Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Identifying The Strongest Or The Weakest Link: Effects On Subsequent Ratings, William S. Weyhrauch, Satoris S. Culbertson

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

The current study investigated the effect of a negative designation performance rating purpose in contrast to a positive designation purpose or a deservedness purpose on a) the ability of raters to differentiate amongst ratees at a later time and b) raters' tendencies to provide subsequently more severe or lenient ratings. Results from a laboratory study involving 102 participants indicated that positive designations tend to result in subsequently lenient ratings, while negative designations result in severe ratings. However, the nature of a rater’s previous decision had no discernable effect on the ability to differentiate levels of performance. Implications of these findings …