rating inflation
Scores drifting upward
Rating inflation is the gradual increase in average ratings over time within a system, making high scores increasingly common and less meaningful.
In competitive games and sports, rating inflation occurs when numerical rankings drift upward—a 1500 chess rating today may represent weaker play than the same rating decades ago.
The phenomenon also affects customer reviews, grade distributions, and any evaluation system where ratings cluster toward the top: With rating inflation on review sites, anything below four stars feels like a warning.
- overratingValuing beyond merit
- A+Highest academic grade
- honorsRecognition for achievement
- evaluationDetermining worth or quality
- rankingsOrdered list by performance
five stars · grading curve · academic standards · GPA · feedback · reviews · Yelp · Amazon · upvotes · likes · thumbs up · gold star · participation trophy · Lake Wobegon · above average · expectations · pressure · lenient