[albedoa]

I pay a lot of attention to histograms when there are many high-rated options for the same Amazon product type. A histogram that curves sharply in its number of 5-star reviews to almost nothing on the other end is the product you want (ignoring fake reviews for the sake of this conversation).

Amassing a bunch of 4- and 5-star ratings is easy, but leaving nothing for even the most habitual of complainers to complain about? That's an monumental achievement.

[ghaff]

For things like books, I also find that reading the middling reviews often gives the best S/N ratio. It weeds out the fanboys and weeds out those who were clearly not the audience for the book (or just have some ax to grind). You're more likely to get the "I really love this author in general but I didn't care for this book because 1.) 2.) 3.)."

[VanillaCafe]

Agreed. For products in Amazon above a certain star threshold (say, 3+), I evaluate given the shape of the review histogram, particularly minimizing the size of the bump down at 1-star and 2-star.