New research that analyzed thousands of online doctor reviews indicates that fake reviews actually score higher on trust than real patient testimonials. Compared with the real evaluations, the fake reviews scored higher on a measure of perceived trustworthiness and received more helpful votes from users.
The study, conducted by researchers at Simon Fraser University, was able to make these determinations because of a security flaw in an Indian physician-booking portal. Because of the flaw, clinics and doctors could submit positive reviews of themselves while pretending to be patients.
According to StudyFinds, once they found the vulnerability, the platform identified reviews as fraudulent with nearly 100% accuracy. A random sample of 5,000 doctor reviews was studied and covered doctors across specialties, from general practitioners and dentists to dermatologists and cardiologists. Around 24 percent of the sampled reviews were confirmed to be fake.
The research team discovered that the phony doctor reviews were not careless or ambiguous attempts to deceive readers. Instead, they were longer, more detailed, and more likely to contain private information about symptoms, drugs, and therapies—the same characteristics that give a review a genuine feel. In contrast, reviews written by actual patients were less thorough and shorter. The researchers believe that is one of the main reasons more people trusted the fake reviews.
Fake reviews scored better on a trustworthiness test, were longer (about 261 characters versus 206), got more helpful votes, revealed more private health information, and spoke more strongly about a doctors’ interpersonal skills.
Why did people find fake doctor reviews to be more trustworthy?
Reviews disclosing more personal health information, things like a specific diagnosis, a named medication, or a described symptom, were tied to more helpful votes and higher trustworthiness scores. Reviews that praised a doctor’s interpersonal skills, such as listening carefully or explaining things patiently, boosted trustworthiness scores by a wide margin, more than ten times as much as health details did, but barely affected perceived helpfulness. Reviews that sounded more personal or warm, in other words, scored higher on trustworthiness whether or not that warmth made them any more useful.
Another reason fake doctor reviews score higher on trustworthiness is that many real patients are reluctant to identify their ailment, provide a detailed description of their symptoms, or mention specific medications in a public review due to privacy concerns. Fake reviews had no such qualms.
StudyFinds points out that it is for reasons like this that the Federal Trade Commission banned the outright buying and selling of fake reviews across all industries in 2024. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t still happen, so if a review seems too forthcoming with personal details, it might be a good idea to find a real person, in real life, who can corroborate it before putting much stock into it.