Seven years ago, ReviewInc conducted one of our most popular surveys on the color of star ratings. Last year in 2021, ReviewInc decided to re-run the survey and add an extra color to shake things up. In December 2021, ReviewInc showed U.S. Consumers the five below images and asked, “Which Rating Do You Trust the Most?”
BLUE STARS ARE THE MOST TRUSTED
It was no surprise that blue stars were the overall winner in 2021, as the same was the result in 2014. However, this time the margin was much smaller. 28.4% preferred blue stars, while 25.8% preferred green stars and 25% preferred yellow stars.
Blue is a color often used in many company logos as it is often the most trusted color. According to Trustsignals.com, “The most common theory is that we typically have positive associations with blue — and from the sky to the sea, these associations evoke feelings of security and permanence.”
This result was surprising because 2021’s survey resulted in much smaller margins between blue, green, and yellow stars in terms of the most trusted star color ratings. The biggest losers by a large gap were red stars at 11.6% and orange stars with only a 9.3% preference.
When we break down the results by gender and age, things get even more interesting.
DIFFERENT GENERATIONS PREFER DIFFERENT COLORS
Generation X consumers ages 45-54 had the highest preference for blue stars, while the younger Generation Z ages 18-24 prefer orange stars. Interestingly, Generation X or Baby Boomer consumers 55-64 trusted red stars the most, and Baby Boomers 65 and older trusted the new color, orange stars. ReviewInc chose many of these colors based on social media and review site colors for star ratings and other brands. ReviewInc did get the most responses from Millennials ages 25-34; however, their most trusted star (yellow) did not win overall. Looking at the breakdown by gender also produced fascinating results.
MEN TRUST YELLOW STARS WHILE WOMEN TRUST RED STARS
Men trust yellow stars while women trust red stars the most. However, it is also notable that neither of their preferences won as the most credible.
Our results are also different from a similar but global survey conducted by Scott Design in 2011. They concluded that people love blue and green but hate brown and yellow. In contrast, we found that people love and trust blue and green, especially young and middle-aged people; however, they also trust yellow star ratings, perhaps because many review sites and social media now use them.
It is also interesting to note that in the above survey, older people also really like and trust red, just like in our survey.
Conclusion
If your website displays testimonials as content, consider what color stars to use based on the audience your business is looking to attract. With automated reputation management software such as ReviewInc, companies can automatically create testimonials and review feeds displayed on websites. With ReviewInc’s uniquely flexible software, users can customize the color of their star ratings in campaigns when asking for reviews.
Ratings and review management is vital in today’s digital world, so it is more important than ever to take control of business online reputation by using reputation management software such as ReviewInc. Schedule a demo with one of our Account Executives today to get started.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
