The other benefit of following the herd is that you will probably enjoy something more if you think you'll enjoy it. And by reading the reviews or whatnot, you'll set that expectation. The plural of "anecdote" is "data": I read the Yelp reviews for a diner and they called out the bacon. I don't know if the bacon was really all that (it's hard to go wrong with bacon) but I am pretty sure I enjoyed that bacon more than I would have if I hadn't known that others thought it exceptional.