful of bad reviews, it seems, are worth having. 'No one trusts all positive reviews,' he says. So a small proportion of negative comments—'just enough to acknowledge that the product couldn’t be perfect'—can actually make an item more attractive to prospective buyers."