No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Name-calling and compliance
Abstract
Results of 2 experiments with a total of 221 housewives support the prediction that name-calling, by conveying a negative judgment, would enhance Ss' willingness to comply and their actual compliance with a later request for help. Negative names produced more compliance behavior than positive names. Also, whether or not the negative name was related to the help request made no difference in the percentage of Ss who agreed to comply. Exp II also demonstrated that it was the name's impugnment of the S's general character and not its impugnment of a specific behavior that was needed to increase later compliance. Implications for experiments using negative judgments as independent variable manipulations and for the relationship between self-esteem and consistency processes are discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Kraut [10] and Steele [14] examined the labeling construct experimentally, although not strictly within an attribution framework. Kraut labeled homemakers as either "charitable" or "uncharitable" after a fundraising solicitation. ...
... Steele [14] replicated this experiment using a telephone manipulation. His results substantiate those of Kraut's "charitable" label; in addition, even the "uncharitable" label tended to increase subsequent contributions. ...
... Research findings [10,14] suggestthat an individual labeled as charitable may begin thinking of himself as a more charitable person. Congruent behavior should follow, as a "charitable person" should be more sensitive to charitable appeals, should be more likely to note and recall them, and should be more likely to act upon them. ...
Two common assumptions about advertising-selling interactions are challenged by a field experiment. The generality of “advertising paves the way for selling” is questioned by results showing selling-before-advertising to be more effective than advertising-before-selling. “Salesmen are born not made” is questioned because the easily learned “labeling” technique markedly increased selling effectiveness and its interaction with advertising.
... The underlying mechanism of this argument is that thinking of one's own death increases self-esteem, which in turn makes people believe that they can contribute to their communities in meaningful ways. This is in line with prior research which showed that people situated in threats restore their self-esteem through altruistic behaviors (Brown and Smart 1991;Steele 1975;Soonthornchaiya, Tuicomepee, and Romano 2019). The finding that nonprofit organizations received an exceptionally large number of donations when natural or man-made disasters occurred can be explained in this sense (Newman 1998). ...
... Taken together, our findings indicate that making people think about their own deaths in disastrous situations can be a useful means of promoting intentions to help those suffering as a result of the disaster. Prior research has shown that thinking about one's own death is helpful in eliciting prosocial behaviors by increasing self-esteem (Brown and Smart 1991;Jonas et al. 2008;Steele 1975;Zaleskiewicz, Gasiorowska, and Kesebir 2015). Our findings appear to align with and further build on the findings of prior studies, such that mortality salience can strengthen the relationship between collectivism, psychological closeness, and prosocial behavior intentions. ...
Many South Koreans were traumatized by the 2014 Sewol ferry incident.
Focusing on the Sewol ferry incident, this study examined the relationship
between collectivism, psychological closeness, and prosocial behavior
intentions and further investigated how thoughts about one’s own
death moderated this association. Using a sample of South Korean
adults (N¼310), we conducted an online experiment and generated
several important findings: (a) collectivism increased psychological closeness;
(b) psychological closeness increased prosocial behavior intentions;
(c) collectivism increased prosocial behavior intentions; (d) psychological
closeness mediated the relationship between collectivism and prosocial
behavior intentions; and (e) the mediation effect of psychological closeness
on the relationship between collectivism and prosocial behavior
intentions was strong for people who thought about their own deaths.
Our research complements the terror management theory (TMT) by suggesting
that thinking about one’s own death can have a beneficial role
in eliciting a prosocial behavior. Theoretical and practical implications
are discussed. This study contributes to building a disaster-related policy
and resilient infrastructure in that it helps understanding how collectivistic
orientations and psychological closeness toward disasters play roles in
disaster preparedness and management.
... Developed out of Steele's reinterpretation of Cognitive Dissonance Theory (e.g., Steele, 1975) one of the key insights of Self-Affirmation Theory is that, when coping with psychological threats, people are not restricted to dealing with the focal or provoking threat. As well as coping by trying to reduce or eliminate the threat, or diminishing perceptions of its severity or personal relevance, they can respond by selfaffirming. ...
The present research examines the relationship between individual differences in the extent to which people report self-affirming when faced with a threat (spontaneous self-affirmation) and well-being. Across three studies (total N = 515), spontaneous self-affirmation consistently emerged as a significant linear predictor of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being outcomes, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. A self-affirmation manipulation eliminated this association for two indices of well-being, primarily by boosting the well-being scores of those lower in spontaneous self-affirmation. Furthermore, spontaneous self-affirmation was found to partially mediate associations between socioeconomic status and well-being. These findings highlight individual differences in spontaneous self-affirmation as a potentially important contributor to well-being and suggest that consideration of spontaneous self-affirmation might further our understanding of the relationship between socioeconomic status and well-being.
... According to the literature when individuals are being exposed to the threats, then they will show positive behavior, willingness to contribute in the charitable organization (Jonas et al., 2002;Ferraro et al., 2005), sports and fitness activity (Arndt et al., 2003), purchase of organic food (Mandel and Smeesters, 2008), home-made products (Nelson et al., 1997) and so on. Therefore, it has been found that attitude and behavior are substantially influenced by MS (Steele, 1975). Another role of MS is that it has ability to increase the purchase and consumption of sustainable products (Mandel and Smeesters, 2008). ...
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its effects on an individual's life have altered the consumer behavior. In the context of purchase and consumption, a shift from conventional to green purchase has been noticed. Although the factors underlying this shift were relatively unexplored, the study aimed to identify the factors that influenced a significant role in the green purchases during the outbreak and the relationship of these factors with green purchase behavior (GPB). Subsequently, this study investigates and interprets the role of fear of COVID-19 (FCV), psychological distress (PD), and mortality salience (MS) in predicting consumer's GPB. This research adopted a quantitative methodology using data collected from 432 respondents in various cities across Pakistan. Smart-PLS 3 was used to evaluate the measurement model, structural model, and multi-group analysis (MGA). Despite having the negative psychological and physical impact of the pandemic, a significant proportion of customers have switched to healthier and sustainable products. This research revealed that the FCV, PD, and MS plays a substantial role in adopting GPB. All the direct relationships were positive and significant. In addition, MS and PD partially mediate the effect of FCV on GPB. Furthermore, the MGA revealed that the infected respondents were interested in purchasing green products than uninfected respondents due to their FCV; conversely, the PD and MS were higher in uninfected individuals than infected ones. However, there is a vast literature on GPB, but little has investigated the cumulative impact of FCV, PD, and MS on GPB.
... Trump's most frequent forms of aggression on Twitter were name-calling and rumor spreading. Name-calling is often a tactic used to garner compliance from someone, especially as this kind of behavior threatens a victim's self-esteem, making them more likely to engage in behavior that prevents further attacks to that self-esteem (Steele, 1975). As most of his victims were public figures and politicians, it is plausible that name-calling was used to display power and to make others comply politically. ...
Before his permanent suspension from Twitter, former President Trump's use of Twitter to harm, harass, hurt, or embarrass individuals was well documented, with academics and mainstream news outlets referring to him as a cyberbully. The current study reports a quantitative content analysis of Trump's Tweets between 2016 and 2019 to determine whether his aggressive behavior online could be considered cyberbullying. Additionally, this study also sought to ascertain Trump's most frequently used cyberbullying tactics. The results highlight that although Trump frequently employed explicit hostility, name-calling, and rumor-mongering, his behavior on Twitter was not repetitive enough to meet the criteria that researchers often use to define cyberbullying.
... He cites a study of housewives asked to help on a community project: some were told that it was known within the community that they were not generally "cooperative" in community projects, and these women were more likely to volunteer in a followup by a completely different person in a separate encounter. When their self-perception of themselves as helpful people was threatened, the women were more likely to seek out another venue to restore their sense of self and integrity [76]. In the same vein, students who are feeling threatened in their academic environment can bolster their sense of integrity by validating aspects of themselves that are valuable to them [77]. ...
Values affirmation exercises have been implemented in many contexts to combat stereotype threat in students from marginalized populations; the exercises are intended to fortify students by prompting them to self-affirm their values in short writing activities. Within the physics education research community, the style of intervention was underlined by a positive result from the University of Colorado Boulder; researchers were able to use the intervention to minimize the achievement gap between men and women in an introductory physics course. These results inspired a replication experiment in two physics courses at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and this article provides some history and context of these interventions, describes our specific implementation, and reveals that we were unable to reproduce the positive results despite thorough attention to the details of the replication. Our findings suggest that the values affirmation exercises are not understood at a level where they should be considered a positive intervention to help marginalized populations.
... D'un côté, le sujet peut se percevoir plus négativement et se comporter en conséquence, dans la lignée des travaux conduits en sociologie sur la déviance (e.g., Becker, 1963). De l'autre côté, il peut redoubler d'efforts pour réfuter l'étiquette et restaurer son estime de soi (Kraut, 1973 ;Steele, 1975). ...
... To explain this, research suggests that negative labels could make the individual more sensitive to the consequences of being associated with negative qualities, the way he or she presents himself, and the way he or she is perceived, hence his or her self-image [8]. Steele [34], for example, showed that subjects labeled as individualistic are more likely to give some time to a charity in order to restore their self-esteem. ...
Simple instructions have been shown to robustly influence individual creativity, which is key to solve local problems. Building on social labeling theory, we examine the possibility of nudging individual’s creativity using “creative” and “not creative” labels. Study 1 showed that subjects labeled as “creative” or “not creative” performed better in a creative task than unlabeled subjects and established the moderating effect of self-perceived creativity. Among subjects scoring low on self-perceived creativity, those labeled as “creative” performed better than those labeled as “not creative”. Conversely, among subjects scoring high on self-perceived creativity, those labeled as “not creative” tend to perform better than those labeled as “creative”. Study 2 and Study 3 further explored the psychological mechanisms at play in both cases: specifically, Study 2 showed that applying a “creative” label has the ability to increase creative self-efficacy through self-perceived creativity, whereas Study 3 demonstrated that applying a “not creative” label has the ability to increase individual creativity performance through a higher involvement in the creative task.
... The core idea of self-affirmation is that people may try to cope with self-threat by affirming the self-domain that is not related to threats (Steele, 1975). One of the most important ways to affirm yourself is to explore one's core values, which in turn may lead to changes in attitudes, cognitive performance, and behavior (Wen, Butler, & Koutstaal, 2013). ...
... Feeley et al., 2017) and guilt-based explanations (Millar, 2002;O'Keefe and Figge, 1997), which would presumably still be under- pinned to some extent by some of the same factors under- lying GCS compliance, such as bullying, self-esteem and anxiety (e.g. Steele, 1975). Indeed, Carter-Sowell et al. (2008) reported that ostracised individuals are particularly susceptible to compliance on the DITF. ...
Autism and Compliance: Self report in Action
... Feeley et al., 2017) and guilt-based explanations (Millar, 2002;O'Keefe and Figge, 1997), which would presumably still be underpinned to some extent by some of the same factors underlying GCS compliance, such as bullying, self-esteem and anxiety (e.g. Steele, 1975). Indeed, Carter-Sowell et al. (2008) reported that ostracised individuals are particularly susceptible to compliance on the DITF. ...
Previous research indicates that autistic individuals are more likely to be bullied, and that they experience heightened anxiety and diminished self-esteem. These factors are known to predict heightened compliance, which is the tendency to agree with or carry out the requests and demands of others. This has a range of potentially serious consequences, particularly for an autistic person. This study utilised self-report (the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale) and behavioural measures of compliance (the door-in-the-face task) with 26 autistic and 26 typically developing adults. Participants also completed measures of early life bullying experiences, anxiety and self-esteem. Autistic participants were more compliant on both self-report and experimental tasks, and they reported more bullying experiences, higher anxiety and reduced self-esteem. Looking at both groups, bullying, anxiety and self-esteem were all correlated with self-reported compliance on the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale, yet only self-esteem was a unique predictor. None of these predictor variables related to behavioural compliance on the door in the face; nor did Gudjonsson Compliance Scale scores predict door-in-the-face performance, which may be better explained by situational and motivational factors. Findings have important implications for a range of real-life settings including requests made in the context of research, schools, the criminal justice system and the workplace.
... (Week 2) Cooper (2007) points out that the self-affirming thoughts don't need to be directly tied to the situation creating the discomfort. In one study, women who had been told they were bad drivers were more likely to volunteer for a community bake sale in an effort to restore their self-concept (Steele 1975). Similarly, Jazz was uncomfortable with her role as a voluntourist, but while she couldn't change her situation in India, she affirmed her self-concept as an ethical person by vowing to ' … differentiate myself from such "voluntourists" by sustaining meaningful work upon my return to Canada' (Week 4). ...
Why do some study abroad students improve their intercultural skills, while others revert to less sophisticated ways of making sense of cultural difference? Both intercultural competence theory and transformative learning theory attempt to explain why student intercultural learning occurs, but they only provide partial answers. Building on our previous study assessing intercultural competence in a 2015 field school in India, this article applies the concept of cognitive dissonance to explain the process behind intercultural learning. In the context of study abroad, students experience cognitive dissonance when they encounter cultural differences or similarities that confound previously held expectations about culture. Adapting Maertz, Hassan, and Magnusson’s cognitive dissonance resolution framework, we employ qualitative analysis of students’ written reflections to show how the resolution of cognitive dissonance could act as the ‘engine’ of intercultural learning.
... Research on social rejection, exclusion and ostracism also provides compelling evidence that behaving in ways that improve social acceptance is a common consequence of shame ( Williams, 2007 ). For example, in an early study, Steele (1975 ) found that being criticised led to an increased willingness to help a good cause, and Williams and Sommers (1997 ) found that female participants were more likely to work hard on a collective task after being ostracised by other group members in a laboratory setting. Even the nonverbal expression of shame appears to draw forgiveness and increase sympathy from onlookers after a social transgression, thus serving an important appeasement function ( Fessler, 2007 ;Keltner and Harker, 1998 ). ...
Shame is a social emotion, counted by some authors also as a moral emotion. It stems from the self- perception that one is viewed as unattractive by others and serves the important adaptive role of warning individuals that they may be rejected or ostracized in social relationships.
To help people deal with this threat shame is postulated to motivate them to engage in socially valued behaviours that will protect or improve their social images and in this way grant them the acceptance of others and prevent their loss of group membership. Psychology research on this emotion traditionally focused on the negative
interpersonal and psychological consequences of shame, with studies showing how it could lead to transgression, hostility or reduced empathy. More recent research has shown, however, that this emotion may also motivate people to behave in ways that promote interpersonal acceptance (e.g. striving in performance situations, engaging in reparations following wrongdoing or helping others). Notwithstanding, the extent to which shame will promote one type of behaviour or another is dependent upon individual differences.
We herein review research on the role of individual differences (particularly self-esteem and attachment style) in predicting shame induced behaviour and discuss how shame and other unpleasant emotions can lead to behaviour that is morally accepted or even applauded.
... Research on social rejection, exclusion and ostracism also provides compelling evidence that behaving in ways that improve social acceptance is a common consequence of shame ( Williams, 2007 ). For example, in an early study, Steele (1975 ) found that being criticised led to an increased willingness to help a good cause, and Williams and Sommers (1997 ) found that female participants were more likely to work hard on a collective task after being ostracised by other group members in a laboratory setting. Even the nonverbal expression of shame appears to draw forgiveness and increase sympathy from onlookers after a social transgression, thus serving an important appeasement function ( Fessler, 2007 ;Keltner and Harker, 1998 ). ...
... The effect goes both ways: when primed by writing a negative story about themselves, people are more likely to donate to charity as opposed to after writing a positive or neutral story (Sachdeva et al., 2009). Similarly, studies in impression management have shown effects such as generalized image repair (Baumeister, 1982) which demonstrate that being alerted to one's negative reputation in a community elicits more instances of prosocial behavior (Steele, 1975). ...
We hypothesize that when honesty is not motivated by selfish goals, it reveals social preferences that have evolved for convincing strategically vigilant partners that one is a person worth cooperating with. In particular, we explain how the patterns of dishonest behavior observed in recent experiments can be motivated by preferences for social and self-esteem. These preferences have evolved because they are adaptive in an environment where it is advantageous to be selected as a partner by others and where these others are strategically vigilant: they efficiently evaluate the expected benefit of cooperating with specific partners and attend to their intentions.We specify the adaptive value of strategic vigilance and preferences for social and self-esteem. We argue that evolved preferences for social and self-esteem are satisfied by applying mechanisms of strategic vigilance to one’s own behavior.We further argue that such cognitive processes obviate the need for the evolution of preferences for fairness and social norm compliance
... The threat, being physically active, is attacked by drawing on one's cognitive ability (i.e., independently figuring out what adaptations need to be made), which is not directly relevant to one's physical ability yet is a resource of selfintegrity that protects one's self-image and value as a person. It is believed that individuals who experience threats to their self-regard, similar to the example above, want to affirm their worth to others by overcoming these threats (Steele, 1975; Tate & Ellis, 1997). This is an ongoing process of self-definition and validation in various environments (Haggard & Williams, 1992; Kelly, 1987). ...
Individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) often engage in sedentary lifestyles that have the tendency to increase the onset of secondary health conditions. Advancements in medicine, assistive technology, and recreational therapy (RT) treatment provide opportunities for engagement in an active lifestyle, yet most individuals with SCI continue to be inactive. Various studies have examined active living with the general population, but very few have explored this concept among the SCI population. The purpose of this study was to determine if individuals with SCI who participate in a RT self-efficacy and self-affirmation based intervention increase active living. This single-subject multiple baseline study examined individuals with SCI participating in recreation activities with peers who had similar interests. Results demonstrated that participants increased active living when comparing intervention phase to baseline. Developing theoretically-based interventions that focus on recreation interests rather than disability type may play a role in decreasing sedentary lifestyles.
... Ook Gilbert en Andrews (1998) stellen dat mensen in reactie op schaamte zullen proberen hun zelfbeeld en sociale reputatie te herstellen. Zij geven als voorbeeld het vertonen van extra behulpzaam gedrag, bijvoorbeeld door het steunen van een goed doel (Steele, 1975). Het vergeven van jezelf en het geloof in de vergevingsgezindheid van anderen kan deel uitmaken van het herstel van schaamte (Gilbert & Andrews, 1998). ...
... 8 Despite the apparent scarcity of empirical findings in the area of selfdisconfirming effects, the usefulness of understanding and managing these effects in organizational life has been implied by several researchers. For instance , Brockner (1988) found that individuals who received negative feedback often improved their performance, and Steele (1975) suggested that individuals tend to change their behavior in response to negative social evaluations so as to overcome a negative social label. ...
This study focuses on antecedents of individuals’ tendency to engage in less-than-rational decision-making that is based on the use of biases, heuristics, and other judgmental shortcuts. The context of this study is the interpersonal interaction between an interviewer and an interviewee that occurs during the employment interview. The study analyzes the interviewers’ propensity to use one specific type of heuristics – primacy effect – and to subsequently engage in higher or lower levels of confirmatory behaviors toward their interviewees. Confirmatory behaviors include interviewers’ behaviors, during the interpersonal interaction with the interviewees, intended to lead those interviewers to confirm their first impressions formed about the interviewees at the beginning of the interaction (i.e., employment interview). This study also explores the tendency of the interviewees to engage in behavioral confirmation toward their interviewers, by taking cues form their interviewers and matching or imitating the behaviors of their interviewers.
Results provide moderate support for the hypotheses: confirmatory behavior was found to be related to one specific motivational trait – need for cognition – and to the extremity of first impressions formed about interviewees. In addition, the analysis of the research question indicated that interviewees tend to engage in behavioral confirmation toward their interviewers. This study has both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, it opens a new direction in the employment interview research, which searches to identify links between individual characteristics and their decision-making strategies and outcomes. Practically, it helps improve interview training and design.
... Ainsi, favoriser la production dinférences auto-attributives revient à aider lindividu à étiqueter son comportement préparatoire. Dans les recherches sur létiquetage (Kraut, 1973;Steele, 1975;Swinyard et Ray, 1979;Goldman, Seever et Seever, 1982;Goldman, Kiyohara et Pfannensteil, 1985;Joule, Tamboni et Tafani, 2000;Fointiat, Caillaud et Martinie, 2004;Fointiat, 2006), la procédure est sensiblement la même: une fois que le participant a réalisé le comportement-préparatoire, lexpérimentateur lui délivre un feed-back avant de proposer le comportement-cible. La nature de ce feed-back varie dune recherche à lautre: charitable versus pas charitable (Kraut, 1973, Swinyard et Ray, 1979, serviable versus pas serviable (Goldman et al. 1982;Goldman et al., 1985;Joule et al., 2000). ...
... A great deal of evidence supports this hypothesis. In a series of experiments, Steele and his colleagues have shown affirming the self-concept reduces behaviors typically undertaken to reduce dissonance (Liu & Steele, 1986;Steele, 1975;Steele & Liu, 1981Steele, Spencer, & Lynch, 1993). For example, Steele and Liu (1983) had study participants write a counterattitudinal essay advocating reduced funding for disabled student services. ...
An experiment tested whether a positive experience (the endorsement and recall of one's past acts of kindness) would reduce biased processing of self-relevant health-risk information. Women college students (N = 66) who reported high or low levels of daily caffeine use were exposed to both risk-confirming and risk-disconfirming information about the link between caffeine consumption and fibrocystic breast disease (FBD). Participants were randomly assigned to complete an affirmation of their kindness via questionnaire or to a no-affirmation condition. Results indicated that the affirmation manipulation made frequent caffeine drinkers more open, less biased processors of risk-related information. Relative to frequent caffeine drinkers who did not affirm their kindness, frequent caffeine drinkers in the affirmation condition oriented more quickly to the risk-confirming information, rated the risk-confirming information as more convincing than the risk-disconfirming information, and recalled less risk-disconfirming information at a 1-week follow-up. They also reported greater perceived personal control over reducing their level of caffeine consumption. Although frequent caffeine drinkers in the affirmation condition initially reported lower intentions to reduce their caffeine consumption, there was no evidence that they were less likely to decrease their caffeine consumption at the follow-up. The possibility that positive beliefs and experiences function as self-regulatory resources among people confronting threats to health and well-being is discussed.
... Other research has shown that people repair their self-esteem after threats by engaging in helpful behavior. For example, Steele (1975) found that after being criticized for their poor driving ability, women were more likely to promise to help out with a community project. Similarly, Brown and Smart (1991) found that following a recent failure, people with high selfesteem rated themselves higher on traits that exemplified their kindness and generosity and spent more time helping a research assistant. ...
From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to express culturally prescribed prosocial attitudes and engage in culturally prescribed prosocial behaviors. Two studies supported these hypotheses. In Study 1, people were interviewed in close proximity to a funeral home or several blocks away and were asked to indicate their attitudes toward two charities they deemed important. Those who were interviewed in front of the funeral home reported more favorability toward these charities than those who were interviewed several blocks away. In Study 2, the authors found that following mortality salience, people gave more money to a charity supporting an American cause than people who had been exposed to an aversive control topic. However, mortality salience had no effect on the amount of money given to a foreign cause. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.
... For example, in his classic experiment, Steele (1975) called people over the phone and insulted them, saying that they were the type of person unlikely to give to charity. Several weeks later, those insulted were significantly more likely to give to a charity when called by an independent group. ...
This article reviews social cognitive research suggesting that people shape their beliefs and judgments of the social world to maintain sacrosanct beliefs of the self as a capable, lovable, and moral individual. This article then argues that consumer behavior might similarly be designed to bolster positive self-views and then discusses the potential role played by these self-image motives in recently documented consumer behavior phenomena (e.g., endowment, compensation, affirmation, and licensing effects). This article then articulates some questions for future research if one presumes that consumer decision making, at least in part, strives to harmonize preferences with bedrock beliefs that the self is an able and principled person.
... , women, and teenagers would vary considerably, focusing on sensitivity in the first group, math skills in the second, and maturity and self-control in the third. And for each group, the threat, the spotlight, would be felt in those situations to which their group stereotype applies, but not in other situations (Allport, 1954;Kleck & Strenta, 1980;C. M. Steele, 1975C. M. Steele, , 1997C. M. Steele & Aronson, 1995;S. Steele, 1990;Sartre, 1948). For example, a woman could feel stereotype threat in a math class, where a negative group stereotype applies, but not in an English class, where it does not apply. ...
This collection of first-person accounts from legendary social psychologists tells the stories behind the science and offers unique insight into the development of the field from the 1950s to the present. One pillar, the grandson of a slave, was inspired by Kenneth Clark. Yet when he entered his PhD program in the 1960s, he was told that race was not a variable for study. Other pillars faced first-hand a type of sexism that was hardly subtle, when women were not permitted into the faculty dining room. Still others have lived through a tremendous diversification of social psychology, not only in the United States but in Europe and Asia, that characterizes the field today. Together these stories, always witty and sometimes emotional, form a mosaic of the field as a whole – its legends, their theories and research, their relationships with one another, and their sense of where social psychology is headed.
This study examines the use of communications appeals to influence consumers to comply with conservation requests. Four compliance-gaining techniques from the social psychology literature are investigated for their efficacy in motivating user acceptance of a gasoline conservation device. The authors conclude that future research should focus on the interactions between the various compliance-gaining techniques and the specific compliance situation.
The present study was designed to replicate and extend the original research on the negative state relief model linking guilt, shame, and sympathy to prosocial behavior. Participants were 202 students from a Southern regional university in the USA. Results showed no differences between the emotion-eliciting conditions ("breaking" the researcher's computer when alone-guilt condition, "breaking" the researcher's computer when another participant is present-shame condition, or watching another participant "break" the researcher's computer-sympathy condition) and the control group (the computer did not break) with regard to prosocial behavior (agreeing to help a professor out by filling out an additional questionnaire after completion of the experiment), even when taking the personality variable of social value orientation into account.
Research into self-affirmation has almost exclusively employed experimental manipulations. In this paper we address individual differences in the tendency to respond to threats with self-affirming cognitions and distinguish this from two overlapping constructs: habitual positive self-thought and trait self-esteem. Items we designed to measure self-affirmation were represented by three first-order factors and loaded on a higher-order factor, creating the Spontaneous Self-Affirmation Measure (SSAM). The SSAM correlated moderately with self-esteem and habitual positive self-thought. In competitive analyses, the SSAM was an independent predictor of a large number of outcomes. The studies provide evidence about the correlates of individual differences in reported spontaneous self-affirmation in response to threat and the contribution made to this response by habitual positive self-thought and trait self-esteem.
Prosocial behaviour is an interdisciplinary topic, involving psychologists, philosophers, and educators. Based on experimental helping research, some moral philosophers have claimed that helping behaviour is entirely situationally determined. The dominance of situational factor experimentation gives the appearance that situational factors alone can explain helping behaviour. This meta-analysis investigated situational explanations of helping behaviour with 286 effects and 46,705 participants from experimental studies with non-manipulation control groups, and observed unilateral adult behavioural helping. Results indicated expected group differences in helping behaviour frequency among help encouraging or help discouraging experimental conditions and no-manipulation control conditions. Helping behaviour was also frequent in help discouraging and control conditions and far from universal in help encouraging conditions. Because helping occurred in control groups, situational factors cannot explain all observed helping. Because helping was not universal in help encouraging conditions, it raises the question of individual differences in responsiveness to helping cues.
Following the lead of Reingen and Bearden (1983), this study examines the effectiveness of positive social labeling, particularly in conjunction with other factors, as a means of influencing verbal and behavioral compliance in a multistage marketing survey context. Such results offer a systematic extension to the labeling literature and provide further insight into labeling's role as a practicable method of shaping and stimulating respondent behavior.
Imagine that you and a colleague have both been nominated for a prestigious, university-wide teaching award. In the end, your colleague wins the teaching award and you are crushed. If your goal is self-enhancement—to feel better about yourself—or at least to ensure that you do not feel any worse than you already do, what strategies of social comparison could you use? One possibility is that you could avoid comparing yourself with your colleague, to prevent further injury to your ego. A second possibility is that you could seek new comparisons with your colleague on the dimension of teaching ability, in an effort to convince yourself or others that you actually are the better teacher. For example, you could attend her class and see whether she can hold an audience of undergraduates as spellbound as you can. Or you could focus on your ability to nurture the creative talents of graduate students, a quality your colleague lacks. Alternatively, you could concede that your colleague is the better teacher, and you could seek out comparisons on dimensions other than teaching ability. Is she as happily married as you are? Is she as good at gardening?
In a discipline with few universally accepted principles, the proposition that people are motivated to maintain and enhance their self-esteem has achieved the rare status of an axiom. The notion that people want to think highly of themselves, behave in ways that promote self-esteem, and become distressed when their needs for self-esteem are unmet can be found in the writings of classic personality theorists (Adler, 1930; Allport, 1937; Horney, 1937; Rogers, 1959), contemporary social psychologists (Green-berg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986; Greenwald, 1980; Greenwald & Breckler, 1985; Steele, 1988; Taylor & Brown, 1988; Tesser, 1988), and clinicians (Bednar, Wells, & Peterson, 1989). The self-esteem motive has been invoked as an explanation for a wide variety of behaviors, including prejudice (Katz, 1960), self-serving attributions (Blaine & Crocker, 1993; Snyder, Stephan, & Rosenfield, 1978), reactions to evaluations (S. C. Jones, 1973), self-handicapping (E. E. Jones & Berglas, 1978), responses to counterattitudinal behavior (Steele, 1988), and self-presentation (Schlenker, 1980). Furthermore, low self-esteem has been linked to problems such as depression, alcohol abuse, suicide, and eating disorders, and high self-esteem has been implicated in good mental health (e.g., Baumeister, 1991; Bednar et al., 1989; Taylor & Brown, 1988). If previous theorists and researchers are correct in their claims, the need to protect and enhance one’s self-esteem constitutes an exceptionally pervasive and important motive.
In mixed-motive interactions, defection is the rational and common response to the defection of others. In some cases, however, group members not only cooperate in the face of defection but also compensate for the shortfalls caused by others’ defection. In one field and two lab studies, we examined when group members were willing to compensate for versus match defection using sequential dilemmas. We found that the level of identification with the broader group increased willingness to compensate for intragroup defection, even when it was personally costly. Compensating for a defecting partner’s actions, however, is not an act of unconditional cooperation: It is accompanied by a lack of trust in the errant group member and a desire to be perceived as more ethical. Cooperation by others, on the other hand, is matched independent of whether the cooperator was an in-group or out-group member. We find similar patterns of compensation and matching when the personal cost involved contributing money or effort. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This chapter deals with the compensatory strategies that are often adopted by people who can neither avoid being victims of prejudice, nor live in peace in the face of such social prejudice. In particular, two different compensation strategies have been highlighted, which are also known as the primary and secondary compensation. The basic similarities between the challenges in the path of effective functioning and prejudices are discussed in detail in the opening section of the chapter. The perceived images of a person being “heavyweight” also have an effect on other peoples' behavior toward him/her. It is also highlighted that such prejudice, in fact, complicates the situation of “heavyweight” people all the more. The personal skill levels of an individual can be subjected to prejudice because of the individual's obesity. As a compensatory strategy for bringing down the differences between situational requirements and skill levels, such stigmatized individuals often learn to function with prejudice. While compensation may help in reducing stress and improving performance, over compensation may have disastrous effects.
SYNOPSIS
This paper examines factors that influence job applicants' willingness to apply for positions in internal auditing. We predict and find evidence that job applicants are dissuaded from applying for internal audit positions. In two separate experiments involving participants at seven universities, we discover that this phenomenon is most prevalent for applicants with business experience. Experienced applicants are 20 and 33 percent less willing to apply for a position if it is labeled as “internal audit” versus “accounting” in the two experiments, respectively. In addition, we find that the only experimental condition that increases interest in applying for an internal audit position for experienced applicants occurs when the position advertises the combination of (1) a short stint in internal auditing and then a move from internal audit into a management position, and (2) work primarily related to consulting services rather than assurance services. As a potential explanation for these findings, we find evidence that participants believe other business professionals have negative stereotypes of internal auditing—which likely dissuade potential job applicants from applying to work in internal audit. The results should prove informative to practitioners, internal audit professional organizations, and business professionals concerned with high-quality corporate governance.
Data Availability: Contact the authors.
A stringent test of the self-perception explanation of the foot-in-the-door (FITD) effect was made. Time varied from 1 to 21 days between the two requests, and some conditions included a reminder of previous helping opportunities to make one's self-percept salient. Male and female heads of households (N = 586) participated. No FITD effect was obtained, and overall support for the self-perception predictions was not found.
We present an "affirmation as perspective" model of how self-affirmations alleviate threat and defensiveness. Self-threats dominate the working self-concept, leading to a constricted self disproportionately influenced by the threat. Self-affirmations expand the size of the working self-concept, offering a broader perspective in which the threat appears more narrow and self-worth realigns with broader dispositional self-views (Experiment 1). Self-affirmed participants, relative to those not affirmed, indicated that threatened self-aspects were less all-defining of the self (although just as important), and this broader perspective on the threat mediated self-affirmation's reduction of defensiveness (Experiment 2). Finally, having participants complete a simple perspective exercise, which offered a broader perspective on the self without prompting affirmational thinking (Experiment 3a), reduced defensiveness in a manner equivalent to and redundant with a standard self-affirmation manipulation (Experiment 3b). The present model offers a unifying account for a wide variety of seemingly unrelated findings and mysteries in the self-affirmation literature.
Both similar and dissimilar models may be adopted as relevant referents and dissimilar models may serve as negative referents whose perspective suggests what an observer will not experience. On this basis we hypothesized: observers of positive referents tend to behave in congruence with the information provided by the referents, while observers of negative referents tend to behave in opposition to the information the referents provide. This interaction hypothesis received support in three letter-drop experiments in which models expressed feelings toward either the act of helping or the person to be helped. Observers helped most when positive referents expressed favorable feelings and negative referents expressed unfavorable feelings. Neither model type nor feelings alone influenced helping. The findings suggest conditions for balancing tendencies to occur when the Person-Other relation is negative. Alternative interpretations based on atraction, "name-calling," dissonance, and promotive tension were considered and rejected.
The objective of this paper is to augment the business values literature by building upon research that claims individual value frames are subject to hierarchical re-scaling, value redefinition, and value removal or induction. In contrast to the person-organization cultural fit approach of value congruence, we postulate that the cognitive discomforts resulting from just-world needs, self-identity completion and self-concept maintenance, as moderated by contextual and dispositional variables, are resolved through the selection and accentuation of legitimating and justifying values that ultimately cast the nature of the world as fair, complete central self-identities, and affirm the self. Research and practical implications are discussed.
Self-affirmation processes are being activated by information that threatens the perceived adequacy or integrity of the self and as running their course until this perception is restored through explanation, rationalization, and/or action. The purpose of these constant explanations (and rationalizations) is to maintain a phenomenal experience of the self-self-conceptions and images as adaptively and morally adequate—that is, as competent, good, coherent, unitary, stable, capable of free choice, capable of controlling important outcomes, and so on. The research reported in this chapter focuses on the way people cope with the implications of threat to their self-regard rather than on the way they cope with the threat itself. This chapter analyzes the way coping processes restore self-regard rather than the way they address the provoking threat itself.
Three studies tested the hypothesis that the motive to compensate—to cast favorable light on the self after a threat to self-esteem—can lead people to seek social comparisons. Participants were high self-esteem undergraduates. In Experiment 1, participants who had failed sought more comparisons when they were allowed to compare on their strongest attributes than when they were allowed to compare on their weakest attributes. In Experiment 2, participants had a choice between comparing on a coparticipant’s “superior” or “average” dimension. Success participants selected the other’s strength for comparison, whereas failure participants selected the other’s relative weakness. In Experiment 3, failure participants were less likely to seek comparisons if they had already compensated via a self-affirmation task. These studies employed novel or rarely used measures of social comparison, and the results have implications for both the social comparison and self-esteem literatures.
In this study helping behavior was predicted to have either a positive or negative impact on mood, depending on how it affects the helper's focus of attention. When a helping act focuses attention away from the conditions producing the initial mood, the initial mood is weakened. Alternatively, when a helping act focuses attention on the conditions producing the initial mood, the initial mood is either maintained or strengthened. To test this hypothesis, positive and negative moods in connection with either self or other focus were created: Participants focused their attention on positive or negative statements about themselves or about friends. Participants then performed a task that either helped themselves (focused attention on themselves) or helped others (focused attention on others). The predicted three-way interaction was obtained. Helping another decreased the strength of self-focused moods and increased the strength of other-focused moods. Alternatively, helping oneself increased the strength of self-focused moods and decreased the strength of other-focused moods.
It was predicted that when a counterattitudinal act is accompanied by the expectation of a future response which can affirm the contradicted attitude or value, dissonance and subsequent dissonance-reducing attitude change would be inhibited, even if the affirming response could not reconcile the specific inconsistency or eliminate the unwanted consequences of the discrepant act. The expectation of a value-affirming response is assumed to provide a context of cognitions in which the single discrepant act can be viewed as less indicative of a self-disposition, and consequently as less important—a perception that should result in less dissonance arousal. This reasoning was supported by the finding that among subjects who wrote counterattitudinal essays opposing more funding for handicap facilities under high choice instructions, those who expected a later, unrelated opportunity to help blind students showed no dissonance-reducing attitude change. Results are discussed as to their implications about the circumstances under which cognitive change will be a response to counterattitudinal behavior.
The hypothesis that obese women compensate for the prejudice of others was tested by having obese and nonobese women converse by telephone with someone who they believed, correctly or incorrectly, could or could not see them. Partners rated obese women's social skills negatively when the women were visible (thus activating the partners' prejudice) but thought they were not. Obese women rated themselves as more likable and socially skilled than nonobese women did when the women thought they were visible to female partners. Judges' ratings of the women's contribution to the conversation indicated that there were no obvious differences in the impressions created by their verbal or nonverbal behaviors. Results support the hypothesis that obese women who were aware of the need to compensate for their partners' reactions to their appearance were able to do so.
This article examines 32 important clinical and personality hypotheses of rational-emotive therapy (RET) and other modes of cognitive-behavior therapy and lists a large number of research studies that provide empirical confirmation of these hypotheses. It concludes that (1) a vast amount of research data exists, most of which tends to confirm the major clinical and personality hypotheses of RET; (2) this data keeps increasing by leaps and bounds; (3) RET hypotheses nicely lend themselves to experimental investigation and therefore encourage a considerable amount of research; (4) researchers have not yet tested some of the major RET formulations and could do so with profit to the field of psychotherapy and personality theory.
Prosocial motivation is egoistic when the ultimate goal is to increase one's own welfare; it is altruistic when the ultimate goal is to increase another's welfare. The view that all prosocial behavior, regardless how noble in appearance, is motivated by some form of self-benefits may seem cynical. But it is the dominant view in contemporary psychology. Most contemporary psychologists who use the term have no intention of challenging the dominant view that all human behavior, including all prosocial behavior, is motivated by self-serving, egoistic desires. Contemporary pseudoaltruistic views can be classified into three types: altruism as prosocial behavior, not motivation, altruism as prosocial behavior seeking internal rewards, and altruism as prosocial behavior to reduce aversive arousal. If altruistic motivation exists, then one has to make some fundamental changes in the conception of human motivation and indeed of human nature. As yet, the evidence is not sufficiently clear to justify such changes. If the conceptual analysis and research outlined in the chapter have merit, then the threshold of an empirical answer to the question why one care for other will be reached.
TESTED THE HYPOTHESIS THAT INCREASED GUILT LEADS TO INCREASED COMPLIANCE. GUILT WAS MANIPULATED IN EXP. I BY INDUCING S TO TELL A LIE AND IN EXP. II AND III BY INDUCING S TO UPSET CAREFULLY ARRANGED INDEX CARDS. IN ALL 3 EXPERIMENTS GUILTY SS COMPLIED MORE THAN CONTROLS. EXP. II AND III FOUND THAT THIS EFFECT OF GUILT OCCURS PRIMARILY WHEN COMPLIANCE DOES NOT INVOLVE MEETING THE PERSON TOWARD WHOM S FEELS GUILTY. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Several recent experiments have shown that individuals induced to damage another person were subsequently more willing to comply in a simple request. Interpretation of this transgression-compliance effect in terms of "guilt" is considered premature because guilt has imprecise conceptual status, independent checks on alleged guilt manipulations have been lacking, and the obtained results do not fit derivations from a guilt formulation. An alternative explanation is proposed in which it is assumed that an individual who has affected the fate of another will do so again, if situationally appropriate, to maintain social consistency. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated whether different empathic responses, generated by different observational sets, could mediate the influence of models on helping behavior. 120 male undergraduates listened to a taped conversation between a person in need of help and a potential helper, under instructions to attend to 1 of the 2 speakers, imagining themselves as that particular speaker, or imagining that speaker's reactions. The potential helper either did not help; helped, but was not thanked; or helped and was thanked. After filling out a mood questionnaire, Ss were requested to help E. Most help was received from Ss who observed either the unaided person in need or the thanked helper, while Ss who attended to the potential helper in the no-help condition were least helpful. The mood data suggested that pleasurable empathic experiences mediated the helping behavior of Ss who attended to the thanked helper, while unpleasant empathic reactions more strongly motivated the helping behavior of Ss who observed the unaided person in need. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
IN AN INVESTIGATION OF FACTORS AFFECTING A PERSON'S WILLINGNESS TO HELP OTHER PEOPLE, 108 MALE COLLEGE STUDENTS SERVED IN THE 9 CONDITIONS OF A 3 * 3 FACTORIAL DESIGN IN WHICH THEY (1) HAD EITHER A SUCCESS, FAILURE, OR NO EXPERIENCE ON A PRELIMINARY, IRRELEVANT TASK, AND THEN (2) WERE REQUIRED TO WORK FOR A PEER WHOSE CHANCE OF GAINING A PRIZE WAS EITHER 20%, 50%, OR 80% DEPENDENT UPON THEIR PRODUCTIVITY. SS WHO HAD EXPERIENCED A FRUSTRATION TENDED TO EXPRESS STRONGER DISLIKE FOR THE EXPERIMENT AND FOR THEIR PEER THE GREATER THEIR PEER'S DEPENDENCY UPON THEM. THE FELT OBLIGATION ARISING FROM THE HIGH PERCEIVED DEPENDENCY WAS APPARENTLY AN UNWELCOME PRESSURE FOR THESE SS. BY CONTRAST, THE SUCCESSFUL SS HAD A GREATER INCREASE IN WORK IN BEHALF OF THEIR DEPENDENT PEER THAN DID THE CONTROL SS. CONSIDERING THE HELP GIVEN THE DEPENDENT PERSON AS A SPECIAL CASE OF CONFORMITY TO A SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY NORM, PRESCRIBING THAT PEOPLE SHOULD HELP THOSE WHO NEED THEIR ASSISTANCE, THE FINDINGS SUPPORT THE THESIS THAT PRIOR FRUSTRATIONS LESSEN WILLINGNESS TO CONFORM TO SUCH MORAL NORMS, WHILE PREVIOUS SUCCESS EXPERIENCES MAY INCREASE MOTIVATION TO ADHERE TO THESE STANDARDS OF CONDUCT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
3 experiments with adult Ss investigated the effects of the experience of success or failure on subsequent generosity, helpfulness, and attention to the social environment. On the basis of an intuitive formulation, designated the "warm glow of success" hypothesis, it was expected that Ss who had succeeded on a task would subsequently behave more generously and more helpfully toward a stranger than would Ss who had not succeeded. It was predicted that Ss who had failed would be less attentive to the social environment than those who had succeeded. In the success and failure groups, Ss performed a series of tasks and were then informed that they had scored either well above the norm or well below it. Control Ss in 1 study were exposed to these tasks for about the same period of time, but had no opportunity to actually work on them, and thus received no feedback. In all conditions, after the independent variable manipulation was completed, the E left the room, and a confederate, who did not know the experimental condition of the S, entered. In Study I, the dependent measure was amount of money contributed to a charity collection can which the confederate placed on the table. In both Studies II and III, the dependent variables were helpfulness and attentiveness to the confederate. Results support the predictions. Internal analysis in Study III indicates that the findings regarding helping and those regarding attention were independent of each other. Several possible interpretations of the results are offered. The role of the S's feelings of competence and his expectancy for future incoming resources is suggested as a mediator 178 192 192 192 192 208 286 328 (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested the hypothesis that preferences for scarce experiences relative to plentiful experiences will become more pronounced as feelings of undistinctiveness increase, independent of the expected novelty of the experience. 29 male and 30 female undergraduates received bogus test results which described them as either extreme, high, or low in uniqueness, the 1st independent variable. After obtaining test feedback concerning their uniqueness, Ss were informed that they would be able to spend time in 1 of 4 psychedelic chambers. The 4 psychedelic chambers were described as either available or unavailable to others and as producing novel or familiar feelings, the 2nd and 3rd independent variables. Sex of S was also treated as an independent variable. Ss indicated their vaulation (the dependent variable) of the 4 different chambers. The hypothesis is confirmed on 3 different measures of valuation. (16 ref.)
A simple answer is found for the following question which has plagued the practice of the analysis of variance: Under the usual assumptions, if the conventional.F-test of the hypothesis H: μ1=μ2=…=μk at the α level of significance rejects H, what further inferences are valid about the contrasts among the μi (beyond the inference that the values of the contrasts are not all zero)? Suppose the F-test has k−1 and v degrees of freedom. For any c1, …, ck with ∑1kci=0 write θ for the contrast ∑1kciμi,, and write ^θ and σ^θ^2 for the usual estimates of θ and the variance of ^θ. Then for the totality of contrasts, no matter what the true values of the θ's, the probability is 1−α that they all satisfy
θ^-Sσ^θ^≤θ≤θ^+Sσ^θ^,
where S² is (k−1) times the upper α point of the F-distribution with k−1 and v degrees of freedom. Suppose we say that the estimated contrast with ^θ is ‘significantly different from zero’ if |^θ > S^σ^θ. Then the F-test rejects H if and only if some ^θ are significantly different from zero, and if it does, we can say just which ^θ. More generally, the above inequality can be employed for all the contrasts with the obvious frequency interpretation about the proportion of experiments in which all statements are correct. Relations are considered to an earlier method of Tukey using the Studentized range tables and valid in the special case where the ^μi all have the same variance and all pairs ^μi, ^μj (i≠j) have the same covariance. Some results are obtained for the operating characteristic of the new method. The paper is organized so that the reader who wishes to learn the method and avoid the proofs may skip §§ 2 and 5
Investigated the effects of a person's positive affective state on his or her subsequent helpfulness to others. "Feeling good" was induced (a) in 52 male undergraduates by having received cookies while studying in a library (Study I), and (b) in 24 female and 17 male adults by having found a dime in the coin return of a public telephone (Study II). In Study I, where the dependent measure involved volunteering in reply to a student's request, a distinction was made between specific willingness to help and general willingness to engage in any subsequent activity. In Study II, the dependent measure was whether Ss spontaneously helped to pick up papers that were dropped in front of them. On the basis of previous research, it was predicted that Ss who were thus made to "feel good" would be more helpful than control Ss. Results support the predictions.
Conducted an experiment with 40 adult females in a shopping center to test the hypothesis that harm-doers will be more likely than controls to respond favorably to a naturally occurring opportunity for altruism, even in the absence of a direct request. Each S was asked by a male E to take his picture for a project. The camera would not work, and the E either implied that S had broken the camera (guilt condition) or said that the misfunctioning was not her fault (control condition). Soon after, a femlae E crossed the S's path carrying a broken grocery bag from which candy fell. 55% of the Ss in the guilt condition informed the 2nd E of the mishap, compared with only 15% of the controls. Results are interpreted as showing voluntary expiation of guilt. (15 ref.)
2 experiments were conducted to test the proposition that once someone has agreed to a small request he is more likely to comply with a larger request. Exp. I demonstrated this effect when the same person made both requests; Exp. II extended this to the situation in which different people made the 2 requests. Several experimental groups were run in an effort to explain these results, and possible explanations are discussed.