The influence of default values on the evaluative behavior of graduate education students completing computerized evaluations

摘要

This article reports the findings of a series of studies conducted over a 3-year period. These studies investigated the influence of default values on the evaluative behavior of graduate education students who completed versions of a computerized evaluation instrument that presented one of three defaults: Excellent, Good, or Poor. Although overall evaluative ratings did not differ significantly among the three treatments, respondents who were exposed to the Excellent default rated the instructor significantly more favorably than did respondents exposed to either the Good default or the Poor default. Respondents in the Excellent default treatment also used fewer keystrokes in completing the evaluation and were significantly more likely to accept the default value than were respondents in the other two default treatments. Order of presentation and contiguity of items did not influence ratings significantly, regardless of the default employed.