Lovely weather, isn’t it? On the social dynamics of quality judgment

Quality is usually considered to be an attribute of an object, its degree of excellence or, more subjectively, fitness for
use. Stemming from this point of view, the goal of most ranking systems is to find efficient ways of discovering, or rather
uncovering, the quality of specific products or services. However, from a social psychological perspective it seems that the
notion of quality belongs predominantly to the realm of social relationships. We argue that quality exists mainly between
the users of an object, not within the object itself, and its functions are predominantly social, i.e. promoting interactions,
creating a shared reality, or building social relationships. Quality is constructed in social interactions and used as a token
therein. In the present paper we outline the social functions of quality, and discuss the implications of this perspective
for designing more useful recommendation systems.