Abstract
Three measures related to motivation to perform a rating task accurately were obtained from 49 students, who also performed goal-attribute ratings. Less motivated students surpassed more motivated ones on several indices of rating bias. Previous evidence for differential relationships among goal attributes was clearly replicated only with the ratings of more motivated subjects. These findings suggest that many respondents may strive for “satisfactory” rather than optimal goal ratings (“satisficing”), that this tendency is a strong potential source of error with such data, but that individual differences related to satisficing may be used to examine such effects and partially bracket them out. It is suggested that measures of subjects' motivation or other related personality characteristics be routinely gathered when multiple ratings from subjects are required.
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