The Effect of Interpersonal Affect on Performance Ratings: Is It Real or Spurious?

Abstract

Despite the growing recognition among researchers of the potentially

important role that interpersonal affect plays in performance appraisals,

it is not clear whether the effect of interpersonal affect is real or

attributable to unobserved ratee characteristics. Using a fixed effects

model, I find that the effect of interpersonal affect on ratings is

significant and independent of unobserved ratee characteristics. These

results suggest that interpersonal affect should be treated as a separate

and important factor in performance appraisals.