Effects of raters' stress on the dispersion and favorability of performance ratings.

We tested effects of raters' stress on the favorability and dispersion of performance ratings. In all, 120 undergraduates completed either a stressful or an unstressful inbasket exercise, either before or after they saw a videotaped portrayal of a manager's job performance. Then they rated the manager on several performance dimensions. Ratings provided by participants who completed the stressful inbasket showed less dispersion across performance dimensions, but no differences on favorability. Whether participants were stressed before or after viewing the performance videotape made no significant difference in the favorability or dispersion of their ratings. This suggests that stressful experiences affect at least the retrieval stage of information processing and might affect the input stage as well. There was a significant interaction with individual differences in Type A pattern. In the unstressful condition, Type A scores were positively correlated with dispersion (r?=?.32, p?r?=?–.15), but not statistically significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)