The success of the biased feedback manipulation (Han & Dobbins, 2008) across experiments demonstrates its generalizability to social feedback sources. We also showed that feedback from different kinds of sources shifts criteria toward strictness or leniency over time, with those receiving feedback from a reliable and high-achieving social source becoming stricter, and thosewith feedback froma lower-achieving social or a nonsocial source becoming lax. Finally, we showed that dispelling belief in the high-achieving person providing feedback
reduced the tendency to become stricter and the biased feedback manipulation’s efficacy. Our findings may have
important implications for real-world situations. Optimal decision criteria can vary by social situation. Our findings suggest that the characteristics of who teaches othersmight inhibit or enhance the production of desired behaviors from those being taught. Our results also suggest that disrupting belief in the different characteristics of the person providing feedback (e.g., someone who seems believable but ultimately is not) may reduce the efficacy of training.