Md. Albright et Pe. Levy, THE EFFECTS OF SOURCE CREDIBILITY AND PERFORMANCE RATING DISCREPANCY ON REACTIONS TO MULTIPLE RATERS, Journal of applied social psychology, 25(7), 1995, pp. 577-600
Using multiple feedback sources, the present study investigated the ef
fects of source credibility and performance rating discrepancy on reci
pients' reactions. Individuals performed an ambiguous group task, rate
d their own performance on the task, and were later provided bogus fee
dback ostensibly from their peers and an expert rater. Individuals rea
cted toward the feedback and the source of the feedback as a function
of the rating discrepancy and credibility of the feedback source. Gene
rally, more credible sources and their feedback were evaluated more fa
vorably. However, as predicted, this effect was overcome by performanc
e rating discrepancy in the predicted conditions. The results show the
importance of studying the interactive effects of message and source
characteristics on individuals' reactions.