Performance-feedback

Abstract

Feedback plays a critical role in shaping beliefs, guiding decisions, and improving performance. We conduct an online experiment to study the nature and effectiveness of qualitative feedback. Although qualitative feedback is widely used, it has received little attention in experimental economics, where the focus has been primarily on quantitative feedback. Our design captures the full performance-feedback sequence: participants complete an essay-writing task, assess their performance, receive feedback from an evaluator, and then update their beliefs and make choices. Despite the presence of an upwards kindness bias in how feedback is given, we find that qualitative feedback is effective: beliefs are updated appropriately. We find no difference in how feedback is given to men and women. We identify two channels through which feedback influences decisions: a belief-updating channel and an encouragement channel. Women respond to both, while men are less responsive to encouragement. The more concrete feedback is, the more useful.