What does the contrast effect influence in performance assessment?

The contrast effect specifically refers to how people evaluate something by comparing it to something else that they have recently encountered. In the context of performance assessment, this means that an evaluator's judgment of an individual’s performance can be influenced by the performance of others who have been assessed either right before or after them.

When an evaluator has just assessed a particularly high-performing individual, they may rate the next individual lower than they might have if that high performer had not been assessed first. Conversely, if the preceding assessment was of someone who performed poorly, the subsequent individual might be rated higher than they deserve based on that poor comparison. This phenomenon leads to either over-rating or under-rating an individual based on these comparisons, rather than on their own independent merits or qualifications.

Understanding the contrast effect is crucial for fair and unbiased evaluations in performance assessments, as it highlights the potential pitfalls of subjective judgments influenced by surrounding circumstances. It underscores the importance of context and order in evaluations, promoting the implementation of standardized assessment criteria to minimize such cognitive biases.