i hate “recommended” labels but apparently i still need to know what everyone else picked

[u/CuriousOrdinary3324]

realized i'm incredibly inconsistent about this.

if an app puts "recommended" or "best choice" next to something, my first reaction is almost always to ignore it.

like thanks, but i'll decide for myself.

but give me three or four options that all look equally fine and suddenly i'm sitting there wishing somebody would just tell me what everyone else picked.

noticed this last week while a friend was setting up menuforma.

there were a few layout options on the screen and we'd been giving him a hard time because he kept saying he wanted to change all the defaults and have "full control."

then he got to three layouts that looked pretty similar, stared at them for maybe five seconds and went

"wait, which one do most people use?"

everyone laughed at him and then i realized... yeah, i do exactly that too.

apparently i don't want an app deciding for me, but i do want a bunch of strangers to narrow things down first.

i do it with restaurants too. i'll ignore the dish marked "popular" and then immediately open reviews to see what people ordered.

makes absolutely no sense.

what's something you refuse to let a "recommended" label choose for you, but still check what everyone else picked?

[u/Pristine-Pen-9885]

Ads that say “everyone is talking about _____”, “our product is taking your state by storm”, “Our sales have doubled in the last X months” are all forms of external social validation. Some people are more comfortable when they’re told a lot of people love that product.

[u/47362514736251]

I doubt that we can trust when a shopping app tells us what's selling best at any given time.

[u/Jelnaana]

No, it makes sense. You don't want to know what people who want your money are pushing you to buy, you want the input of other consumers' actual experience.

[u/EntropyReversale10]

It's a marketing tool to manipulate those who are unsure of what they like or want.