Narrative data yield rich detail, insight, and information, but the personal and situational characteristics of coders (called value inertia and cognitive limitation biases) can affect data reduction. The effects of coder exposure to expected project outcomes and the level of coder research methodology sophistication were investigated. Coders, considered either sophisticated or naive in research methodology, were exposed to positive, ambiguous, or negative expected project outcomes. The coders were then trained and given 25 open-ended interview response sets to reduce or categorize. The response sets were categorized into previously established positive, negative, and ambiguous statement-type, content-code categories using a written protocol. The reliability of coders was investigated by computing generalizability (reliability) coefficients. Generalizability coefficients of .92 were found, regardless of level of exposure to expected project outcomes. This indicates that coders were able to code the same statements in the same way and is an indication of the coders' ability to reproduce the results. Results of this study also indicate that evaluators should use sophisticated coders for narrative data reduction, given that option. Sophisticated coders appear more resistant to the effect of exposure to expected project outcomes. (Author/BW)