Research Insight | Customers Leave More Negative Reviews on Weekends
Although research consistently shows that people are happier and in better moods on weekends, a Journal of Marketing Research study reveals a surprising weekend behavior: writing negative reviews. Analyzing nearly 400 million reviews across 33 major platforms (including Amazon, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Glassdoor, and IMDb), the authors find that reviews submitted on weekends consistently involve lower ratings. Weekend reviews show a 3% lower share of 5-star ratings and a 6% higher share of 1-, 2-, or 3-star ratings compared to weekday reviews.
The study rules out explanations related to product quality fluctuations (e.g., restaurants being more crowded), platform features, or fake reviews. In addition, the evidence suggests that weekend reviewers tend to be more prone to express negative sentiment: Text analysis shows that weekend reviews use fewer words related to social processes (friends, family) and more words associated with sadness.
For marketers, the timing of review solicitation matters. Field experiments show that firms soliciting reviews on weekends receive more negative reviews compared to weekday solicitations. For businesses with a small amount of reviews, the “weekend effect” can be particularly meaningful for influencing overall ratings.
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What You Need to Know
- Reviews written on weekends are systematically more negative (fewer 5-star ratings, more 1–3-star ratings).
- This effect persists even when controlling for the quality of the reviewed product or service.
- Companies should avoid weekend solicitations and instead prompt customers for reviews during weekdays.
Abstract
This article finds that online reviews submitted during the weekend tend to have lower rating scores than reviews submitted during the week. Analyzing 400 million reviews across 33 e-commerce, hospitality, entertainment, and employer platforms, the authors find that weekend reviews have a 3% lower relative share of 5-star ratings and a 6% higher relative share of 1-, 2-, or 3-star ratings compared with weekday reviews. The pattern emerges even when controlling for quality of reviewed items. This weekend effect is surprising given that studies usually report higher happiness levels and a better mood on weekends. The authors discuss several explanations related to where the review is submitted (platform characteristics), what the review is about (listing characteristics), and who submits the review (reviewer characteristics). They present evidence that temporal self-selection of reviewers is a dominant driver of the weekend effect. During the weekend, a different set of users—those more prone to write negative reviews—is more likely to leave a review. These findings complement extant research on review self-selection by adding a temporal layer to the self-selection processes inherent in online reviews. This article also highlights managerial implications by demonstrating that solicitations sent during the weekend (vs. weekday solicitation) lead to collecting more negative reviews.
Andreas Bayerl, Verena Schoenmueller, Jacob Goldenberg, and Florian Stahl, “The Weekend Effect in Online Reviews,” Journal of Marketing Research, 63 (2), 211–33. doi:10.1177/00222437251391808