It was very sunny and pleasant there. Anyone who knows Rochester …
…a new paper appropriately titled “Demographics, Weather and Online Reviews.” The study analyzed 1.1 million online reviews of 840,000 restaurants, looking for exogenous — or external — factors in the data. In other words, they wanted to figure out what makes us like or dislike a restaurant, beside the restaurant itself.
The results can be surprising. The diners’ education levels? No effect on actual ratings. Population of the area? Again, not so much.
But reviewers consistently gave worse ratings when it was raining or snowing outside than when it was clear. And reviewers usually liked restaurants better on warm and cool days, rather than very hot or very cold ones.
In researcher Saeideh Bakhshi’s words: “The best reviews are written on sunny days between 70 and 100 degrees … a nice day can lead to a nice review. A rainy day can mean a miserable one.”
Not surprisingly, restaurants in California and Hawaii are popular.
I find this amusingly awesome.
Finally WC gets down to bread and butter issues.
Better *rated* professor.
Right, I should have put “Better” in quotes in my title