She Heard the Other Judges’ Opinions at a Charity Bake-Off — Then Changed Her Vote at the Last Minute
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Judges are usually expected to make fair and independent decisions.
The following story involves a woman who volunteered to judge a charity baking contest and initially had a clear favorite.
But before the scores were submitted, she heard other judges talk about their opinions and choices.
At the last minute, she decided to make changes to her final vote which created an uncomfortable situation.
Read the full story below for all the details.
AITA for changing my answer that I was going to give after hearing everyone else’s?
I joined a local charity fundraiser where volunteers judged a baking contest.
Before the tasting started, we were all reminded to score each dessert independently and not discuss them until the end.
After trying everything, I had one dessert as my clear favorite and wrote my scores on a notepad.
But we hadn’t turned them in yet.
This woman heard the opinions of other judges and decided to change her scores.
While we were waiting, a few of the other judges started talking anyway and absolutely trashed the dessert I’d picked.
They pointed out a couple of things I hadn’t even considered.
After thinking about it, I changed my scores before handing them in.
That ended up changing the final results by one point.
Now, people were saying she should have stuck with her original score.
When the organizer found out I’d changed my scores after hearing other opinions, they said I should’ve stuck with my original judgment.
Because the whole point was independent scoring.
A few people agreed and said I’d unintentionally made the judging less fair.
Others said I was allowed to reconsider because nobody forced me to change my mind and better arguments are supposed to make people rethink things.
I honestly don’t know if I crossed a line or if I just made a more informed decision. AITA?
I can understand why OP reconsidered after hearing arguments she genuinely had not considered before.
However, since the judges were specifically instructed to score independently, changing the scores afterward did undermine the process a little bit.
If you were in her shoes, would you have done it differently? Let’s find out what others have to say about this.
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This user shares their personal thoughts.
I get both sides, says this one.
This one makes a valid point.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who is confronted by his high school bully and decides to steal his Nintendo DS.
Here are a few questions.
Finally, people are calling OP out.
Peer pressure can sometimes influence us more than we realize.
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