MOTIVATION TO INFLATE PERFORMANCE RATINGS - PERCEPTUAL BIAS OR RESPONSE BIAS

In a laboratory experiment support was found for the idea that inflated performance evaluations may be due to a self-serving bias - the tendency for raters to highly evaluate subordinates' performance so that they may themselves appear to be successful. Two hundred sixteen students evaluating another's work gave higher ratings of performance quantity and quality to employees they counseled about their work than to others with whom they had either only social contact or no contact at all. This effect remained even when raters were not being evaluated by an authority figure, suggesting that the inflated ratings were the result of an interest in enhancing one's own self-image (a perceptual bias) rather than cultivating the favorable impression of another (a response bias). The conceptual and practical implications of these findings are discussed. © 1991 Plenum Publishing Corporation.