Halo effects in grading student projects

Halo effects in rating specific pieces of work, as in educational grading, have received little attention. Grades awarded by 2 independent graders to undergraduate projects were analyzed with a correlated uniqueness model. Grades showed substantial halo despite being awarded by expert assessors at the time of reading the work. There was greater halo between different grades applying to the same section of the project than between grades applying to different sections. Supervisors who had regular contact with the student whose work they were grading showed no more halo than other graders. More reliable graders showed less within-section halo than graders of lower reliability but equal between-sections halo. The halo effects observed cannot be entirely attributable to a unitary general impression.     

Halo Effects in Ratings of ADHD and ODD: Identification of Susceptible Symptoms

Halo effects in the assessment of ADHD and ODD were examined. Participants were 159 undergraduate college students who rated children described as showing disruptive behaviors. Bidirectional halo effects were found. Specifically, the presence of oppositionality artificially inflated ratings of inattention and hyperactivity, and the combined presence of inattention and hyperactivity artificially inflated ratings of oppositionality. Several specific items were found to be particularly susceptible to halo effects. Due to these halo effects caution should be exercised when diagnosing multiple behavior disorders, especially with items found to be particularly susceptible. Clinical interviews conducted by mental health professionals may help distinguish between the true presence of multiple disorders and halo effects based on ratings. Future research should determine whether structured interviews conducted by mental health professionals are less susceptible to halo effects than rating scales.     

A Developmental Analysis of Performance Ratings

In this study, we examined the performance appraisal process from a developmental perspective. Components of cognitive structure, measured in terms of differentiation and hierarchic integration, were obtained from 45 American students representing three different academic levels at three times during a 15-week semester. These students' performance evaluations (ratings) of their psychology instructors were collected during the first and final sessions. The results indicated that although both differentiation and hierarchic integration seemed to change systematically, even over a short period of time, there was no corresponding change in the halo inherent in the raters' ratings. We present possible explanations for the failure of developmental changes in cognitive structure to be reflected in the halo inherent in the performance ratings, as would be predicted by Schneier's (1977) cognitive compatibility hypothesis. Increased emphasis on developmental aspects of the performance appraisal process is recommended.     

Religiosity and consumer belonging: Influences on product evaluations

Consumers have a fundamental need to belong. Prior research has examined the compensatory mechanisms that consumers use to restore belongingness when they have a low sense of belonging. However, research has yet to adequately understand the influence that having a high sense of belonging has on consumption behavior. Thus, three studies are conducted to address this gap in the literature, specifically examining religiosity as a source of consumers' high sense of belonging. Study 1A identifies that religiosity positively influences consumers' sense of belonging and corresponding product evaluations because belongingness creates a positive affect state. This affect then incidentally transfers a positive halo effect to product evaluations. Study 1B replicates the sequential mediation from Study 1A but only for those products that are value expressive. Studies 2 and 3 then better isolate these effects by priming religion (Study 2) as well as general social acceptance and rejection (Study 3). Findings reveal that only religion and acceptance primes influence consumers' sense of belonging and product evaluations. Discussion builds on need‐to‐belong theory and implications for marketing practice are discussed.     

Attributions as a Function of Expertise: The Case of the Police Decision to Arrest1

Using a longitudinal design, this study tested Carroll and Payne's (1977) attributional model on a cohort of 387 police recruits at recruitment% at the completion of academy training. and after I year of police experience. Contrary to expectations, the relationship between causal attributions and other judgments about offenders predicted by the model did not weaken with increasing police experience. However, there was an increase in the extent to which causal attributions also affected judgments about offenders which were not predicted by the model, and this was interpreted as indicating an increase in halo error. It was argued that halo error is indicative of rudimentary schemata which may precede the development of more complex offender typologies.     

Impact of retailer image on private brand attitude: Halo effect and summary construct

The purpose of this article is to examine the influence of retailer image on consumers' attitude towards private brand. More specifically, we evaluate two alternative perspectives of retailer image—the halo effect and the summary construct—and include a moderator variable, consumer familiarity with a retailer's private label products, to discern which of the two models has better explanatory power. The findings indicate that there are moderating effects of consumer familiarity with a retailer's private brands and product categories in determining the efficacy of each model. In private brand foods, high familiarity is related to the summary construct model, and low familiarity is associated with the halo effect model. In private brand clothing, however, low familiarity is related to the halo effect model, but high familiarity is associated with both the halo effect and the summary construct model. Managerial and future research implications are also provided.     

She just doesn't look like a philosopher…? Affective influences on the halo effect in impression formation

Can good or bad moods influence people's tendency to rely on irrelevant information when forming impressions (halo effects)? On the basis of recent work on affect and cognition, this experiment predicted and found that positive affect increased and negative affect eliminated the halo effect. After an autobiographical mood induction (recalling happy or sad past events), participants (N = 246) read a philosophical essay, with an image of the writer attached, showing either an older man or a young woman (halo manipulation). Judgements of the essay and the writer revealed clear mood and halo effects, as well as a significant mood by halo interaction. Positive affect increased halo effects consistent with the more assimilative, constructive processing style it recruits. Negative affect promoting more accommodative and systematic processing style eliminated halo effects. The relevance of these findings for impression formation in everyday situations is considered, and their implications for recent affect‐cognition theories are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is there a general factor in ratings of job performance? A meta-analytic framework for disentangling substantive and error influences

A database integrating 90 years of empirical studies reporting intercorrelations among rated job performance dimensions was used to test the hypothesis of a general factor in job performance. After controlling for halo error and 3 other sources of measurement error, there remained a general factor in job performance ratings at the construct level accounting for 60% of total variance. Construct-level correlations among rated dimensions of job performance were substantially inflated by halo for both supervisory (33%) and peer (63%) intrarater correlations. These findings have important implications for the measurement of job performance and for theories of job performance.     

The effectiveness of three strategies to reduce the influence of bias in evaluations of female leaders

This study tests the effectiveness of three strategies [structured free recall (SFR), source monitoring, and error management] to reduce the impact of raters' stereotypes on evaluations of female leaders. Results reveal several three‐way interactions indicating that that the strategies became more effective as raters' implicit bias decreased. Findings show that the source monitoring and SFR methods were more effective than the error management strategy. The results have implications for improving opportunities for women to advance through the leadership ranks. This study adds to the literature by comparing multiple strategies to reduce the influence of individuals' biases in evaluations of women in leadership positions and revealing the importance of considering raters' implicit gender biases in evaluations.     

Social Perceptions of Religiosity: Dogmatism Tarnishes the Religious Halo

Researchers have provided much evidence in support of a religious halo effect—the tendency for people to evaluate a religious target more favorably than a nonreligious counterpart. This experimental study (N = 361 U.S. adults) extended previous work beyond the dichotomy of religious versus nonreligious by varying a fictional target's degree of belief. Only religious participants exhibited a nonspecific pro-religious bias consistent with the religious halo effect, favoring religious over not religious and very over somewhat religious targets. However, indicators of dogmatic thinking (e.g., I am so sure I am right about the important things in life, there is no evidence that could convince me otherwise) degraded target evaluations by religious and nonreligious participants alike. Results suggest that religiosity's positive associations depend upon an assumption of strong but flexible belief and underscore the importance of studying social perceptions of religious fundamentalists.     

The Interactive Effects of Mood and Involvement on Brand Extension Evaluations

This article examines the interactive effects of mood and involvement on evaluations of product extensions that vary in their similarity to the core brand. Results from an initial experiment show that, under conditions of high involvement, participants’ mood influenced their evaluations of extensions that were moderately similar to the core brand, but did not affect evaluations of either very similar or dissimilar extensions. Under low‐involvement conditions, however, the influence of positive mood was independent of core brand‐extension similarity. A second experiment demonstrates that mood's effect on extension evaluations may further depend on the measurement procedures used to elicit product appraisals. Collectively, these studies highlight important contingencies regarding mood's influence on extension evaluations and, as such, improve our understanding of consumers’ appraisals of brand extensions.     

Job‐Seeker Reactions to Selection Process Information in Job Ads

Using a policy‐capturing methodology, the current study examines if and to what extent individuals utilize selection process information contained in job ads in making evaluations of organizational attractiveness and decisions to apply. Results show both indirect and direct evidence that individuals do attend to and use these cues when presented in job ads in making initial job‐pursuit evaluations. Additionally, the results are consistent with a model derived from the organizational justice literature suggesting that perceptions of selection procedures' measurement accuracy may drive the observed effects. Specifically, ratings of organizational attractiveness and intentions to apply were significantly associated with perceptions of a given selection method's assessment accuracy for those ads that specified its use. Policy‐capturing results also show direct evidence that participants attend to and rely on selection process information in job ads to make job‐pursuit evaluations, and that perceptions of measurement accuracy are related to the degree to which, and how those cues are utilized. Research and applied implications are discussed.     

An individual differences approach to the halo-accuracy paradox

In performance appraisal, the halo-accuracy paradox describes the surprising result that rater accuracy can be positively correlated with the halo rating error. Fisicaro (1988) provided an explanation for this unlikely relationship by proposing an inverse V function as the relationship between accuracy and invalid halo in which maximum accuracy is located at zero invalid halo. This paper develops the model by proposing that maximum accuracy does not have to be at zero invalid (Hypothesis 1). As the cognitive difficulty of a rating task increases, a negative monotonie relationship between maximum achievable accuracy and associated value of absolute invalid halo is specified (Hypothesis 2). The hypotheses were tested in two different experimental situations. Results from both studies supported Hypothesis 1 but, whilst a distinct pattern between accuracy and absolute invalid halo was noted, only a weak version of Hypothesis 2 could be supported. The evidence from this paper demonstrates that the halo-accuracy paradox is not an artefact as some recent reviewers have proposed (Balzer & Sulsky, 1992; Murphy & Balzer, 1989; Murphy & Cleveland, 1991).     

Examination and Measurement of Halo Via Curvilinear Regression: A New Approach to Halo1

Much disagreement and confusion has surrounded the nature of the relationship between halo and performance rating accuracy. Traditionally, the relationship has been assumed to be linear ( Cooper, 1981 ), but Fisicaro (1988 ) proposed that the relationship between halo and performance rating accuracy is, instead, curvilinear. Using the halo index suggested by Balzer & Sulsky (1992 ), the results of the present study provided empirical evidence to support Fisicaro's proposal. Future research examining the relationship between halo and accuracy should consider the use of quadratic models, instead of linear ones. For the practitioner, this result implies that low rating dimension intercorrelations (negative halo) may lead to inaccuracy in ratings in much the same way as do high rating dimension intercorrelations (positive halo).     

PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF SUBORDINATE RATINGS OF MANAGERIAL PERFORMANCE

The purpose of the present study was to compare the psychometric properties of subordinate ratings of managerial performance to those of supervisor and self ratings. Subordinate ratings (n = 365), self-ratings (n = 80) and supervisor ratings ( n = 80) were obtained on eight performance dimensions for middle level managers in a multinational corporation. Multitrait-multimethod analysis of variance indicated significant effects for convergent validity, halo error, and discriminant validity. Comparisons between rating sources indicated that subordinate ratings are more similar to supervisor ratings than to self ratings in terms of convergent validity and leniency effect. A comparison of the present results to other studies indicated less convergent validity, more discriminant validity, and less halo error than found by others.     

Self-expectancies and reactions to evaluations of personal performance

A field study tested whether college students' reactions to evaluations of their performance on an important examination were based primarily on self-consistency or self-enhancement needs. All students (N= 166) completed two questionnaires, one a week before and the other a week after the examination. The first questionnaire measured general self-expectancies (self-esteem), as well as expectancies specific to the upcoming examination. The second questionnaire measured six separate phases of the students' reactions to their performance evaluations (cf. Shrauger, 1975), each phase being primarily cognitive or affective in nature. The results showed a strong general preference for positive rather than negative performance evaluations among the students, regardless of their self-expectancies. Self-enhancement effects emerged more clearly than did self-consistency effects, and most effects of both types tended to involve general rather than specific self-expectancies. Finally, there was some support for Shrauger's claim that cognitive reactions to performance evaluations are influenced by self-consistency needs, whereas affective reactions are influenced by self-enhancement needs.     

Evaluation context's role in driving positive word‐of‐mouth intentions

Relevant literature recognizes that transaction‐specific and cumulative evaluations are different, but few empirical studies test how these differences might affect the link between product evaluations and word of mouth (WOM). This study addresses this issue by assessing the simultaneous effects of perceived quality and satisfaction on the resulting positive WOM intentions for both types of evaluations. Results reveal that different factors drive positive WOM intentions depending on the context of the study. When the consumers' evaluations are related to a specific transaction, perceived quality is the dominating predictor of positive WOM intentions. When the evaluations are cumulative, satisfaction is the dominating predictor of positive WOM intentions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.