Common Rater Errors
http://edu.docdat.com/tw_files2/urls_11/371/d-370082/img3.jpg
Count the black dots at the crossings
of the grey lines:
Source: http://michaelbach.de/ot/
Video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see.html
or
http://www.ted.com/talks/al_seckel_says_our_brains_are_mis_wired.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see.html
The red squares are the same colour
and size
So why do they look different?
Which animal do you see?
Source: http://michaelbach.de/ot/
Perception does not record reality
like a camera.
“Perception is a process
by which we organize
and interpret our sensory
impressions in order to give
meaning to our environment.”
S. Robbins (2005)
Optical illusions
demonstrate the unreliability of our
perception of objects.
But rating
is about the perception of
individual persons in social
situations.
We don´t see things as they are,
we see things as we are.
(This is because it is the „I“ behind
the „eye“ that does the seeing.)
Anais Nin
Video: Basketball
Task:
Count how often the white team is
in possession of the ball.
http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/15.html
http://edu.docdat.com/tw_files2/urls_11/371/d-370082/img9.jpg
How many different persons did you see?
a) more than 15?
b) more than 10?
c) more than 5?
d) less than 5?
The Difference between Seeing and Observing
http://www.mariakonnikova.com/
The Difference between Seeing and Observing
“Quite so,” he (Sherlock Holmes) answered, lighting a
cigarette, and throwing himself down into an armchair. “You
see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.
For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead
up from the hall to this room.”
“Frequently.”
“How often?”
“Well, some hundreds of times.”
“Then how many are there?”
“How many? I don’t know.”
“Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen.
That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen
steps, because I have both seen and observed.”
Arthur Conan Doyle, A Scandal in Bohemia
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/2013/01/03/sherlock-holmes-the-mindful-detective/
Rating Errors
Selective Perception
People selectively interpret what they see based on their interests,
background, experience, and attitudes.
The perceiver singles out information that supports a prior belief but
filters out contrary information.
Primacy Effect
One group read this
description:






Intelligent
Industrious
Impulsive
Critical
Stubborn
Envious
Other group read this
description:






Envious
Stubborn
Critical
Impulsive
Industrious
Intelligent
This person was
rated more positively
Asch, S. E. (1946) Forming impressions of personality. J. abnorm. soc. Psych., 41, 258-290
Primacy Effect - Explanations
Attention at a maximum when making initial
impressions.
Once we think we have formed an accurate
impression of someone, we pay less attention to
later behavioral evidence.
Later information dismissed - it’s not viewed as
typical.
Early information affects ‘meaning’ of later
information. We interpret inconsistent
information in light of the first impression.
Rating Errors
Selective Perception
People selectively interpret what they see based on their interests,
background, experience, and attitudes.
The perceiver singles out information that supports a prior belief but
filters out contrary information.
Primacy Effect
Information presented early has more impact on impressions than
information presented later.
Recency Effect
Tendency to give greater weight to recent performance and lesser
weight to earlier performance.
Example: Warm or Cold
Mr. XY is a graduate student in the Department of
Economics and Social Science here at MIT. He has had
three semesters of teaching experience in psychology at
another college. This is his first semester teach EC 70.
He is 26 years old, a veteran, and married. People who
know him consider him to be a very warm person,
industrious, critical, practical, and determined.
Mr. XY is a graduate student in the Department of
Economics and Social Science here at MIT. He has had
three semesters of teaching experience in psychology at
another college. This is his first semester teach EC 70.
He is 26 years old, a veteran, and married. People who
know him consider him to be a rather cold person,
industrious, critical, practical, and determined.
Kelley, H.H. (1950). The warm-cold variable in first impressions of persons. Journal of Personality, 18, 431-439.
Example: Warm or Cold
Halo-Effect
The class got the same lecture,
but at the end, when asked to rate Mr. XY for
possible hiring as an instructor,
the students who had read the description of a
“very warm” person rated him as “good-natured,
considerate of others, informal, sociable,
popular, humorous, and humane,”
while those who read that he was “rather cold”
rated him as “self-centered, formal, unsociable,
unpopular, irritable, humorless, and ruthless.”
Kelley, H.H. (1950). The warm-cold variable in first impressions of persons. Journal of Personality, 18, 431-439.
Rating Errors
Selective Perception
People selectively interpret what they see based on their interests,
background, experience, and attitudes.
The perceiver singles out information that supports a prior belief but
filters out contrary information.
Primacy Effect
Information presented early has more impact on impressions than
information presented later.
Recency Effect
Tendency to give greater weight to recent performance and lesser
weight to earlier performance.
Halo- or Horns Effect
Forming an overall impression about an individual based on a single
characteristic.
Similar to Me Effect
People who are similar to me are evaluated more favorably
Rating Errors
Contrast/Context
Evaluation of a person’s characteristics is affected by comparisons
with other individuals recently encountered who rank higher or lower
on the same characteristics.
Projection
People assign to others the characteristics or feelings that they
possess themselves.
Stereotyping
Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to
which that persons belongs.
Personal biases
Unintentional discrimination based on age, sex, race, etc.
Attribution
Tendency to underestimate situational factors that may constrain the
ratees performance.
Rating Errors
 Leniency
Tendency to give ratings that are overly
high (inflation)
 Severity
Tendency to give ratings that are overly
low (deflation)
 Central Tendency
Tendency to avoid all extreme judgments
and rate people and objects as average
or neutral.
Rating Errors - Overview
Selective Perception.
Primacy Effect
Recency Effect.
Halo-or Horns Effect
Similar to Me Effect
Contrast/Context
Projection
Stereotyping
Personal biases
Attribution
Leniency
Severity
Central Tendency
Rating Errors - Overview
Selective Perception.
Primacy Effect
Recency Effect.
Halo-or Horns Effect
Similar to Me Effect
Contrast/Context
Projection
unintentional
Stereotyping
Personal biases
Attribution
Leniency
Severity
Central Tendency
intentional