Evaluators who want to avoid appearing prejudiced may overcorrect and give women inflated performance feedback, new research indicates, which is a practice that could ultimately hinder their ability to improve and advance.

A Washington State University-led research team investigated the connection between overly positive performance reviews and "protective paternalism," the belief that women need to be handled carefully and shielded from harm.

While it may be well-intentioned, evaluating women this way could hold them back by causing them to miss growth opportunities that might otherwise advance their careers, said Leah Sheppard, lead author of the research published in the Journal of Business and Psychology.

"If women don't get honest feedback, they're only going to fall further behind. That's the clear, negative outcome," said Sheppard, a WSU Carson College of Business researcher. "It's never going to be the right thing, or even the kind thing to do, ultimately, to spare somebody from the obvious areas in which they need to improve."

Previous research has found that reviewers tend to tell "gendered white lies" and inflate the feedback they give to women. To better understand this tendency, Sheppard and colleagues at Colorado State University first looked to see if the inflation was apparent in examples of real-world reviews.

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