Last shall be first: A field study of biases in sequential performance evaluation on the Idol series

Abstract

When performances are evaluated they are very often presented in a sequential order. Previous research suggests that the sequential presentation of alternatives may induce systematic biases in the way performances are evaluated. Such a phenomenon has been scarcely studied in economics. Using a large dataset of performance evaluation in the Idol series (N = 1522), this paper presents new evidence about the systematic biases in sequential evaluation of performances and the psychological phenomena at the origin of these biases. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.