Effects of sex on raters' accountability

The effects of sex (rater and ratee) on raters' accountability in the context of performance appraisal were investigated. The 130 participating undergraduates (men and women) rated a fictitious male or female's performance on a clerical task subsequent to receiving self-assessment information. As expected, raters' knowledge of a high self-assessment was followed by significantly higher performance ratings than after knowledge of a low self-assessment. Contrary to expectations, no differences were found for either raters' or ratees' sex. The results suggest that the sex of the rater or ratee is not associated with raters' accountability.