Even expert judges can be swayed by the order in which they taste. A study of The Great British Bake Off found that judges favor the first dish tasted in the show’s blind technical challenge.
The research, by Maira Emy Reimão, Rachel Sabbadini and Eric Rego of Villanova University, was published online in the economics journal Kyklos on January 19, 2025.
A natural experiment in a tent
Psychologists call this serial position bias: items at the beginning or end of a sequence get judged differently from those in the middle. A preference for the first item is a primacy effect, and a preference for the last is a recency effect.
The authors saw the popular amateur baking show as a useful test. In the technical challenge, judges taste and rank the contestants’ bakes without knowing who made which one.
First place for the first plate
The judges consistently favored the first dish they tasted. The pattern held not only for the British version of the show but also for other English-speaking versions.
The researchers found no evidence of a recency effect. Bakes tasted last did not receive any special boost.
The judges in the show are experts with no money riding on the outcome. The authors argue that this matters well beyond the tent: expert assessments are regularly used in markets, and their results indicate those assessments are vulnerable to bias even without financial incentives.
Study Details:
- Title: Serial Position Bias Among Experts: Evidence From a Cooking Competition Show
- Authors: Maira Emy Reimão, Rachel Sabbadini, Eric Rego
- Journal: Kyklos
- Publication Date: January 19, 2025
- DOI: 10.1111/kykl.12436