Rating the Rater: A Technique for Minimizing Leniency Bias in Residency Applications.

ABSTRACT: Each program in the highly competitive match for a surgical residency needs a way to review applicants effectively. Often this task is undertaken by individual faculty members, reviewing an applicant's file and assigning a score. Despite being asked to rate on a standardized scale, our program found that ratings of the same applicants varied dramatically, with certain faculty consistently scoring higher or lower than others. This is termed leniency bias, or the Hawk-Dove effect, and can affect who is invited to interview depending on which faculty are assigned to review an applicant's file.

Methods

A technique to minimize leniency bias was developed and applied to this year's 222 applicants for our plastic surgery residency. The effect of the technique was evaluated by comparing var

SUBMITTER: Seaward JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10125539 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature