Adam Felder:
Respondents who saw comments evaluated the article as being of lower quality—an 8 percent difference. In other words, authors are judged not just by what they write, but by how people respond. The presence of comments did not make a statistically significant difference in a person’s likelihood to read more content by the same author, nor did it make an appreciable difference in respondent self-reported mood.
The results seem contradictory. Having comments make the perception of the article quality to be less, but not your likelihood to read or enjoy the article? Huh?