Shifting Standards and the Inference of Incompetence: Effects of Formal and Informal Evaluation Tools

Abstract

The authors distinguish between minimum and confirmatory standards of incompetence and hypothesize that for groups stereotyped as relatively competent (or deficient in incompetence), minimum standards of incompetence are lower (suspicion of incompetence is triggered sooner) but confirmatory standards are higher, relative to groups stereotyped as relatively incompetent. An initial study demonstrated this evidentiary pattern for male versus female targets. In Studies 2 and 3, participants were exposed to a poor-performing male or female (Study 2) or Black or White male (Study 3) trainee and were asked to record “notable” behaviors in either their “informal notes” (instantiating a minimum standard) or a “formal performance log” (instantiating a confirmatory standard). Consistent with predictions, fewer incompetent behaviors were recorded in the formal log than in informal notes for White male trainees. Firing decisions generally mimicked these patterns and in Study 3 were partially mediated by the accessibility of incompetent behaviors.