Audience members of talent shows are most likely to vote for the last performer on a talent show, a new Australian study has found.
QUT researchers Dr Lionel Page and Dr Katie Page conducted a study of 1522 performances over 165 American Idol shows across countries including Australia, the UK, Canada and the United States.
They found that even after accounting for a contestant's good looks, err we mean talent, those who performed later in the show had an advantage over others.
"We found that the order contestants performed mattered," Dr Katie Page said. "It's much better to go last. The later a contestant performs in a show, the more likely they are to not be in the bottom two in the following round."
The study, conducted on episodes from 2003 to 2007, also found that contestants who performed first were favoured over those who went second or third — which were found to be the worst positions to perform.
"It's a very significant effect. In the earlier rounds it's particularly strong because there aren't any favourite contestants yet.
"As the show progresses, the favourite contestants are likely to be safe regardless of the order they perform in. But for lower candidates, performing last can make a big difference."
Dr Page said the pair came up with the idea for the study after watching the popular television series.
"We wanted to know whether or not there are any biases and, as it turns out, there are," she said.
"It's not a phenomenon specific to America or Australia. It happens in every country with an Idol series."
With a new year of Aussie talent shows upon us (excited, much?), do you think you'll be bias towards the last performer?
FACE-OFF: Who do you think is the hottest rocker dude?
Related video: Guy Sebastian grills contestant on X Factor.
