Would != Will

MakeupAlley.com is my go-to source for reviews of cosmetics and "beauty" items, but there is one thing that drives me batty when reading their reviews. (Well, two things — the other is the cutification of words, such as saying "lippies" instead of lipstick. That also makes me stabby.)

So, when you write a review there, the form asks you, "Would you buy this product again?" with a "yes" or "no" selection. Simple, right? And yet! And yet many reviewers say things like:

"I really do like this blush even though I said I will not buy it again, because I think the one I have is gonna last me for ages." (5/5)

or

"The only reason I said no to 'would you buy this product again?' was cause I honestly don't think I'll ever run out." (5/5)

Dude! The question isn't, "Will you buy this product again?" or "Do you foresee a likely need to buy this product again?". The "would" in this question clearly contains an unspoken "if", as in: "Would you buy this product again, if you did indeed run out or if you lost it or if it melted in your hot car or if your dog ate it or if you loaned it to your best friend and then that night she slept with your boyfriend while wearing your lipstick and you punched her right in the your-borrowed-lipstick-wearing mouth and the two of you never spoke again and the bitch never returned your lipstick?" The point is, if for whatever reason you no longer had any of this product in your posession, would you buy more, or would you just move on to another product and forget about this one?

And the thing is, when you search for a product or a type of product, the site shows you what percentage of reviewers said they would buy it again, and you can even sort the search results by this statistic. Except, what you're really seeing is what percentage of readers with decent reading comprehension would buy the product again.

Comments

[Jess]

Your hypothetical scenarios make me wish you ran that website so you could add them as an extension to the "would you...?" question.