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arXiv · 2507.13798

Choosing and Using Information in Evaluation Decisions

Katherine B. Coffman·Scott Kostyshak·Perihan O. Saygin
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Abstract

We use a controlled experiment to study how information acquisition impacts candidate evaluations. We provide evaluators with group-level information on performance and the opportunity to acquire additional, individual-level performance information before making a final evaluation. We find that, on average, evaluators under-acquire individual-level information, leading to more stereotypical evaluations of candidates. Consistent with stereotyping, we find that (irrelevant) group-level comparisons have a significant impact on how candidates are evaluated; group-level comparisons bias initial assessments, responses to information, and final evaluations. This leads to under-recognition of talented candidates from comparatively weaker groups and over-selection of untalented candidates from comparatively stronger groups.

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Katherine B. Coffman, Scott Kostyshak, Perihan O. Saygin. 2025-07-18. Choosing and Using Information in Evaluation Decisions. https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13798

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