How Not to Sort by Average Rating (2009)
Averages (even with the post&#x27;s approach) still have the problem of not being &quot;honest&quot; in the game theory sense. For example, if something is rated 4 stars with 100 reviews, a reviewer who believes its true rating should be 3 stars is motivated to give it 1 star because that will move the average rating closer to his desired outcome. A look at rating distributions shows that this is in fact how many people behave.<p>Median ratings are &quot;honest&quot; in this sense, as long as ties are broken arbitrarily rather than by averaging. Math challenge: is there a way of combining the desirable properties mentioned in the post with the property of honesty? I suspect there is but I haven&#x27;t tried it.