Did you know that human decision-making is not as objective as we’d like to believe? A study published in The American Economic Review revealed that candidates who are evaluated after exceptionally strong applicants are 26% less likely to be selected, despite their qualifications.
According to a Deloitte Report, 83% of the people categorise the biases they have witnessed in the workplace to be subtle or indirect, often unconscious. One such unconscious psychological phenomenon is known as the Contrast Effect. It quietly influences recruitment decisions, often leading to missed opportunities and unconscious biases in hiring.
What Is the Contrast Effect?
The Contrast Effect is a cognitive bias where judgments are influenced by comparisons. People compare two things and judge them posing one as the standard to the other in different aspects instead of on their own merits.
Whether it’s comparing resumes or conducting interviews, the Contrast Effect can change and manipulate perceptions, causing even distorted perception of the things being compared like making them seem more or less appealing than they actually are. Thus, it is very necessary for hiring managers and the employees to understand this effect and therefore analyse its impact and derive possible navigational strategies through it.
Here are some examples of contrast effect:
- Comparing iPhones: The difference in contrast between the first iPhone and the most recent iPhone is obvious, including the differences in hardware and software capabilities.
- Comparing rooms at a bed and breakfast: If a couple sees the cheapest room first, the contrast effect will make it look like the best deal.
- Comparing meeting participants: If a manager only remembers a participant who is always actively involved, and not a participant who is quiet but attentive, the manager is rating them based on their communication style.
- Comparing job candidates: If a hiring manager has already determined that one candidate is ideal, and then interviews another candidate who is more qualified than the first, the second candidate's qualifications may be elevated.
Contrast effects can also occur when people judge the behaviour and attitudes of others relative to their own. For example, people may change their judgement of others to affirm their own self-worth.
What is the Contrast Effect in Recruitment?
The Contrast Effect, also sometimes known as the assimilation effect or successive contrast, refers to the tendency to judge something relative to what came before it, rather than evaluating it independently. In recruitment, this means that a candidate's perceived competence or fit can be influenced by how they compare to others evaluated just before or after them.
Example: Imagine interviewing two candidates back-to-back. The first candidate is exceptionally well spoken, while the second is average. While the second candidate might meet all qualifications, they could seem less impressive due to the direct comparison, even if they are objectively competent.
👉 For a deeper dive into related biases that impact hiring, explore Examples of Unfair Hiring Practices and How to Avoid Them?
How the Contrast Effect Impacts Recruitment
1. Resume Screening Bias
When recruiters review a stack of resumes, a standout resume can unintentionally lower their perception of the following ones, regardless of their actual merit.
Example: If one resume showcases a candidate with Ivy League credentials, the next resume from a candidate with a solid yet less prestigious background may appear less qualified in comparison, even if they possess all the required skills. The second person may have an even better percentile, but he would already appear less impressive.
2. Interview Bias
In interviews, the Contrast Effect can make average candidates seem exceptional if preceded by a weak candidate- or unimpressive if their previous candidate was extraordinary.
Example: An average employee with regular conversational skills if interviewed after a nervous and underprepared candidate might seem better suited in a client- facing role simply because of the comparison.
3. Performance Evaluation Bias
Contrast effects can also occur in performance evaluations when an employee’s achievements are compared to those of a high performer, rather than being assessed on their individual merit. According to a report by Harvard Business Review, 62% of hiring managers admit that prior candidates influence their evaluation of subsequent ones, often unconsciously.
Benefits of Understanding the Contrast Effect
- Improved Fairness in Recruitment: Recognizing the Contrast Effect allows organizations to ensure that candidates are evaluated based on their individual qualifications rather than comparisons, promoting a fair hiring process.
- Broader Talent Acquisition: By mitigating the impact of the Contrast Effect, companies can avoid overlooking competent candidates who follow exceptional ones, thereby expanding the pool of potential hires.
- Reduced Unconscious Bias: Understanding this effect helps recruiters and hiring managers be more aware of how their judgments may be influenced by comparisons, leading to more objective and unbiased decision-making.
- Enhanced Employee Retention: A fair and transparent recruitment process not only helps in acquiring the right talent but also increases job satisfaction, reducing turnover rates as employees feel valued and appreciated for their unique skills and contributions.
👉 Explore more about improving hiring fairness through skill-based assessments.
Types of Contrast Effects in Recruitment
1. Positive Contrast Effect
This occurs when a weaker candidate precedes a stronger one, making the latter one seem exceptionally impressive—possibly more so than they would appear individually.
Example:
Imagine a recruiter begins an interview with a candidate who is underprepared, he struggles to sort his thoughts into words and is barely aligned to the job requirements. On the other hand, the next candidate walks in, confidently and dressed well and with a resume that ticks most of the boxes. Because of the sharpness in his body language, now, even if the second candidate has average qualifications, their performance might feel exceptional simply because they followed someone who performed poorly.
Why It Happens:
The sharp contrast highlights the strengths of the stronger candidate, enlarging their skillset by perception.
2. Negative Contrast Effect
In this case, totally opposite to the previous one, a particularly strong candidate overshadows the next candidate, making the latter appear less capable—even when their qualifications are solid.
Example:
Picture this scenario- A candidate with an extraordinary track record—a software engineer who has developed a groundbreaking app that gained thousands of users—presents their portfolio. Their energy, achievements, and innovative approach captivate the panel.
Following them, another candidate presents. They are well-qualified, experienced, and have an impressive project history, but their accomplishments feel less impressive in direct comparison. The recruiters might unconsciously downplay their strengths due to the heightened impression and standard set by the first candidate.
Why It Happens:
The earlier candidate sets a high standard because of which, the next candidates, despite better qualifications, may not be able to match the impression of the previous candidate to the recruiters.
3. Temporal Contrast Effect
This effect arises when candidates are evaluated over a prolonged period of time, such as when interviews are spread across several days or weeks. The human brain naturally distorts memory over time, potentially leading to uneven evaluations.
Example:
Suppose a recruiter conducts interviews over two weeks. On the first day, they interview a candidate who delivers an excellent presentation and innovative ideas.
Days later, they meet another candidate who is equally impressive but is judged less favourably because the initial excitement has faded, or the details of the earlier interview are recalled more positively.
Similarly, a good candidate interviewed weeks ago might seem better in memory compared to a recent average-performing candidate.
Why It Happens:
Memory is often fading and ever changing and impressions formed over time are influenced by a mix of recency bias, nostalgia, and overall gaps in recall.
How to Address Contrast Effects?
Utilize Skill-Based Assessments
Skill assessments provide objective data that recruiters can use to evaluate candidates’ abilities. These assessments are designed to measure specific competencies directly, such as coding challenges, technical knowledge tests, and practical problem-solving skills. Platforms like WeCP allow recruiters to conduct these assessments, ensuring decisions are based on real capabilities rather than subjective impressions.
By using platforms with robust skill assessment tools, recruiters can focus on each candidate’s potential to perform the job rather than how they compare to others evaluated earlier in the process.
Blind Resume
For resume reviews, remove identifying information such as names, educational institutions, and prior employers from resumes. This method helps recruiters focus on the actual content of the resume, such as skills, experiences, and qualifications, rather than making comparisons based on irrelevant personal details.
By stripping away identifiers, recruiters can evaluate candidates based on their qualifications and experiences alone, minimizing the influence of biases related to past affiliations, educational backgrounds, and personal demographics.
Use Standardized Scoring Systems
Establish specific criteria and a scoring rubric to evaluate candidates independently. This approach helps to minimize the influence of comparisons between candidates. For instance, when assessing communication skills, teamwork, and technical knowledge, recruiters should have a standardized set of benchmarks that all candidates are measured against.
By applying this rubric, recruiters can objectively rate each candidate’s communication skills, teamwork, and technical knowledge without being influenced by the qualities of previous candidates. This ensures that each candidate is evaluated on their own merits rather than relative to others.
Take Immediate Notes
Immediately after each interview, note down what about a candidate impressed you. Record any observations and scores right away to capture real-time insights without relying on memory. This practice prevents the fading of details over time and helps to avoid comparisons that might be influenced by recency bias.
Taking immediate notes helps recruiters accurately assess each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses based on the interview alone, without the distortion caused by recent comparisons.
Compare Scores, Not Impressions:
When making final hiring decisions, it is essential to concentrate on the cumulative scores across all criteria rather than gut feelings or personal impressions about how one candidate "felt" compared to another. This approach allows recruiters to make decisions based on objective data rather than subjective biases.
By relying on a standardized scoring system, recruiters can minimize the influence of the contrast effect, ensuring that each candidate’s evaluation is based on their individual qualifications rather than comparisons with other candidates.
Practice Awareness Training:
Conduct regular training sessions to raise awareness about unconscious biases, including the contrast effect. Organizations with well-trained hiring teams have been shown to reduce bias-related hiring errors by 33% (Society for Human Resource Management). These sessions should cover the impact of unconscious biases on decision-making and provide strategies to counteract them effectively.
Teach recruiters how to identify and address the contrast effect during interviews and evaluations, emphasizing the importance of focusing on individual candidate strengths and weaknesses rather than comparisons.
By integrating these strategies into the recruitment process, organizations can reduce the impact of the contrast effect, making hiring decisions more equitable and focused on candidates’ individual merits. This approach not only enhances the fairness of the hiring process but also helps to build a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
Conclusion
Addressing the Contrast Effect not only improves recruitment but also helps build a more diverse and equitable workplace. A fair hiring process can make sure that every candidate is evaluated on their own merit, free from the influence of unconscious bias.
The Contrast Effect, while subtle, can have significant implications for recruitment. By understanding and addressing this bias, organizations can unlock the potential of candidates who might otherwise go unnoticed.
According to the Deloitte Workplace report, 68% said that witnessing or experiencing bias had a negative impact on their productivity.
Therefore, when employees see that hiring decisions are made transparently and equally, trust in the organization grows. This trust builds higher engagement, a sense of belonging along with brand reputation for the organisation. In the long run, fairness in recruitment isn’t just good ethics—it’s smart business.
By using tools like structured interviews, blind hiring, and platforms like WeCP enables companies to focus on what truly matters: skills, potential, and cultural fit.
Ready to take the next step in fair hiring? Explore how WeCP can transform your recruitment process with skill-based assessments and data-driven tools.
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