We present evidence of first impression bias among finance professionals in the field. Equity analysts' forecasts …, target prices, and recommendations suffer from first impression bias. If a firm performs particularly well (poorly) in the … negativity bias, we find that negative first impressions have a stronger effect than positive ones. The market adjusts for …

future. In addition, we draw on some contemporary measures of forecast quality (prediction-realization diagram, test of …

forecasts is found to be correlated with indicators of bias in a manner consistent with investors discounting optimistic …

This paper provides evidence of confirmation bias by sell-side analysts in their earnings forecasts. We show that … analysts tend to put higher weight on public information when the current forecast consensus is more consistent with their … earlier, or facing less dispersion in peer forecasts, tend to be more subject to confirmation bias, consistent with some of …

distorted on average. In the first 90 days after an IPO, this relative forecast bias even increases to 63 percentage points and …, 2009. Before this regulatory reform, the optimistic bias in post-IPO earnings forecasts is highly comparable across … for fiscal years further away from the forecast release date …