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The Effects of Source Credibility and Performance Rating Discrepancy on Reactions to Multiple Raters 1
Author(s) -
Albright Michelle D.,
Levy Paul E.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1995.tb01600.x
Subject(s) - credibility , psychology , source credibility , task (project management) , social psychology , function (biology) , cognitive psychology , management , evolutionary biology , political science , law , economics , biology
Using multiple feedback sources, the present study investigated the effects of source credibility and performance rating discrepancy on recipients' reactions. Individuals performed an ambiguous group task, rated their own performance on the task, and were later provided bogus feedback ostensibly from their peers and an expert rater. Individuals reacted toward the feedback and the source of the feedback as a function of the rating discrepancy and credibility of the feedback source. Generally, more credible sources and their feedback were evaluated more favorably. However, as predicted, this effect was overcome by performance rating discrepancy in the predicted conditions. The results show the importance of studying the interactive effects of message and source characteristics on individuals' reactions.