Adjustment of Assessors' First Impressions Differs by Student Ethnicity

Area of Science:

• Medical education research
• Psychology of assessment
• Health equity

Background:

• Ethnic minority medical students often face "differential attainment", receiving lower grades than majority students, particularly in workplace assessments.
• Assessor bias, specifically how initial impressions influence subsequent evaluations, is a potential contributing factor.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate ethnicity-related differences in assessor bias among medical students.
• To determine if first impressions or changes in ratings explain differential attainment in medical education.

Main Methods:

• An online experiment used videos of near-identical medical students (ethnic minority vs. majority) with varying performances (ascending/descending).
• Eighty-one physicians rated students' initial impressions (60s) and final performance (5min), with rating changes analyzed.
• Incomplete block design with random assignment to videos ensured varied exposure.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in initial impression ratings based on student ethnicity were observed.
• Ethnic minority students received higher final ratings for ascending performances, but only from residents.
• Rating changes between initial and final impressions were larger for ethnic minority students in both ascending and descending performance scenarios.

Conclusions:

• Assessor bias in first impressions does not appear to explain differential attainment for ethnic minority medical students.
• Larger rating changes for ethnic minority students may indicate they are more closely scrutinized, with potential for both positive and negative impacts.