How Power Imbalances Can Make Online Reviews Harmful

Luo’s experiment introduced a rating system on the platform. What she found was that the rating system did not increase accountability for the employers — instead, it resulted in disengagement from the workers for fear of retaliation, even when the reviews were anonymous.

“That was the surprising part,” Luo says, “but when we did our post interviews, it made sense. The workers were hesitant to upset their employers. They said they’d rather take mistreatment than have the employers leave the platform because then they would have no work.” Because of Luo’s study, the company she partnered with ultimately decided not to permanently implement a review system.

While this experiment was conducted in a specific industry in Singapore, Luo says the findings about the impact of power differentials on rating systems can be applied broadly. Any company leaders who are considering implementing a review system should think about the impact on users with less power and the consequences of that, she says. Beyond the example of employees rating employers, this research could also apply to any platform where service providers and consumers rate each other.

“The circumstances we’re describing are very specific — and that’s the nature of field experiments, they’re very localized — but the idea of power differential is not specific at all,” Luo says. “When we set up these kinds of rating systems, we often don’t think about or don’t even ask the side that has less power what their motivations are or how they will react. If we don’t think about that, then we have the potential to really harm the ones that we’re trying to help.”