Help Me Write A Negative Review

If I write a negative, but truthful, review about a doctor on the RATEMYMD website, can I be sued for libel?

In my state, yes. Be aware that even if you haven't committed libel, you can be sued for it. Just getting into court to prove you didn't can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and if you represent yourself, chances are you will lose even more. Add to that, you don't want this guy to be moonlighting when you show up in an ER. Even if you are truthful, think twice about posting negative comments. Then if you think you must warn the public no matter what the cost, go ahead.

Is it worth writing a negative review of a Church on-line?

If it's a capitalistic church and you're making valid points about the operations and not the theology or maybe even the individuals.  I mean, if they're doing their job wrong, then shoppers for their product would appreciate being warned.  But if you're complaining about how you heard a speech that wouldn't offend a gay Muslim, but "should", then don't.  I'd say the greatest indicator of that is your level of emotion/indignance/vindication.In other words, if it were a Mexican restaurant, you'd be welcome to rip on the service, the food being cold, etc., but not on Mexicans or Mexican food, and Yelp will delete reviews that rip on a particular waitress (or other such semi-tangential aspects of the restaurant.)  And it's likewise silly to rip on things that their target market loves, because that'll backfire.So no, don't go waxing about theism or Christianity in general, but if you heard anti-Gay and anti-Muslim rhetoric that you believe would be appreciated by someone reading that review while picking a church, and you can dispassionately warn people of that aspect without discouraging Assembly of God members from finding another Assembly of God church (and, just as difficult, without putting them on the defensive, thus providing them solidarity against you and increasing the odds they'll go there)--if you can do that, it's probably good form and will be appreciated.

Is it fair to write a negative review for a popular restaurant because of the long wait time?

You should not give them negative points for having a wait.  That's just them being popular.  However, how they manage that wait is different.Of they tell you 30 minutes, and 50 pass and they have made no attempt talk with you to give you an update and/or apologize... then that you can definitely chalk up as a negative.In a restaurant, you try to give accurate quote times... but in the end, they are educated guesses (how educated depends on the employee and their skill at reading and understanding a dining room).  Sometimes things will happen and quotes will run long.  But any good restaurant will take steps (give updates, offer drink/appetizer service.. possibly at a discount) to try and provide good service.

Is there negative bias in online reviews?

Great question. I would argue yes people are more likely to write negative reviews on average than positive reviews purely based on psychology. There are many books that discuss why but the below article discusses this succinctlyWhy People Remember Negative Events More Than Positive Ones“The brain handles positive and negative information in different hemispheres,” said Professor Nass, who co-authored “The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships” (Penguin 2010). Negative emotions generally involve more thinking, and the information is processed more thoroughly than positive ones, he said. Thus, we tend to ruminate more about unpleasant events — and use stronger words to describe them — than happy ones.Roy F. Baumeister, a professor of social psychology at Florida State University, captured the idea in the title of a journal article he co-authored in 2001, “Bad Is Stronger Than Good,” which appeared in The Review of General Psychology. “Research over and over again shows this is a basic and wide-ranging principle of psychology,” he said. “It’s in human nature, and there are even signs of it in animals,” in experiments with rats.As the article, which is a summary of much of the research on the subject, succinctly puts it: “Bad emotions, bad parents and bad feedback have more impact than good ones. Bad impressions and bad stereotypes are quicker to form and more resistant to disconfirmation than good ones.”So Professor Baumeister and his colleagues note, losing money, being abandoned by friends and receiving criticism will have a greater impact than winning money, making friends or receiving praise.In an experiment in which participants gained or lost the same amount of money, for instance, the distress participants expressed over losing the money was greater than the joy that accompanied the gain.“Put another way, you are more upset about losing $50 than you are happy about gaining $50,” the paper states.In addition, bad events wear off more slowly than good ones.