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The Effects Of Accountability On Leniency Reduction In Self Ratings, Brettney Smith

All Theses

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of accountability on leniency reduction in self-ratings. It was hypothesized that participants in both the upward and illegitimate accountability condition would have lower levels of leniency in their self-ratings than participants in the no accountability condition. Accountability was operationalized as participants being told that they would have to justify their self-ratings of driving performance to either a professor who specializes in driving research (upward accountability) or to an education graduate student who maintains the driving simulator (illegitimate accountability) via an audiotape. The results showed that accountability had a significant …