And I don't see how it could to most other people. Without knowing how they got the 1.5 versus 1.8 statistic, I'm not going to put much weight on it.
I think what does help though, is the ability to upvote as well as downvote things. Like reddit, digg, and other such sites. Yes, that can be used for "trolling" too, but trolling is a word thrown around far too often on the internet. In the real world too, not everyone gets a say and not everyone is listened to. You can't construct a "perfect" internet, and I don't think anyone should even strive to.