In various embodiments, a subjective modeling engine mitigates inaccuracies in subjective content assessments. The subjective modeling engine generates a model that includes the subjective content assessments in addition to parameters for subjective scores and subjective factors. The subjective modeling engine initializes the parameters and then performs optimization operations that increase the likelihood that the optimized subjective scores compensate for the optimized subjective factors. Advantageously, because the subjective modeling engine jointly optimizes the subjective scores and the subjective factors, the optimized subjective scores provide unbiased and consistent digital content assessments.