Jennifer R. OverbeckUniversity of Melbourne | MSD · Melbourne Business School
Jennifer R. Overbeck
PhD
About
32
Publications
22,979
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,676
Citations
Introduction
I'm interested in social hierarchies--how people acquire and use power and status, how power and status affect our psychology, and how we actively participate in creating and maintaining hierarchies.
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
August 2001 - July 2003
August 1996 - May 2001
June 2003 - May 2012
Publications
Publications (32)
The functionalist perspective of status suggests that, to attain status, individuals need to be socially engaging and contribute to a group. In contrast, the signaling perspective of status indicates that people often perceive a lack of social engagement as a status cue and thus confer status on someone who is socially disengaging. Integrating thes...
We examined whether people can accurately judge the experienced power, dominance, and prestige of others based on short texts, and what linguistic cues are related to these hierarchy-related variables. Past research suggests that personality is reflected in language, but hierarchy-another important feature in human relationships-has not been fully...
Can theories of power be used to explain differences in the linguistic styles of Donald Trump and Joe Biden? We argue that the two candidates possess and use different forms of power—and that this is associated with typical language patterns. Based on their personal history, news reports, and empirical studies, we expect that Trump’s approach to po...
Though we typically think that power is desirable, individuals will sometimes avoid power. One explanation for this behavior is some individuals are averse to the responsibility associated with power and will therefore avoid positions of power. However, people may also avoid power because they perceive it as being inherently negative. This is suppo...
Introduction: Group members influence one another’s thinking in virtually every context, yet little research addresses how different combinations of experience, expertise, and power affect group dynamics and outcomes. Combining theory on social hierarchy and group decision-making, we offer a more comprehensive perspective. Method: Participants (N =...
We examine the previously unstudied effects of silent pauses in bilateral negotiations. Two theoretical perspectives are tested—(a) an internal reflection perspective, whereby silence leads to a deliberative mindset, which, in turn, prompts value creation, and (b) a social perception perspective, whereby silence leads to intimidation and value clai...
We examine the previously unstudied effects of silent pauses in bilateral negotiations. Two theoretical perspectives are tested—(1) an internal reflection perspective, whereby silence leads to a deliberative mindset, which in turn prompts value creation, and (2) a social perception perspective, whereby silence leads to intimidation and value claimi...
This research examines the benefits of being silent in negotiation. Social psychology research has focused on negative consequences of being silent in social interaction. However, psychoanalysis and communication research suggests looking at intrapersonal benefits of using silence while interacting with others. We propose that having periods of sil...
Conventional accounts of status conferral focus on candidates’ competence and willingness to contribute to a group. We propose that “competence” is just one valued individual attribute that can lead to high status, and that willingness to contribute reflects one’s social orientation, a different kind of status-conferral cue. We challenge and extend...
We argue that powerful people tend to engage in social projection. Specifically, they self-anchor: They use the self as a reference point when judging others' internal states. In Study 1, which used a reaction-time paradigm, powerful people used their own traits as a reference when assessing the traits of group members, classifying group descriptor...
By integrating the literatures on implicit leadership and the social functions of discrete emotions, we develop and test a theoretical model of emotion expression and leadership categorizations. Specifically, we examine the influence of 2 socio-comparative emotions-compassion and contempt-on assessments of leadership made both in 1st impression con...
A deeply entrenched status hierarchy in the United States classifies African Americans as lower status than Caucasians. Concurrently, African Americans face marketplace discrimination; they are treated as inferior and poor. Because having money and spending money signify status, we explored whether African Americans might elevate their willingness...
In two experiments, we investigate how individuals' levels of power and status interact to determine how they are perceived by others. We find that power and status have similar, positive, effects on judged dominance. We also find that power has a negative effect on perceived warmth, but status moderates this “power penalty”: high power without sta...
Purpose – Although extensive research shows that power affects negotiator performance, few efforts have been made to investigate how status conflict among negotiators affects negotiation. This chapter addresses this limitation and explores the question that when groups experience status conflict while simultaneously conducting negotiations, how thi...
Research has emphasized the rewards and benefits associated with power. However, in addition to affording rewards and benefits, power introduces a number of costs that have been largely overlooked. In particular, we posit that the expectations, constraints, and internal states that are fostered by power can make it difficult to subjectively satisfy...
We examine how emotion (anger and happiness) affects value claiming and creation in a dyadic negotiation between parties with unequal power. Using a new statistical technique that analyzes individual data while controlling for dyad-level dependence, we demonstrate that anger is helpful for powerful negotiators. They feel more focused and assertive,...
Prior research has demonstrated the phenomenon of stereotype reactance, whereby men and women behave in contrast to gender stereotypes, when those stereotypes are activated explicitly (Kray, Thompson, & Galinsky, 2001). The authors propose and present an experiment demonstrating a new mechanism for stereotype reactance—namely, impression motivation...
How do people respond to status challenges? We suggest that responses depend on the relative status and genders of challenger and target; in particular, these variables affect appraisals about the status challenge (operationally defined as an act of incivility) and likely outcomes of various responses, and those appraisals proximately determine res...
It is popularly believed that powerful people enjoy a nearly-absolute lack of constraints, and that powerless people suffer under overwhelming constraints; in fact, such differences largely define the social categories of 'powerful person' and 'powerless person.' This association of power-related social categories and constraint constitutes a stere...
We argue that the effect of power on social attention is a function of flexible, instrumental information processing that allows the high power perceiver to attain situation specific goals using whatever means are available, including attention. Study 1 assigned powerful participants to more “people-centered” or more “product-centered” goals, and f...
Social and task groups need a few high-status members who can be leaders and trend setters, and many more lower-status members who can follow and contribute work without challenging the group's direction (Caporael (1997). Personality and Social Psychology Review, 1, 276–298; Caporael & Baron (1997). In: J. Simpson, & D. Kenrick (Eds), Evolutionary...
Social identity theory typically emphasizes how low status group members resist and challenge imputations of inferiority (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), whereas system justification theory emphasizes the tendency to accept and justify status hierarchies (Jost & Banaji, 1994). On the theoretical assumption that responses to ingroup inferiority would vary a...
To examine whether powerful people fail to individuate the less powerful, the authors assigned participants to either a high-power or low-power role for a computer E-mail role play. In 3 studies, participants in the high-power role made decisions and determined the outcomes of interactions; low-power role players had no power and relied on high-pow...
Questions
Question (1)
Hello--
Our research team has had difficulty recruiting enough Indian respondents via M-Turk and wonder if any India-based academics might be able to help us by sharing our study URL with your students. At this point, we are just hoping for your kind assistance, but perhaps in the future we can look for opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration. The study takes about 30 minutes and we will compensate respondents through a prize drawing. Please contact me if you might be able to help--thanks!
Jennifer Overbeck
Associate Professor, Melbourne Business School Associate Editor, Group Decision & Negotiation
2018 PDW Chair, AOM Conflict Management Division
200 Leicester St. • Carlton, VIC 3053 • Australia
Tel. +61 3 9349 8284 • j.overbeck@mbs.edu
