| I've been wondering this, after noticing that in general scores for many shows or movies are more or less the same among users, especially regarding high rated popular shows like FMA:B, Steins; Gate and/or Hunter x Hunter (2011), and relatively low rated shows too, like anything under 7; you virtually do not see anyone giving a show under 7, a score 8+, for example. Could it be the case that some of them -to some extent- after knowing what the general consensus of the quality of a show or movie is, feel somehow pressured by society to have the opinion they tell them to have, and therefore announce a score that doesn't fully represent what they really felt or doesn't represent what they think the show or movie actually deserved? This, in order to avoid being considered fanboys, haters, ignorants, uneducated people with shit taste, etc by others? How truthful do you think scores really are? Could it be there some extent of this social desirability bias when it comes to rate anything, especially clearly popular acclaimed shows? |
| Yup, going against the general consensus can be >very< difficult, this is more common than you think. But i still refuse to rate Steins;Gate higher than 4. |
| people are formed by their surroundings so I would guess yes subconsciously to a certain degree that could be the case |
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| As a functioning human being I think you should have your own opinions but thats just me... |
| Rating could be biased along with the terms of aspects unless it's worth it |
 "Think about that glowing dust That destroys the night sky's dream of Just being nothing"--  -- |
| I rate anime based on my personal enjoyment so the community score doesn't affect me. But I do assume at least some people are influenced by the community. It could be someone giving a series higher/lower score to "fit-in" or rating popular series extreme harsh to show his/her "elitism." |
sasalx said: Keep it real comrade.As a functioning human being I think you should have your own opinions but thats just me... Stay beautiful and continue to move gracefully. |
| this should have been mentioned before, but you can check how many people gave which rating to an anime on the stats panel https://myanimelist.net/anime/5114/Fullmetal_Alchemist__Brotherhood/stats https://myanimelist.net/anime/2476/School_Days/stats |
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| i personally score anime and manga based on my experience with them. i haven't been around mal for a year yet but, i've been watching anime since i was a kid simply because i enjoy them. but i feel that most people tend to give out a higher score than normal for something because they don't want to be mean about it. when you see something someone worked hard to make happen it makes you feel bad to shit on that thing. |
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| If the general consensus already feel the show is good, that would mean the one who are pressured by society are in small minority. Most of the score still come from general consensus. In my case though, I don't let society pressure affect my rating. |
But it's important to remember that a movie review is subjective;it only gives you one person's opinion. http://www.classzone.com/books/lnetwork_gr08/page_build.cfm?content=analyz_media&ch=30 It doesn't matter if you like LoGH,Monster etc.If you are a jobless or college/school dropout living in your mom basement, you are still an unintelligent loser. Taste in anime does not make you a better person.If elitist don't exist, casual pleb and shit taste also don't exist. |
| I definitely have scores that are drastically different than the average. But I usually score based on a half value of entertainment and all the elements that work in that genre of show. People can be swayed by how much shows are hyped and fandom influence especially. We've all seen it. But I think it's good to hear both sides of an argument or at least be realistic of the faults of a show you like – shows I'm even nostalgic about have low scores because I'm not naive to know they have incredible faults in comparison to an excellent show. |
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romagia said: this should have been mentioned before, but you can check how many people gave which rating to an anime on the stats panel https://myanimelist.net/anime/5114/Fullmetal_Alchemist__Brotherhood/stats https://myanimelist.net/anime/2476/School_Days/stats And for most shows, these stats look more-or-less like a bell curve, which gives a reasonable assumption that it works well enough. Of course, more polarizing shows like School Days may be different - the graph shows a major group of people really hated the show and rated it low. By the way, FMA:B is a bad case of sequel rating inflation (that is, it's watched mostly by fans), so I would avoid using it as an example. P.S. Personally, I've felt influenced to rate a show higher than I should because I felt it's underrated on a few occasions. And similarly, felt that I might be rating it too low when I was in doubt between two scores, and the show had a rating closer to the higher score. But this influence can't mean more than 0.5 points for me. |
flannanJul 13, 2017 12:00 AM
| I think that the scores are generally a good representation of how good a particular anime is. However, social influence is definitely a factor. I know that I have scored some anime below what they actually deserve, because they've been immensely popular, and I've disagreed to an extent with popular opinion. |
| Social influence could be a factor. I still feel like I was generous giving AoT, OPM, and Erased a 6. I could have given them a lower score but I guess social influence got me on that one. |
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| nah i give shit score to anything shitty (gintama free aot) and great scores to great anime (haganai koe no katshi akame ga kill chaos child) just look at my list |
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Pixel_Vapour said: Social influence could be a factor. I still feel like I was generous giving AoT, OPM, and Erased a 6. I could have given them a lower score but I guess social influence got me on that one. I mean I can somewhat understand AoT, but why is Erased a 6 for you? |
| yes you like it or not, both negative or positive, strengthening or even reverse effect... |
 "If taking responsibility for a mistake that cannot be undone means death, it's not that hard to die. At least, not as hard as to live on." |
| It was a factor when I was new to anime but now I only care about my opinion. If I think an acclaimed anime is not as good as people make it out to be then I don't hesitate to give it the low rating I think it deserves, and there are also shows I rated high even though they don't seem to be popular among other users. I want my ratings to reflect my taste in anime so it wouldn't make sense to care about general consensus. |
fuyukiJul 13, 2017 4:11 AM
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| Guess I'm special then, since I gave minori scramble (6.33 on MAL) a well deserved 8. But to be honest most shows peoples see are simply above 7 to begin with. Even shows that aren't really liked often manage to be a bit above 7, as long as they aren't REALLY bad for everyone, that is. |
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| People's scores are definitely affected by the opinion from the others, although it doesn't always have to be in a way where the well valued anime tends to get a higher score just to pressure, but also in the opposite way (you didn't like an anime that everyone shills to the point you rate it even lower of pure spite). |
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Tsukihiko said: Yup, going against the general consensus can be >very< difficult, this is more common than you think. But i still refuse to rate Steins;Gate higher than 4. Highfive bruh, I'm with you on that one! @Zapredon huh, I think OP is saying some of them feel pressured to be a part of that consensus, not that those who refuse are bullied. Also, your list is private, so even if OP was talking about bullying, I don't see how it'd affect you in any way. |
Prophetess of the Golden Era  |
Clebardman said: Tsukihiko said: Yup, going against the general consensus can be >very< difficult, this is more common than you think. But i still refuse to rate Steins;Gate higher than 4. Highfive bruh, I'm with you on that one! @Zapredon huh, I think OP is saying some of them feel pressured to be a part of that consensus, not that those who refuse are bullied. Also, your list is private, so even if OP was talking about bullying, I don't see how it'd affect you in any way. Huh, I didn't say anything about bully. |
But it's important to remember that a movie review is subjective;it only gives you one person's opinion. http://www.classzone.com/books/lnetwork_gr08/page_build.cfm?content=analyz_media&ch=30 It doesn't matter if you like LoGH,Monster etc.If you are a jobless or college/school dropout living in your mom basement, you are still an unintelligent loser. Taste in anime does not make you a better person.If elitist don't exist, casual pleb and shit taste also don't exist. |
| @Zapredon heh, I misunderstood you post, and worded mine poorly on top of that. I still, however, disagree with you. How did something like Boku no Pico earn its reputation and score? Do you think it's because of its qualities (or lack of) and that it was fairly judged by its target audience? Or did it get randomly hyped as "the most offensive cartoonn ever" and watched by tons of people with the intention to rate it 1? I could easily see the same applying to shows rated highly. Considering how this userbase is obsessed with "hype", "bandwagonning" and "pretentiousness", I'd say peer pressure here is incredibly high. Can't blame them tho, I have my moments too (how do I rate a hentai or gory OVA that sucked but entertained me compared to something that I consider good, blablabla). I'd be careful with statements like "it doesn't affect me" too. You're a social animal, and care enough to discuss that shit on an anime forum. Seems a bit optimistic to think you're immune to it. |
Prophetess of the Golden Era |
neonshock said: like anything under 7; you virtually do not see anyone giving a show under 7, a score 8+, for example. tfw I rated my #3 10/10 and it has a 6.67 mean or something like that i'm a special snowflake who does not conform to social norms, yay me I'd be mostly concerned of this being the case whenever it's approached like this instead of whenever somebody simply gives a high rating to something that happens to be highly rated and popular. It's kind of insinuative to assume that people are just going to be giving into peer pressure to like something, since there could be a plethora of reasons to like a certain product that have the possibility of being entirely removed from the common consensus - and if we're going to take the possibility that "this person who rated FMA:B or Steins;Gate highly is just succumbing to peer pressure" then we should probably take all possibilities into account rather than working with a single one. This is generally why I think explanations will always be superior to a number assigned to indicate an opinion on something, but I don't think that's a particularly new idea in of itself. |
ManabanJul 13, 2017 8:12 AM
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| I just think that it does affect peoples judgement but just to a certain extent, if someone think a show is deserving of a score of less than 5 but see that the general view is inclined to put an 8, i don't think that most people would automatically go to put that score, but do add some points just to say "yeah i saw it i didn't liked it but i appreciated it" it's just the simplest defense to use against criticism. |
| Well, I don't care about people's opinion, so I rate anime and manga the way I feel - if I enjoyed the show I give high score, if I don't like it I give a low score, don't matter if the show is popular or not. |
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Clebardman said: @Zapredon heh, I misunderstood you post, and worded mine poorly on top of that. I still, however, disagree with you. How did something like Boku no Pico earn its reputation and score? Do you think it's because of its qualities (or lack of) and that it was fairly judged by its target audience? Or did it get randomly hyped as "the most offensive cartoonn ever" and watched by tons of people with the intention to rate it 1? I could easily see the same applying to shows rated highly. Considering how this userbase is obsessed with "hype", "bandwagonning" and "pretentiousness", I'd say peer pressure here is incredibly high. Can't blame them tho, I have my moments too (how do I rate a hentai or gory OVA that sucked but entertained me compared to something that I consider good, blablabla). I'd be careful with statements like "it doesn't affect me" too. You're a social animal, and care enough to discuss that shit on an anime forum. Seems a bit optimistic to think you're immune to it. Boku no Pico? Among all the anime you can choose you pick that one as example? It's not like everyone that uses MAL come to forum and check posters what is the most hyped anime. https://myanimelist.net/forum/ On the bottom right, it says MAL has more than 4 million users but only around 600 browsing the forum. It just show little shit anime fans give about anime forum. I really mean it when I say "it doesn't affect me". Recent top anime that I give low rating is Koe no Katachi which I give it a 6. Social animal? I joined this forum since 2008 but I only have 4k posts. You joined since 2015 but have more posts than me with 6k posts. |
ZapredonJul 13, 2017 9:40 AM
But it's important to remember that a movie review is subjective;it only gives you one person's opinion. http://www.classzone.com/books/lnetwork_gr08/page_build.cfm?content=analyz_media&ch=30 It doesn't matter if you like LoGH,Monster etc.If you are a jobless or college/school dropout living in your mom basement, you are still an unintelligent loser. Taste in anime does not make you a better person.If elitist don't exist, casual pleb and shit taste also don't exist. |
YuskeUrameshi said: Well, I don't care about people's opinion, so I rate anime and manga the way I feel - if I enjoyed the show I give high score, if I don't like it I give a low score, don't matter if the show is popular or not. Keep it up. Your scores are hilarious with the 70% split between 9s and 10s. I believe it effects everybody, but it could in different ways and could either higher or lower scores. I personally tend to agree with the general opinion though (for manga at least). I have found very few series in the low 7's or lower that I have enjoyed much or thought where good.while i find series scored above 8 are good most of the time (though not as much if it's a genre I don't care for like shoujo) |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
| I know I always do all I can to stay true to my feelings and rate anime accordingly. And I believe my special rating system helps me with that a lot XD |
HyperLJul 13, 2017 9:08 AM
| You are not your body, you are your brain, the "self" that emerges from within it. |
| I do that consciously time to time when i chose to, but mostly my scores are the reflection of how much I enjoyed it. |
| n-n-n-notice my ratings, s-senpai |
イカロス --I K A R O S D E S U-- "Hai master" <3cruise   Becoming the bell of my heart dont click here, baka -->> https://soundcloud.com/franciscan-guitar |
| This is one of the reasons I'm watching many seasonals, it's a bit easier to have an own opinion about a new show with basically no reputation. While it's indeed tempting to rate something based on it's average on MAL. Usually I try to stay neutral, that said it's easier in theory than in practice if the score is ranged between 8.5-9, it automatically calls forth more expectations and I focus more on all the positive aspects. For the lower ones. Well,I haven't seen many shows rated below 7, but most of them just weren't good except Ganbare Kickers and Renai Bokun. That doesn't mean all of them were trash, in fact I thought a few of them were even better than some high rated ones. In general my scores are pretty much balanced out, there are many cases where I agree with the majority, yet there are also ones where I rated several shows way below or above the average score. And I would't say that I don't care about opinions of others because it would be quite dishonest to say so imo and I have the feeling that people who are shouting out that they don't give a fuck about anything but their own opinion are also pressured in a way, since they feel the urge to tell others about it. If you really wouldn't care you could just shut up. |
FMmatronJul 13, 2017 9:39 AM
One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron |
| You aren't the first to notice, in general higher rated shows will amass greater followings but there are exceptions with obscure shows here and there. When I research up a show, yes the score sticks out like a sore thumb but that should only be a reference point regarding quality. I'm not pressured into watching highly rated shows and averse to low rated ones, you need to be prudent with your selection. |
 All credit goes to Sacred. |
| maybe some of them. Personally, I gave FMA:B a 10 without ANY outside influence, but I understand how some people don't want to seem outside the crowd here. Like people getting shit on when they score SAO higher than others or when they say they dislike some super popular anime. |
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TotalIsaac said: Pixel_Vapour said: Social influence could be a factor. I still feel like I was generous giving AoT, OPM, and Erased a 6. I could have given them a lower score but I guess social influence got me on that one. I mean I can somewhat understand AoT, but why is Erased a 6 for you? Well I was going to give Erased a 9 but because the last 2 episodes were a let down and were super predictable I lowered it to a 6 which is a shame. |
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| I don't think so, Re:Zero has a pretty high rating despite 80% of the anime community saying it sucks. |
Pyxus said: I don't think so, Re:Zero has a pretty high rating despite 80% of the anime community saying it sucks. The majority of MAL's community doesn't use the forums afaik. Even if every person who shows up on the forums agreed that a show sucks/is awesome, the non-forum-using userbase could outnumber us. |
TripleSRank said: The majority of MAL's community doesn't use the forums afaik. Even if every person who shows up on the forums agreed that a show sucks/is awesome, the non-forum-using userbase could outnumber us. Just to reinforce this idea, since it really should be something brought to light more on a general basis, I feel like, I went and took a screenshot of the current status of total amount of users and ones currently browsing the forums:  And as for "80% of the anime community saying that Re:Zero sucks": AD and whatever the hell is going on here isn't really nearly enough to speak for MAL in its entirety, let alone the anime fandom as a whole. |
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| I'm not sure if social desirability affects enough people to make a direct impact. Its more likely that if a show got a poor score and not many people give it a high score, then it is probably a bad show that a minority enjoyed enough to give a high score. While for more popular/high-scoring anime its the opposite. Although people can be influenced, it doesn't really matter unless people purposely go out of their way to score something the same as the majority. As well as having enough people doing that to directly affect the overall score. |
| people tend to follow social trend. so yea. some people are objective and some people are subjective |
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Pixel_Vapour said: Well I was going to give Erased a 9 but because the last 2 episodes were a let down and were super predictable I lowered it to a 6 which is a shame. Fair enough. The ending was a pretty big let-down compared to the rest of the show. |
| Unconciously? Sure, it is inevitable. Conciously? If you are an asshole, sure. |
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