A new study from the UBC Sauder School of Business suggests the way ratings are displayed — using either star icons or numbers — can significantly alter how consumers perceive quality.

In general, people overestimated visual ratings — aka ones with star icons — regardless of whether they ended in 0.25, 0.5 or 0.75. Across the board, ...

A new star rating is assigned by DHS with each new licensing year. It considers compliance history only from the previous 12-month period. So a child care center that two years ago was cited for ...