Effects of Rater Accountability on the Accuracy and the Favorability of Performance Ratings

The authors tested the effects of holding raters accountable for their performance ratings on the accuracy and the favorability of those ratings. Undergraduate research participants (N = 247) completed an inbasket exercise and observed a videotaped simulation during 2 sessions over a 2-week period. The simulation presented performance information on 4 simulated subordinates portrayed through videotaped vignettes. True performance scores were manipulated by varying the proportion of positive and negative performance vignettes presented for each subordinate. Participants who were made to feel accountable by having to justify their ratings to the experimenter in writing rated their simulated subordinates more accurately. In another experimental condition, accountable raters who were told their subordinates' previous performance ratings were too low rated their subordinates more favorably than did raters in the same experimental condition who were not accountable.