单个恶意用户可利用评分偏见操纵推荐系统,稀疏攻击比广泛攻击更致命。
Hijacking online reviews: sparse manipulation and behavioral buffering in popularity-biased rating systems
- 设计简化代理模型,模拟用户根据当前平均分决定是否评分。
- 稀疏攻击在低信息环境下破坏力最强,能有效抬高劣质商品评分。
- 适度的用户行为差异可部分抑制虚假评分上升,尤其阻止劣质品冒头。
在线评论与推荐系统帮助用户应对海量选择,但易受自我强化扭曲影响。本文研究单一恶意用户如何利用基于热度的评分机制进行操控,并探讨用户行为差异能否减轻损害。构建最小化代理模型,用户部分依据当前显示平均分决定是否评分。对比广泛攻击(扰动大量项目)与稀疏攻击(选择性提升低质项、压制高质项)。分析表明,稀疏攻击危害远大于广泛攻击,因其更有效利用热度曝光机制。聚焦稀疏攻击发现:第一,在真实评论稀缺时,攻击破坏最严重,存在从脆弱低信息态到稳健高信息态的转变;第二,稀疏攻击特别擅长虚假提升低质量项目;第三,适度反向用户多样性可部分缓冲干扰,主要通过抑制低质品崛起,而非完全恢复优质品排名。结果表明,推荐系统鲁棒性不仅取决于检测与预测精度,还受评论密度、热度反馈及用户响应异质性影响。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Online reviews and recommendation systems help users navigate overwhelming choice, but they are vulnerable to self-reinforcing distortions. This paper examines how a single malicious reviewer can exploit popularity-biased rating dynamics and whether behavioral heterogeneity in user responses can reduce the damage. We develop a minimal agent-based model in which users choose what to rate partly on the basis of currently displayed averages. We compare broad attacks that perturb many items with sparse attacks that selectively boost low-quality items and suppress high-quality items. Additional analyses not shown here indicate that sparse attacks are substantially more harmful than broad attacks because they better exploit popularity-based exposure. The main text then focuses on sparse attacks and asks how their effects change as the fraction of contrarian users increases. Three results stand out. First, attack-induced damage is strongest when prior honest reviews are scarce, revealing a transition from a fragile low-information regime to a more robust high-information regime. Second, sparse attacks are especially effective at artificially promoting low-quality items. Third, moderate contrarian diversity partially buffers these distortions, primarily by suppressing the rise of low-quality items rather than fully restoring high-quality items to the top. The findings suggest that recommendation robustness depends not only on attack detection and predictive accuracy, but also on review density, popularity feedback, and user response heterogeneity.
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