The Impact of Feedback Diagnosticity and Performance Expectations on Feedback Seeking Behavior

Research suggests that the decision to engage in feedback seeking behavior will depend both on the expected diagnosticity of the feedback message and on the seeker's expectations about his or her performance level. An experi- ment was conducted in which both of these factors were manipulated. It was predicted that poor performers would seek diagnostic feedback (feedback that could be used to improve future performance) more frequently than non- diagnostic feedback, whereas good performers would seek feedback regard- less of diagnosticity. The results suggest that individuals will be most likely to seek feedback when they expect it to be both diagnostic and favorable. Impli- cations of this finding are discussed.