Interdependence of successive absolute judgments

Abstract

The aim was "to determine whether successive absolute judgments of a cognitive nature are interdependent, and if so, to evaluate a method for controlling this bias." The design involved rating populations of countries, with one group of Ss rating a "test" country following rating of a sparsely populated one and a second group following the rating of a populous country. This type of design was used several times in longer lists of words. Results of 8 test items indicated that "ratings tend to be biased in the direction of the previous rating… bias increases as the number of response categories increases." When the Ss were instructed to rate extreme stimuli first, no bias effect was found. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)