%0 Report
        %A Lee, Jungmin
        %T Outlier Aversion in Evaluating Performance: Evidence from Figure Skating
        %D 2004
        %8 2004 Aug
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 1257
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp1257
        %X The quality of subjective performance evaluation is dependent on the incentive structures faced by evaluators, in particular on how they are monitored and themselves evaluated. Figure skating competitions provide a unique opportunity to study subjective evaluation. This paper develops and tests a simple model of what I call "outlier aversion bias" in which subjective evaluators avoid submitting outlying judgments. We find significant evidence for the existence of outlier aversion. Individual judges within a game manipulate scores to achieve a targeted level of agreement with the other judges. Furthermore, a natural
experiment shows that the dispersion of scores across judges depends upon the type of judge-assessment system and its implication for outlier aversion. Agreement may not be a
good criterion for the validity of an evaluation system, contradicting the industrial psychology and personnel management literature.
        %K subjective performance evaluation
%K outlier aversion bias