Self-Assessments Produce Anchoring Effects in Promotion Decisions

Four experiments investigated the possibility that including self-assessments in applications for a promotion might produce an anchoring effect. Anchoring effects occur when information known to be unreliable or unrelated to a target variable still affect estimates of the target variable. Overall, the self-assessments produced a robust anchoring effect for both good and bad applications, when the applications were judged by novices and experts, regardless of whether the applicant was likely to receive feedback, and independently of the rater’s views of what constituted good performance. The effect survived when a second application was available for comparison, and it was reduced but not eliminated if a second set of assessments was available. These results suggest that promotion processes that use self-assessments are likely to be biased by them, and there does not appear to be a simple way to guard against them. On the other hand, for those who seek promotion, modesty is unlikely to serve them well.