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Birds of a Feather Feel Together: Emotional Ability Similarity in Consumer Interactions
Abstract
The authors introduce emotional ability similarity to explain consumer satisfaction in interactions with frontline sales and service employees and other consumers beyond the effects of traditional relational variables in the similarity–attraction paradigm. Four studies examine how and why similar abilities for using emotional information between two people promote relational success in marketplace exchanges. We find that when interacting with others, consumers who exchange nonverbal information with their partners experience (dis)similarity in their emotional ability (EA). Similar dyads who rely on expressive (high-high EA pairs) or inexpressive (low-low EA pairs) emotion norms experience significantly greater satisfaction in their interactions than consumers with dissimilar norms (high-low EA pairs). Together, these findings advance the understanding of consumer relationships and satisfaction by establishing EA similarity as a new avenue for consumer research.
... Salovey and Mayer (1990) defined EI as a trait that a person holds and is capable enough to control and monitor his own and others' emotions, and he must have the ability to differentiate them, and then use this information according to a specific situation. According to Kidwell et al. (2020), EI is a type of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' emotions, discriminate among them, and use the information to guide one's thinking and actions. EI can also be defined as "perceiving, interpreting, and reacting to one's own and other emotions, considered one of the most critical skills, that salespeople can adopt to enhance their sales performance." ...
... Suárez-Albanchez et al. (2022) defined EI as the abilities that enable a person to express, recognize, and evaluate their own and other's emotion to achieve success in all kinds of working environment and to cope with a pressure coming from the higher authorities. In a sales context, a person with high EI first tries to understand the emotions of customers, and then tries to react to those messages and make a rapid adjustment (Kidwell et al., 2020). Reading the minds of customers enables salespeople to identify their needs; second, EI capabilities help to adapt their behavior according to customers' expectations; and then finally, EI capabilities as an instrument help salespeople formulate an effective solution to customers' requirements. ...
... In recent years, the EI in salesmanship has been found as an important variable in decision-making and negotiation, which are largely interpersonal (Miao et al., 2021). Kidwell et al. (2020) believe that emotions are a psychological force that can significantly affect the behavior and performance of salespeople. Successful salespeople must have the ability to change his/her behavior according to the situation with different customers in different ways; it will help him/her to close sales calls successfully. ...
Field management of the pharmaceutical salesforce is one of the key concerns for every market-oriented and profit-centered pharmaceutical firm. This study introduces one of the novel and parsimonious classifications of supervisors’ monitoring style, i.e., interactional monitoring. Theorizing the construct of a field manager’s interactional monitoring style devoid of every clue of its positive or negative associations is a matter of concern in the literature. There is also a lack of settlement between researchers on how divergent forms of monitoring styles may affect employees differently. Apparent varying conclusions may be partially because of the absence of a well-designed monitoring typology. The authors claim that the perception of a field manager’s interactional monitoring style may exert a distinctive effect on employee response in terms of performance. The authors propose that a field manager’s interactional monitoring style-sales performance linkage can be well understood by considering a salesperson’s emotional intelligence and interpersonal mentalizing skills. Guided by Social Exchange Theory, the authors proposed seven hypotheses and analyzed these hypothesized relationships in a pharmaceutical outbound sales context. Twenty multi-national and national pharmaceutical firms of Pakistan were selected as samples. Cross-sectional data were collected through a structured questionnaire to record the responses from three hundred and fifty respondents (salespeople). The findings of the study show that the emotional intelligence and interpersonal mentalizing skills of salespeople partially mediate the relationship between field managers’ monitoring style and salespersons’ performance. The insights achieved from this study offered applicable and important directions for the formulation of appropriate monitoring style at the field managers’ level as well as shed light on the extent to which a field manager’s interactional monitoring style impacts a salesperson’s performance.
... Emotional Intelligence. The ability to perceive one's emotion, and that of others, and the ability to understand the meaning of these emotions, and regulate emotions (Kidwell et al., 2020;Neil, 2019). ...
... Emotional ability or emotional intelligence refers to the human ability that affects the perception, interpretation, and understanding of social functioning, and the skills for processing emotion-laden information (Kidwell et al., 2020). Neil (2019) extended the definition and described emotional ability as a mental ability relating to an individual's emotional experience. ...
... Third, intrinsic motivation is closely related closely to emotional intelligence; the ability to perceive one's emotion, and that of others, and the ability to understand the meaning of these emotions, and regulate emotions (Kidwell et al., 2020;Neil, 2019). Most recently, emotional ability has played a significant role in redesigning specific job tasks within the healthcare industry, while facilitating medical professionals' response to the COVID-19; as such, future studies may expand the focus of this research and assess the role of emotional intelligence in workplace engagement and retention. ...
This quantitative research investigated the correlation between employee motivation, job reengineering, and the perception of job satisfaction among the civilian employees of the Department of Defense located in Washington, D.C., United States. The theoretical foundation for the study was rooted in Deci and Ryan's (1985; 2000) self-determination theory of motivation. The researcher utilized a non-experimental correlational research design and an appropriate non-probability convenience sampling method to collect data from fifty-five (55) participants. The multidimensional work motivation, job diagnostic, and the job satisfaction scales were used to measure the variables. Non-parametric tests were used to measure the correlation between the variables and three hypotheses were tested. The results showed a strong and positive relationship exists between employee motivation, job reengineering, and the perception of job satisfaction. These findings suggest that business leaders and human capital managers of private and government enterprises may use the study as a focal point to understand a person-job fit, establish lean organizational efficiencies, and formulate strategies to improve motivation and reduce turnover. Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Employee Motivation, Job Design, Job Reengineering, Job Redesign, Job Satisfaction, Metacognitive Abilities, Perception, Perception of Job Satisfaction, And Self-Determination Theory
... For example, one body of research suggests that CEI can lead to consumers controlling and disregarding feelings evoked by marketing stimuli, suggesting those with high CEI can be less susceptible to emotional appeals in ads [8][9][10]. By contrast, others have found that people with high CEI have the ability to accurately perceive and facilitate identified emotions, making them more open to persuasion from emotional ads (i.e., the spill-over effect of emotions triggered by stimuli) [11][12][13]. To understand these conflicting views, this study applies regulatory focus theory [14], which argues that the association between individuals' motivational orientations and emotional status has a significant influence on how they process emotional information [15,16]. ...
... Given that there is increasing evidence that EI can be trained [9], training salespersons' or service providers' emotional abilities would be another alternative way to increase CEI among consumers. Positive emotions can be transferred from service providers to consumers, resulting in synergy effects between both parties [13,41]. Thus, developing sales professionals' EI would be a viable alternative option to boost consumers' ability to use positive emotions in consumption contexts. ...
While a significant number of studies have examined the effect of cognitive ability on social behaviors, researchers have devoted insufficient attention to emotional ability as a distinguishing individual characteristic that influences social behaviors. This study aims to address this critical gap by examining the specific role that consumer emotional intelligence (CEI) plays in the susceptibility to persuasive messages. Based on emotional intelligence and regulatory focus theories, an experiment was conducted to test CEI effect and its boundary conditions. The results demonstrate that people with high CEI are more likely to be persuaded by positive emotion-evoking ads than people with low CEI. Furthermore, the study found that this effect is more pronounced for promotion-focused (vs. prevention-focused) ad messages. These findings indicate that emotional intelligence is a meaningful individual trait to consider when predicting how people will respond to persuasive messages.
... Van Kleef (2009) argued that, according to social information theory applied to information processing, people tend to interpret the emotions linked to content, which indirectly influences their behavior. In this line, the similarity-attraction paradigm (Kidwell et al., 2020) supports the argument that people process both information and emotions at the same time, being attracted by similarities. ...
... Furthermore, neuroscience research has shown that the type of product, in terms of utilitarian or hedonic, also affects consumers' emotional responses (Bettiga et al., 2020). Since neuroimaging tools help to predict consumer behavior (Smidts et al., 2014;Cascio et al., 2015;Telpaz et al., 2015;Casado-Aranda et al., 2018a,b, 2020Motoki et al., 2020;Jai et al., 2021), future lines of research should consider which environmental factors (such as types of products, types of purchase, etc.) impact and alter emotional responses, and ultimately, behavioral responses. ...
Social interactions can trigger emotional contagion between individuals resulting in behavioral synchrony. Emotional contagion can be a very effective and attractive strategy in communication and advertising, and understanding the mechanisms underlying emotional contagion can help marketers to improve their commercial approaches or develop better ones. The purpose of this study is to review and classify the various methodologies and theoretical approaches on emotional contagion, identify the best practices in this domain, and identify ways of gaging and measuring emotional contagion. The study is based on a mini literature review. We identify different mechanisms and approaches to emotional contagion described in the literature. Emotional contagion can be triggered by facial expressions, indirect human interactions, and/or by observing other people's behavior in direct and indirect interactions. Furthermore, emotional contagion can be triggered physiologically or neurologically by synchronizing with the emotional state of others during human interactions. Regarding the assessment and measurement of emotional contagion, we argue that methods based on neuroscience tools are much more accurate and effective than methods based on traditional research approaches. The study identifies guidelines for research on commercial communication through emotional contagion that can be especially interesting for academia and marketing practitioners. The findings are important for field marketers interested in developing new individualized approaches in their commercial strategies and marketing in general. In addition, the study can become the basis of research that further refines and compares the efficacy of the various techniques and tools involved.
... There is a vast literature on emotional intelligence and its relationship to work outcomes [37][38][39]. Although there is criticism and concern surrounding models of trait EQ, recent meta-analyses have indicated that trait EQ shows significant incremental predictive power over "bright personality" and cognitive ability, providing support that trait EQ represents a meaningful and distinct construct [40]. ...
This study examined the relationship between cognitive ability (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ) in predicting a range of different performance metrics from a call centre environment. In all, 303 call centre staff completed multi-dimensional measures of both EQ and IQ. We also had recorded nine performance data measures for each individual over a 12-month period. There were a few significant correlations with IQ (4/35) and a few more with EQ (4/28), though all EQ measures were related to “Errors Made over the year”. The performance metric that had most correlates was Average Handling Time (AHT) relating to speed of working. The number of errors an employee made was significantly positively correlated with all four EQ factors. Correlational and Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis highlighted the importance of analysing performance metrics as distinct variables, finding contradictory evidence in the sense that some individual difference factors correlated positively with some and negatively with other outcome measures. The results are discussed in relation to the theoretical implications for researchers interested in analysing call centre performance, and also practical implications for organisations with call centres.
... Nevertheless, the capacity of a salesperson to discern and adeptly utilize emotional information significantly impacts their interactions and interpersonal relationships (Kidwell et al., 2020). Furthermore, the fundamental tenet of customer orientation lies in the employee's adept response to customer needs. ...
Purpose
This study aims to discern and refine the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in the development of customer orientation among banking employees in Morocco. This analysis seeks to enhance understanding about the significance of this emotional skill within the Moroccan banking sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The research embraces an interpretivist philosophical perspective to gain insight into the subjective meanings and experiences of study participants. The methodology employed is qualitative, involving data collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with 21 front-office bank employees. The analysis of the data was conducted through employing thematic analysis.
Findings
The findings of this study conclude that emotional intelligence fosters and stimulates customer orientation for bank employees. The perception, understanding and effective management of emotions – both those of the contact personnel and their customers – enable employees to better comprehend customer reactions. They experience heightened empathy through the impact of accumulated professional experience, adapt their behaviors according to the emotional state of the customer, maintain a positive relationship with them and ultimately gain their confidence.
Originality/value
This study offers clear theoretical explanations and conceptualizations that have identified and linked pertinent literature on the topic. It focuses on a salient subject, investigating how emotional intelligence influences the customer-oriented behavior of front-office bank employees. Notably, this study represents one of the first attempts to explore this relationship within the Moroccan context. As a result, it contributes to the enhancement of managerial practices and human resource policies, thereby fostering a more productive and harmonious working environment.
... Par exemple, les émotions des investisseurs dans un pays peuvent même se propager aux investisseurs dans un autre pays (Yin & Wang, 2020). En ce qui concerne l'expérience client, le paradigme de similarité-attraction stipule que lorsque les clients traitent des informations, ils traitent également des émotions (Herrando, et al., 2022 ;Kidwell, et al., 2020). Ce phénomène, étudié par la psychologie, est connu sous le nom de contagion émotionnelle (Hatfield, et al., 2014) et est lié au fait que les gens, consciemment ou inconsciemment, imitent les émotions des personnes qui les entourent (Prentice, 2016). ...
Bien qu’un très grand nombre de recherche ait été faite pour conceptualiser la prise de décision, aucune recherche parallèle n’a été menée sur la contagion dans la prise de décision. En conséquence, la décision du consommateur a été limitée dans la littérature sur l’utilité (raison).
Dans cette recherche, nous développons un cadre théorique d’une décision dépendant d’une irrationalité, qui est perçue comme marge d’erreur pour plusieurs auteurs, et dont l’impact ne devrait pas être randomisé, et d’une contagion qui lui est intrinsèquement liée. Il s’agit d’un nouveau concept pour la littérature marketing : « la contagion émo-décisionnelle ».
S’appuyant sur des entretiens semi-directifs et sur les recherches menées en marketing et en psychologie, nous avons mené deux études empiriques qui explorent quatre dimensions de la contagion émo-décisionnelle (exemplarité décisionnelle, mimétisme, empathie et imitation). Les résultats obtenus basés sur des indicateurs statistiques attestent du caractère multidimensionnel et de la fiabilité de la mesure proposée. Les contributions, les limites et les voies futures de recherche sont présentées en conclusion.
... While services, in general, have been studied extensively through different perspectives in diverse settings, such as physical environments or surroundings and frontline sales or service employees (e.g., Kidwell et al., 2020), our study addresses a gap that exists at the nexus of digital services, healthcare, and a patient-centered perspective. A review of relevant literature (see Web appendix A) shows that little previous research focuses on digital services, and even fewer studies explore patient-engaging digital services. ...
The creation and delivery of healthcare services are being transformed through patient-engaging digital services. However, their effects on hospital performance are unclear. We build on the theoretical foundations of resource dependency and environmental munificence to identify two characteristics of the hospital’s regional environment, the population’s access to digital computing resources (computing access) and health insurance coverage (service access), that condition the effects of hospitals’ patient-engaging digital services on patient satisfaction and readmissions. We argue that these omitted environmental contingencies may help explain the inconclusive findings reported in prior empirical studies on digital services. Analysis of data collated from a national sample of 941 hospitals nested within 157 regions shows that computing access in the environment strengthens the effect of a hospital’s digital services on readmissions and patient satisfaction. By contrast, service access dampens the moderated effect of digital services and computing access on readmissions, but the effect is not the same for patient satisfaction. Our study offers theoretical and practical implications underscoring the role of environmental heterogeneity in the value hospitals realize from patient-engaging digital services.
... One consumer may "wear her heart on her sleeve", while another may look stoic and conceal her emotional responses most of the time. Recent research shows that in a social exchange involving emotional information, individuals who share similar emotional expressiveness are more satisfied with the interaction than individuals who are mismatched (Kidwell et al. 2020). Consequently, although both of these consumers may be experiencing the same emotion (e.g., happiness), the proper reaction to each should differ. ...
Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform firm-customer interactions. However, current AI marketing agents are often perceived as cold and uncaring and can be poor substitutes for human-based interactions. Addressing this issue, this article argues that artificial empathy needs to become an important design consideration in the next generation of AI marketing applications. Drawing from research in diverse disciplines, we develop a systematic framework for integrating artificial empathy into AI-enabled marketing interactions. We elaborate on the key components of artificial empathy and how each component can be implemented in AI marketing agents. We further explicate and test how artificial empathy generates value for both customers and firms by bridging the AI-human gap in affective and social customer experience. Recognizing that artificial empathy may not always be desirable or relevant, we identify the requirements for artificial empathy to create value and deduce situations where it is unnecessary and, in some cases, harmful.
... Social exchange theory (Emerson, 1976) and word-of-mouth research (Engel et al., 1969) claim that customers consider other users' opinions when making purchasing decisions. With respect to the customer experience, the similarity-attraction paradigm states that when customers process information they also process emotions (Kidwell et al., 2020). This approach posits that when customers process information they interpret the emotions of the observed, which influences their behavior. ...
People tend to align with the emotional state of the person that is talking to them (the observed). Similarly, while processing information consumers can also experience this emotional contagion. Emotional contagion can activate in those who process information (the observer) similar responses in the autonomic nervous system and the neural responses as in those who create such information (the observed), triggering a certain level of arousal. Neuroscience enables researchers to study emotional contagion by monitoring the activation of neural structures and physiological responses. This study draws on the theory of arousal to investigate how different combinations of online consumer review (OCR) valence can trigger different emotions and customer experiences in the observer (the one who reads the OCRs). This study conducts a consumer neuroscience experiment to monitor emotional arousal. The physiological analyses (through skin conductance response) confirm that the emotional arousal of the observer aligns with that of the observed. The neural analyses (through electroencephalography) show the valence of the arousal, which indicates that negative OCRs activate arousal and pleasure in the observer, while positive OCRs are associated with arousal deactivation and displeasure.
... Hennig-Thurau et al. (2006) Quantitative (223 customers) Findings reveal the extent to which employees' emotional labour display directly affects customers' emotional states. Kidwell et al. (2020) Survey, experiments When shopping, consumers with similar emotional ability experience significantly greater satisfaction in their interactions. Mattila and Enz (2002) Mixed methods (observation and survey with 200 customers) ...
Although emotions have been investigated within strategic management literature from an internal perspective, managers’ ability and willingness to understand consumers’ emotions, with emphasis on the retail sector, is still a scarcely explored theme in management research. The aim of this paper is to explore the match between the supply of new analytical tools and retail managers’ attitudes towards new tools to capture customers’ emotions. To this end, Study 1 uses machine learning algorithms to develop a new system to analytically detect emotional responses from customers’ static images (considering the exemplar emotions of happiness and sadness), whilst Study 2 consults management decision‐makers to explore the practical utility of such emotion recognition systems, finding a likely demand for a number of applications, albeit tempered by concern for ethical issues. While contributing to the retail management literature with regard to customers’ emotions and big data analytics, the findings also provide a new framework to support retail managers in using new analytics to survive and thrive in difficult times.
... In different lines of research on matching to affective and cognitive states, emotionally intense consumers were shown to be more persuaded by more emotionally intense sources (Aune & Kikuchi, 1993); consumers higher in emotional intelligence were more persuaded by sources matched on this dimension (Kidwell et al., 2020); and consumers higher in power were more influenced by sources who possess a more powerful status (Dubois et al., 2016;Briñol et al., 2017). Similar findings have occurred for sources' motivational orientations, where promotion (vs. ...
One of the most reliable and impactful methods for enhancing a persuasive appeal is to match an aspect of the proposal (i.e., its content, source, or the setting in which it is delivered) to an aspect of the consumer receiving it. This personalized matching in persuasion (also called tailoring, targeting, customizing, or personalizing) comprises a robust and growing literature. In the present review, we describe different types of persuasive matches, the primary characteristics of people that are targeted, and the key psychological mechanisms underlying the impact of matching. Importantly, although most research on personalized matching has concluded that matching is good for persuasion, we also describe and explain instances where it has produced negative (i.e., “backfire”) effects. That is, more than just the conclusion “matching is good” that many researchers have drawn, we analyze when and why it is good and when and why it can be ineffective – insight that can benefit marketers and consumers alike in understanding how personally matched appeals can impact attitudes and ultimately behavior.
Religion inspires honesty. The love of money incites dishonesty. Religious and monetary values apply to all religions. We develop a formative theoretical model of monetary wisdom, treat religiosity ( God ) and the love of money ( mammon ), as two yoked antecedents—competing moral issues (Time 1), and frame the latent construct in good barrels (performance or humane contexts, Time 2), which leads to (dis)honesty (Time 3). We explore the direct and indirect paths and the model across genders. Our three‐wave panel data (411 participants) show that religious and monetary values are negatively correlated. Directly, religiosity consistently curbs dishonesty; surprisingly, the love of money has no impact on dishonesty. In the performance context, the two mediation effects reduce dishonesty. Across genders, this mediation effect is nonsignificant for males but significantly excites females' honesty. In the humane context, the two mediation effects are nonsignificant. Across genders, for the love of money, males passively curb dishonesty by omission , and females actively engage in honesty by commission . Decision‐makers must challenge people's moral issues, frame them in good barrels, and help people become good apples, choice architects, and moral and ethical decision‐makers, promoting the Matthew effect in religion. We offer practical implications to individuals and organizations.
Purpose
This study aims to establish a model for rapid and accurate emotion recognition in restaurant online reviews, thus advancing the literature and providing practical insights into electronic word-of-mouth management for the industry.
Design/methodology/approach
This study elaborates a hybrid model that integrates deep learning (DL) and a sentiment lexicon (SL) and compares it to five other models, including SL, random forest (RF), naïve Bayes, support vector machine (SVM) and a DL model, for the task of emotion recognition in restaurant online reviews. These models are trained and tested using 652,348 online reviews from 548 restaurants.
Findings
The hybrid approach performs well for valence-based emotion and discrete emotion recognition and is highly applicable for mining online reviews in a restaurant setting. The performances of SL and RF are inferior when it comes to recognizing discrete emotions. The DL method and SVM can perform satisfactorily in the valence-based emotion recognition.
Research limitations/implications
These findings provide methodological and theoretical implications; thus, they advance the current state of knowledge on emotion recognition in restaurant online reviews. The results also provide practical insights into intelligent service quality monitoring and electronic word-of-mouth management for the industry.
Originality/value
This study proposes a superior model for emotion recognition in restaurant online reviews. The methodological framework and steps are elucidated in detail for future research and practical application. This study also details the performances of other commonly used models to support the selection of methods in research and practical applications.
With the development of online shopping, customer care policies and strategies are seen as top priority in maintaining loyal customers, especially when service is fault. Frontline staff will be directly involved in this recovery process. Survey of 319 online customers experiencing service issues and undergoing service recovery to collect data. Structural equation model is used to measure factors, check direct and intermediate effects among variables using SmartPLS 3.0. The results confirm that the explanatory aspects have a direct positive impact on post-rehabilitation satisfaction. All aspects have significant mediating effects on repurchase intention and word-of-mouth through post-rehabilitation satisfaction. Research also shows that factors of employees' emotional competence and communication skills contribute to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
In the last two years, consumers have experienced massive changes in consumption – whether due to shifts in habits; the changing information landscape; challenges to their identity, or new economic experiences of scarcity or abundance. What can we expect from these experiences? How are the world's leading thinkers applying both foundational knowledge and novel insights as we seek to understand consumer psychology in a constantly changing landscape? And how can informed readers both contribute to and evaluate our knowledge? This handbook offers a critical overview of both fundamental topics in consumer psychology and those that are of prominence in the contemporary marketplace, beginning with an examination of individual psychology and broadening to topics related to wider cultural and marketplace systems. The Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Psychology, 2nd edition, will act as a valuable guide for teachers and graduate and undergraduate students in psychology, marketing, management, economics, sociology, and anthropology.
Service failure and recovery research has primarily explored employees' emotional intelligence but has largely overlooked customers' emotional intelligence. This study considers both employees' and customers' emotional intelligence by investigating the recovery effect of perceived emotional intelligence similarity. We test why and how perceived emotional intelligence similarity promotes customer forgiveness through experiments. Findings reveal the positive effect of perceived emotional intelligence similarity on customer forgiveness and the sequentially mediating effects of psychological distance and customer trust. Additionally, results indicate that interdependent self-construal and indulgence moderate the perceived emotional intelligence similarity effect. Findings enrich theories on emotional intelligence in the service failure and recovery field. Additionally, this research offers tourism companies suggestions on addressing service failures based on perceived emotional intelligence similarity.
This research explored the impacts of frontline employees' communication styles (task-oriented vs. social-oriented) on consumers' willingness to interact. The hypothesized relationship between communication style and willingness to interact was tested based on two experiments and analyzed by ANOVA and PROCESS program. The results revealed that consumers' willingness to interact was higher when frontline employees adopted a social-oriented style, while social distance mediated this influence. We identified emotional ability similarity as a boundary condition, indicating that social-oriented communication is more effective than task-oriented when there is low emotional ability similarity. However, when the emotional ability similarity is high, both communication styles positively influence consumers' willingness to interact. Theoretical contributions, managerial applications, and future research directions are discussed.
Введение. Ключевой идеей исследования на основании анализа литературы, посвященной проблеме взаимосвязи успешности (результативности) в познавательной и профессиональной деятельности с различными видами интеллекта и позиционировании высокого вклада в академическую и профессиональную успешность социального и эмоционального интеллекта, стало сравнение успешных и неуспешных представителей социономических профессий одновременно по параметрам вербального, социального и эмоционального интеллекта. Материалы и методы. В исследовании сравнивались две группы продавцов бытовой техники и электроники (n = 72), которые были разделены по признаку успешности (результативности) по параметрам вербального, социального и эмоционального интеллекта при помощи метода тестирования. Использовались следующие методики: тест «Социальный интеллект» Дж. Гилфорда, тест «Вербальный тест интеллекта» Г. Айзенка, методика Н. Холла «Диагностика эмоционального интеллекта». Для статистической обработки данных применялись описательные статистики, сравнительный и корреляционный анализ. Результаты исследования. Было выявлено, что успешные (результативные) продавцы превосходят неуспешных (нерезультативных) продавцов по показателям вербального, социального и эмоционального интеллекта. Наибольшие различия между исследуемыми группами продавцов наблюдаются по параметру «вербальный интеллект», наименьшие — по параметру «социальный интеллект». Также успешные (результативные) продавцы имеют более высокие показатели по шкалам социального и эмоционального интеллекта, связанным с регуляцией эмоциональных состояний, эмоциональной осведомленностью, синтезом, анализом и обобщением социальной информации, которую способны экстраполировать на конкретные ситуации взаимодействия с покупателем. В обеих группах не выявлено значимых корреляций между показателями «вербальный интеллект» и «общий социальный интеллект», но обнаружена связь между «общим социальным интеллектом» и «общим эмоциональным интеллектом». Заключение. Полученные результаты могут послужить материалом для создания программ профессионального отбора и профессионального обучения представителей профессий типа «человек – человек», в частности в сфере оказания услуг. Дальнейшие исследования в этом направлении могут прояснить вклад каждого типа интеллекта в успешность профессиональной деятельности и профессионального обучения, их оптимальное соотношение на различных уровнях выраженности с целью повышения эффективности деятельности.
We develop a conceptual framework for collaborative artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing, providing systematic guidance for how human marketers and consumers can team up with AI, which has profound implications for retailing, which is the interface between marketers and consumers. Drawing from the multiple intelligences view that AI advances from mechanical, to thinking, to feeling intelligence (based on how difficult for AI to mimic human intelligences), the framework posits that collaboration between AI and HI (human marketers and consumers) can be achieved by 1) recognizing the respective strengths of AI and HI, 2) having lower-level AI augmenting higher-level HI, and 3) moving HI to a higher intelligence level when AI automates the lower level. Implications for marketers, consumers, and researchers are derived. Marketers should optimize the mix and timing of AI-HI marketing team, consumers should understand the complementarity between AI and HI strengths for informed consumption decisions, and researchers can investigate innovative approaches to and boundary conditions of collaborative intelligence.
In this study, the authors examine the effects of two facets of employee emotions on customers’ assessments of service encounters. Drawing on emotional contagion and emotional labor theories, they investigate the influence of the extent of service employees’ display of positive emotions and the authenticity of their emotional labor display on customers’ emotional states and, subsequently, on customers’ assessments of the service interaction and their relationship with the service provider. To test the study hypotheses, 223 consumers participated in a simulated service encounter in which actors played the roles of service employees. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, the employees varied both the extent of their smiling behavior and their emotional labor display by engaging in surface or deep acting. The results show that the authenticity of employees’ emotional labor display directly affects customers’ emotional states. However, contrary to expectations, the extent of employee smiling does not influence customer emotions, providing no support for the existence of primitive emotional contagion in service interactions. Furthermore, employee emotions exert an influence on customer outcomes that are of interest to marketers.
Observers' reactions to a service failure and their attributions of responsibility for its occurrence can depend on fortuitous characteristics of the protagonists that happen to draw their attention. Four field and laboratory experiments show that when observers have an incidental similarity to one of the persons involved in a service failure (the customer or the service provider), their attention is drawn to this protagonist, often leading them to construe the situation from this person's perspective and consequently to blame the protagonist less for the negative event they observe. However, when an incidentally similar protagonist is rude or has an undesirable personal characteristic (i.e., obesity), observers' greater attention to that person increases their attributions of responsibility to him or her rather than decreasing it. These opposing effects of incidental similarity on attributions influence not only observers' evaluations of the persons involved in the situation they observe, but also their willingness to patronize the establishment. These effects occur both when observers actually witness a conflict offline and when they consider it online on the basis of reviews. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
The authors extend evaluative conditioning research by examining how differences in emotional ability impact implicit and explicit attitude formation from conditioning. Across five studies, the ability to experience emotional information enhanced the valence of implicit attitudes toward a conditioned stimulus (CS). Conversely, the ability to reason about emotional information reduced the impact of implicit CS attitudes on subsequent explicit evaluations. Furthermore, we examine how brand familiarity and the timing of CS-US pairings impacts attitude formation. Implications for associative learning and persuasion are provided.
1 When people communicate, their messages convey affect alongside informational content. The affective dimension of messages is often unclear and open to multiple interpretations especially in an intercultural context. Thus, interlocutors may or may not achieve a state of affective grounding in which each person's affective behaviors are correctly interpreted by his/her partners. The current study examines the effects of culture on affective grounding. We conducted a laboratory experiment in which pairs of participants, half from America (A) and half from China (C), collaborated over instant messaging (IM). We found that affective grounding was harder to achieve for AA and AC pairs, but easier for CC pairs. We propose several design solutions to facilitate affective grounding in remote collaborations.
Emotions are an elemental part of life - they imbue our existence with meaning and purpose, and influence how we engage with the world around us. But we do not just feel our own emotions; we typically express them in the presence of other people. How do our emotional expressions affect others? Moving beyond the traditional intrapersonal perspective, this is the first book dedicated to exploring the pervasive interpersonal dynamics of emotions. Integrating existing theory and research, van Kleef develops the Emotions as Social Information (EASI) theory, a ground-breaking comprehensive framework that explains how emotional expressions influence observers across all domains of life, from close relationships to group settings, conflict and negotiation, customer service, and leader–follower relations. His deeply social perspective sheds new light on the fundamental question of why we have emotions in the first place - the social influence emotions engender may very well constitute their raison d’être.
More information can be found here: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/psychology/social-psychology/interpersonal-dynamics-emotion-toward-integrative-theory-emotions-social-information?format=HB
Consumers are often mindless eaters. This research provides a framework for how consumers can become more mindful of their food choices. To do so, the authors develop an ability-based training program to strengthen people's ability to focus on goal-relevant emotional information. They demonstrate not only that emotional ability (EA) is trainable and that food choices can be enhanced (Study 1) but also that EA training improves food choices beyond a nutrition knowledge training program (Study 2). In Study 3, the authors test a conceptual model and find that EA training increases goal-relevant emotional thoughts and reduces reliance on the unhealthy = tasty intuition. Both factors mediate mindful eating effects. Last, Study 4 demonstrates the long-term benefits of EA training by showing that emotionally trained people lose more weight in a three-month period than a control group and a nutrition knowledge training group. Together, these findings suggest that consumers can gain control of their food choices through the enhancement of EA. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for policy officials, health care professionals, and marketers.
Conversations are susceptible to many disturbances: A speaker's hesitations, distractions, or, when communicating online, technical hiccups that may cause brief delays. Research among previously unacquainted individuals revealed that brief disruptions in conversational flow can have profound social consequences: Silences or delays in mediated communication threaten the need to belong and validate one's ideas. The present research, however, shows that when occurring in close relationships, flow disruptions may be ironically beneficial. We hypothesized that when flow disruptions occur, partners fall back on their relationship beliefs to infer mutual agreement and the existence of a shared reality. When a relationship is perceived as secure, partners may believe that "no words are needed" to understand each other. Flow disruptions can thus paradoxically make shared cognitions accessible and foster feelings of social validation. Data from two experiments, using partners in different types of relationships, supported this hypothesis.
The increasingly diversified composition of the sales force poses one of the most challenging organizational issues of our time. Employing similarity-attraction theory and social identity theory, this study provides theoretical foundations for: (1) investigating salesperson preferences for selling to similar others; and (2) exploring the dynamic nature of these preferences as they relate to sales performance. The results of an empirical study using a sample drawn from insurance sales indicated that salespeople are primarily attracted to prospects who are similar to themselves in terms of age and gender. However, contrary to predictions, buyer/seller age similarity was found to have no impact on sales performance, while gender mismatch in the sales dyad was found to actually enhance performance.
This research investigated two competing explanations of the similarity effect: Byrne’s (1971) reinforcement model and the information processing perspective. A meta-analysis of 240 laboratory-based similarity studies explored moderators important to the similarity effect, including set size, proportion of similarity, centrality of attitudes, and information salience. Results indicated effects for proportion of similarity, centrality of attitudes, and information salience, and were largely consistent with predictions of the information processing perspective. We discuss the implications of these findings for the two perspectives, for other models for the similarity effect, and for the role of affect and cognition in the experience of interpersonal attraction.
It is common for authors discovering a significant interaction of a measured variable X with a manipulated variable Z to examine simple effects of Z at different levels of X. These “spotlight” tests are often misunderstood even in the simplest cases, and it appears that consumer researchers are unsure how to extend them to more complex designs. We explain the general principles of spotlight tests, show that they rely on familiar regression techniques, and provide a tutorial showing how to apply these tests across an array of experimental designs. Rather than following the common practice of reporting spotlight tests at one standard deviation above and below the mean of X, we recommend that when X has focal values, researchers report spotlight tests at those focal values. When X does not have focal values, we recommend researchers report ranges of significance using a version of Johnson and Neyman’s (1936) test we call a “floodlight”.
To evaluate the impact of actual and perceived similarity on interpersonal attraction, we meta-analyzed 460 effect sizes from 313 laboratory and field investigations. Results indicated that the associations between interpersonal attraction and both actual similarity (r = .47) and perceived similarity (r = .39) were significant and large. The data also indicate that (i) actual similarity was important in no-interaction and short-interaction studies, (ii) there was a significant reduction in the effect size of actual similarity beyond no-interaction studies, and (iii) the effect of actual similarity in existing relationships was not significant. Alternatively, perceived similarity predicted attraction in no-interaction, short-interaction, and existing relationship studies. The implications of perceived similarity, rather than actual similarity, being predictive of attraction in existing relationships are discussed.
This study introduces theory about how deficits in social support motivate consumers to replace lost social resources by forming relationships with customers and employees in commercial “third places.” The authors demonstrate support for a multiple-indicator, multiple-cause model that illustrates how six common events that destroy or erode a person's social support can cause the person to obtain emotional support and companionship in a third place. The model supports the linkage between commercial social support and a consumer's sense of attachment to a third place that harbors his or her social support network. The authors also propose and test hypotheses that reveal that consumers obtain social support in a third place to the extent to which they lost it outside the place. In essence, third-place patrons match their lost support to their commercial support, thus remedying negative symptoms associated with isolation. The article concludes with a discussion of managerial implications and limitations.
This article develops a theory that explains how and when emotions, produced by social exchange, generate stronger or weaker ties to relations, groups, or networks. It is argued that social exchange produces positive or negative global feelings, which are internally rewarding or punishing. The theory indicates that social units (relations, groups, networks) are perceived as a source of these feelings, contingent on the degree of jointness in the exchange task. The jointness of the task is greatest if (1) actors find it difficult to distinguish their individual effects on or contributions to solving the exchange task (nonseparability) and (2) actors perceive a shared responsibility for success or failure at the exchange task. The theory explicates the effects of different exchange structures on these conditions and, in turn, on cohesion and solidarity. Implications are developed for network-to-group transformations.
Social interactions are heavily norm-based and these norms need to be learned. For this, the emotional reactions of other's in response to a norm transgression can serve as signals. We were able to show that when a group responds with anger to a norm transgressing behaviour, participants were better able to correctly infer the norm than when the group responded with sadness or emotional neutrality. We further tested a process-model showing that this inference is based on the participants' understanding of the groups' appraisals of the behaviour. That is, participants who were able to reverse engineer the underlying appraisal of norm-incompatibility from the emotion expressions inferred the norm more readily. Humans as a social species, require efficient means to quickly adapt to new situations and to perform flawlessly in social contexts. Emotion information is one of the instruments that can be used in this quest.
Group emotional contagion, the transfer of moods among people in a group, and its influence on work group dynamics was examined in a laboratory study of managerial decision making using multiple, convergent measures of mood, individual attitudes, behavior, and group-level dynamics. Using a 2 times 2 experimental design, with a trained confederate enacting mood conditions, the predicted effect of emotional contagion was found among group members, using both outside coders' ratings of participants' mood and participants' self-reported mood. No hypothesized differences in contagion effects due to the degree of pleasantness of the mood expressed and the energy level with which it was conveyed were found. There was a significant influence of emotional contagion on individual-level attitudes and group processes. As predicted, the positive emotional contagion group members experienced improved cooperation, decreased conflict, and increased perceived task performance. Theoretical implications and practical ramifications of emotional contagion in groups and organizations are discussed.
Seventeen studies of similarity in physical attractiveness between members of romantic couples or pairs of same-sex friends, employing 34 independent samples of dyads, were retrieved. Meta-analysis found the interpartner correlation for attractiveness to be higher for romantic couples than for pairs of friends. For couples, the correlations were homogeneous across 27 samples, with an average correlation of .39 (.49 after correction for attenuation). For pairs of friends, variations among correlations were found but were explained by gender of dyad: the matching effect was obtained only with men. Romantic partners were also similar in their self-ratings of attractiveness. These findings were related to contemporary theories of relationship formation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
To determine the importance and generalizability of repeated exposure in causing enhanced interpersonal attraction, an experiment was conducted with 64 females recruited on a college campus in which each S encountered 4 other Ss, all perceived to be either attitudinally similar or dissimilar, in frequencies of 1, 2, 4, and 8. Although Ss were generally more attracted to similar partners, there was a tendency, as measured by both group and individual data, for the most frequently seen other to be rated most positively on a variety of dependent measures. This "exposure effect" was slightly, but not significantly, more pronounced in the similar condition. Correlation data also support the hypothesis that repeated exposure enhances attraction. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Scholars apply the relationship metaphor as a default conceptual lens to under- stand commercial interactions. Yet whereas the relationship paradigm sheds light on how the socially embedded structure of these interactions impacts their out- comes, the relationship metaphor can also obscure scholarly understanding of business buyers’ experiences. Results of an interpretive study drawing on depth interviews demonstrate that buyers’ colloquial use of “relationship” language is ubiquitous. However, buyers’ narratives reveal instrumentally saturated emic meanings and felt tensions for the notion of expressive relationships with suppliers, which manifest deep conceptual friction with the constellation of etic relationship properties and constructs used by scholars to explain business interactions. Using Bauman’s sociological commentary on liquid modernity, analyses indicate that framing these interactions as “connections” is a more theoretically congruent lens for viewing buyers’ experiences. Implications for understanding buyers’ desire for relational bonds and recasting ironic “dark side” research findings offer challenges for relationship marketing research.
Relationship marketing (RM) has emerged as one of the dominant mantras in business strategy circles, though RM investigations often yield mixed results. To help managers and researchers improve the effectiveness of their efforts, the authors synthesize RM empirical research in a meta-analytic framework. Although the fundamental premise that RM positively affects performance is well supported, many of the authors' findings have significant implications for research and practice. Relationship investment has a large, direct effect on seller objective performance, which implies that additional meditated pathways may explain the impact of RM on performance. Objective performance is influenced most by relationship quality (a composite measure of relationship strength) and least by commitment. The results also suggest that RM is more effective when relationships are more critical to customers (e.g., service offerings, channel exchanges, business markets) and when relationships are built with an individual person rather than a selling firm (which partially explains the mixed effects between RM and performance reported in previous studies).
In a study of 362 buyer–salesperson dyads using triadic data (from buyer, salesperson, and sales manager), the authors examine both a customer's overall loyalty to the selling firm and the customer's loyalty vested specifically in his or her salesperson. They find that only salesperson-owned loyalty, a newly identified construct, directly affects the more tangible seller financial outcomes of sales growth and selling effectiveness, whereas both salesperson-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm increase the customer's willingness to pay a price premium. A longitudinal study verifies that the positive effect of salesperson-owned loyalty on sales growth persists over time. However, because salesperson-owned loyalty simultaneously increases the seller's risk of losing business if the salesperson defects to a competitor, managers need to manage effectively the benefit–risk trade-off. Increasing relationship-enhancing activities and value received by the customer builds both salesperson-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm. The loyalty-building impact of relationship-enhancing activities is moderated by selling-firm consistency and by the selling firm's and salesperson's loyalty-capturing strategies.
This study investigates the role of the positive organizational behavior (POB) concept of emotional competence for the effective management of participants' affect in service encounters and customers' assessments about the encounter. We developed and tested a two-level model in which service employees' emotional competence is related to both service employees' and customers' state positive affect. Customers' positive affect, in turn, is related to customers' specific and general evaluations of the service rendered. A total of 394 service encounters involving 53 financial consultants of a bank were assessed. Data were analyzed by a combination of path analysis and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), and the results support large parts of the model. More specifically, employees' emotional competence was related to customer evaluations through their own positive affective state during the encounter as well as through a direct link to the customer evaluations of the encounter. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This research examines how sales professionals use emotions in marketing exchanges to facilitate positive outcomes for their firms, themselves, and their customers. The authors conduct three field studies to examine the impact of emotional intelligence (EI) in marketing exchanges on sales performance and customer relationships. They find that EI is positively related to performance of real estate and insurance agents, even when controlling for the effects of domain-general EI, self-report EI, cognitive ability, and several control variables. Sales professionals with higher EI are not only superior revenue generators but also better at retaining customers. In addition, the authors demonstrate that EI interacts with key marketing exchange variables—customer orientation and manifest influence—to heighten performance such that high-EI salespeople more effectively employ customer-oriented selling and influence customer decisions. Finally, the results indicate a complementary relationship between EI and cognitive ability in that EI positively influences performance at higher levels of cognitive ability. These findings have implications for improving interactions between buyers and sellers and for employee selection and training.
The influence of attitudinal similarities on the dyadic interaction of salesmen and their prospects was examined with particular attention to the unsold prospect. Unsold prospects differed significantly from salesmen and sold prospects on all variables, and perceived role congruence was found to be the major discriminator of unsold prospects.
The authors describe commercial friendships that develop between service providers and clients as one important type of marketing relationship. They report results of five studies that employ quantitative and qualitative data analysis. They develop a measure of commercial friendship, identify important correlates, and illustrate how friendships form. Context and tension between instrumental and expressive goals circumscribe commercial friendships, but friendships are associated with satisfaction, strong service loyalty, and positive word of mouth. Qualitative data illustrate varied temporal ordering among satisfaction, loyalty, and friendship for both service providers and clients. The authors identify implications of their findings for an array of industries in which commercial friendships may form.
Salespeople involved in the marketing of complex services often perform the role of “relationship manager.” It is, in part, the quality of the relationship between the salesperson and the customer that determines the probability of continued interchange between those parties in the future. A relationship quality model is advanced and tested that examines the nature, consequences, and antecedents of relationship quality, as perceived by the customer. The findings suggest that future sales opportunities depend mostly on relationship quality (i.e., trust and satisfaction), whereas the ability to convert those opportunities into sales hinges more on conventional source characteristics of similarity and expertise. Relational selling behaviors such as cooperative intentions, mutual disclosure, and intensive followup contact generally produce a strong buyer-seller bond.
Complex, highly intangible services such as life insurance consist largely of credence properties. Insurance providers engage in relationship-building activities that emphasize buyer-seller interaction and communication. Economists contend consumers are prone to make quality generalizations based on the strength of these relationships, perhaps to the detriment of price competition. The authors report contrary results suggesting that, though relationship marketing adds value to the service package, it is not a substitute for having a strong, up-to-date core service.
In this research, we look at the similarity between frontline service employees’ nonverbal or expressive behavior and customers’ receptivity of nonverbally expressed emotions (i.e., expressive similarity). Supported by evidence from four studies, we demonstrate that expressive similarity between customers and frontline service employees yields positive outcomes for both the employee and the organization under successful service delivery, but it can paradoxically backfire on the organization in service failures. In successful service encounters, higher expressive similarity between customers and employees enhances consumer satisfaction and promotes more direct compliments and positive word of mouth. In contrast, higher expressive similarity increases customer dissatisfaction and intent to engage in negative word of mouth, but it reduces customers’ inclination to lodge direct complaints following a service failure (Study 1). Studies 2 and 3, both field experiments, provide external validation of the key findings on customer satisfaction and voice intentions (Study 2) as well as actual voice behavior (Study 3). Building on these findings, Study 4 reveals that while customer-perceived rapport and trait impressions of the service employee mediate the observed effects of expressive similarity on satisfaction, only rapport significantly explains the effects of expressive similarity on voice intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications, along with suggestions for future research, conclude the paper.
The authors integrate theory developed in several disciplines to determine five cognitive processes through which industrial buyers can develop trust of a supplier firm and its salesperson. These processes provide a theoretical framework used to identify antecedents of trust. The authors also examine the impact of supplier firm and salesperson trust on a buying firm's current supplier choice and future purchase intentions. The theoretical model is tested on data collected from more than 200 purchasing managers. The authors find that several variables influence the development of supplier firm and salesperson trust. Trust of the supplier firm and trust of the salesperson (operating indirectly through supplier firm trust) influence a buyer's anticipated future interaction with the supplier. However, after controlling for previous experience and supplier performance, neither trust of the selling firm nor its salesperson influence the current supplier selection decision.
The growing number of academic studies on customer satisfaction and the mixed findings they report complicate efforts among managers and academics to identify the antecedents to, and outcomes of, businesses having more-versus less-satisfied customers. These mixed findings and the growing emphasis by managers on having satisfied customers point to the value of empirically synthesizing the evidence on customer satisfaction to assess current knowledge. To this end, the authors conduct a meta-analysis of the reported findings on customer satisfaction. They document that equity and disconfirmation are most strongly related to customer satisfaction on average. They also find that measurement and method factors that characterize the research often moderate relationship strength between satisfaction and its antecedents and outcomes. The authors discuss the implications surrounding these effects and offer several directions for future research.
Using a gating paradigm, this study investigated the nature of the in-group advantage in vocal emotion
recognition by comparing 2 distinct cultures. Pseudoutterances conveying 4 basic emotions, expressed in English and Hindi, were presented to English and Hindi listeners. In addition to hearing full utterances,
each stimulus was gated from its onset to construct 5 processing intervals to pinpoint when the in-group
advantage emerges, and whether this differs when listening to a foreign language (English participants
judging Hindi) or a second language (Hindi participants judging English). An index of the mean emotion
identification point for each group and unbiased measures of accuracy at each time point was calculated. Results showed that in each language condition, native listeners were faster and more accurate than non-native listeners to recognize emotions. The in-group advantage emerged in both conditions after processing 400 ms to 500 ms of acoustic information. In the bilingual Hindi group, greater oral proficiency in English predicted faster and more accurate recognition of English emotional expressions. Consistent with dialect theory, our findings provide new evidence that nonverbal dialects impede both the accuracy and the efficiency of vocal emotion processing in cross-cultural settings, even when individuals are highly proficient in the out-group target language.
-This study investigated a possible mediation between attitudinal similarity and closeness of relationship by similarities in the meta-attitudinal prioritization of attitudinal issues. Members of 22 romantic couples rated their positions on 22 issues and then rank-ordered their priority. Rank-order correlations were higher for couples than noncouple pairs and, when analyses were restricted to couples' high-priority attitudes, attitude dissimilarity correlated with closeness of relationship. Results suggest that emotional closeness may require some attitudinal friction in otherwise interdependent couples. Closeness in relationships has been defined in terms of a complex, lasting interdependence between two people (4). Similarities and differences between the attitudes held by these two people are likely to be among the causal conditions for initial attraction (3, 5, 6), and therefore, for the formation or maintenance of interdependence. Nevertheless, it is possible that, as a contributor to interdependence, similarities in the priority of attitudinal issues may interact with similarities on individual attitudinal positions. For example, similarities or differences between two people in terms of their attitudes toward a controversial issue like abortion may only affect relational interdependence to the extent that this issue is an important priority for one or both. Even a perfect agreement between two people on the morality of abortion may contribute little to their interdependence if one gives it high enough priority to attend demonstrations regularly and the other does not. Similarly, differences in positions or priorities may influence interdependence only interactively. Twenty-two romantically attached subjects were recruited as volunteers from introductory psychology classes and were asked to include their romantic partners. The mean age of couples was 20 years old, with a range from 17 to 24 years. From the list of attitudes provided by Byrne (3), pilot subjects selected issues which might be controversial within contemporary romantic relationships. Additional issues drawn from their own experience were also added, resulting in a list of 22 attitudinal issues. For the researched couples, each member was asked to indicate a personal position on each attitudinal issue via a 7point scale in Likert format. Meta-attitudinal priorities were separately assessed by having each individual provide a subsequent rank-ordering of the issues according to their relative personal importance. Each subject also completed the Relationship Closeness Inventory (2), an inventory designed to assess intimacy in terms of frequency, diversity, and strength of interdependence within a couple. Actual length of relationship was also independently recorded. Mean difference in attitude position was assessed for each couple by averaging rating-scale differences across all 22 items. Similarity in meta-attitudmal priorities was indexed by calculating a Spearman rho on each couple's rank-orderings. According to this index, 77% of the couples had significantly correlated meta-attimdinal priorities, a significantly higher proportion (p<.05) than that produced by randomly paired male-female rankings ("noncouples"). This is a
The “similarity-attraction” effect stands as one of the most well-known findings in social psychology. However, some research contends that perceived but not actual similarity influences attraction. The current study is the first to examine the effects of actual and perceived similarity simultaneously during a face-to-face initial romantic encounter. Participants attending a speed-dating event interacted with ∼12 members of the opposite sex for 4 min each. Actual and perceived similarity for each pair were calculated from questionnaire responses assessed before the event and after each date. Data revealed that perceived, but not actual, similarity significantly predicted romantic liking in this speed-dating context. Furthermore, perceived similarity was a far weaker predictor of attraction when assessed using specific traits rather than generally.
Sympathy is an emotion guided by cultural "feeling rules" and by the structure of relationships. This article examines how sympathy flows between sympathizer and sympathizee in our society's "emotional economy." Data from field observations, surveys, interviews, and content analyses show that sympathy margins exist as a right of group membership. The sizes of one's sympathy margins vary with, among a host of factors, one's sympathy biography or past adherence to sympathy etiquette. Rules of sympathy etiquette for sympathizees are the following: (1) do not make unwarranted claims to sympathy, (2) do not claim too much sympathy, (2a) do not accepts sympathy too readily, (3) claim and accept some sympathy to keep sympathy accounts open, and (4) repay sympathy with gratitude, with sympathy, or with both. Sympathizers are expected to enforce these rules; people who under-or overinvest are considered deviant sympathizers. Finally, sympathy processes may be used, consciously or unconsciously, for micropolitical ...
Although combining friendship and business in the same relationship can be beneficial, it can also create conflict. A source of this conflict is incompatible relational expectations. True friends are expected to be unmotivated by benefits that can be used beyond the relationship (e.g., money, status), whereas business partners are, by definition, at least partly motivated by these more "instrumental" concerns. Using a role theory framework and data collected from a survey of 685 direct-selling agents, this article reports evidence that a conflict between friendship and instrumentality can undermine some of the business outcomes that friendship might otherwise foster. It also suggests that this conflict is more severe for friendships that become business relationships than for business relationships that become friendships. Study conclusions do not suggest that friendship is entirely "bad" for business and, instead, propose that friendship's influence can be both positive and negative.
This study extends the existing satisfaction-trust-loyalty paradigm to investigate how customers' affectionate ties with firms (customer-firm affection)-in particular, the components of intimacy and passion-affect customer loyalty in services. In a bilevel model, the authors consider customer-staff and customer-firm interactions in parallel. Through a netnography study and survey research in two service contexts, they confirm (1) the salience of intimacy and passion as two underrecognized components of customer-firm affection that influence customer loyalty, (2) the complementary and mediating role of customer-firm affection in strengthening customer loyalty, (3) significant affect transfers from the customer-staff to the customer-firm level, and (4) the dilemma that emerges when customer-staff relationships are too close. The findings provide several implications for researchers and managers regarding how intimacy and passion can enrich customer service interactions and how to manage customer-staff relationships properly.
Heterosexual male undergraduates rated the interpersonal attractiveness and perceived attitude similarity of heterosexual and homosexual targets who were either attitudinally similar, ambiguous (i.e., no-attitude-information controls), or dissimilar to the participant. The relative effect of attitude similarity and dissimilarity information on attraction judgments was moderated by the perceiver's prejudice level but not by the target's group membership: Dissimilarity decreased low-prejudice (LP) individuals' attraction toward heterosexual and homosexual targets. Conversely, similarity increased high-prejudice (HP) participants' attraction toward both targets. Dissimilarity also decreased HPs' attraction toward heterosexual targets. Attraction effects for LPs were independent of perceived attitude similarity in the no-attitude control conditions and were more consistent with the person-positivity bias. For HPs, judgments of homosexual targets were partially mediated by perceived attitude dissimilarity. Findings are discussed in the context of the similarity-attraction principle, the repulsion hypothesis, and theories of intergroup discrimination.
This paper suggests that feelings (moods and emotions) play a central role in the leadership process. More specifically, it is proposed that emotional intelligence, the ability to understand and manage moods and emotions in the self and others, contributes to effective leadership in organizations. Four major aspects of emotional intelligence, the appraisal and expression of emotion, the use of emotion to enhance cognitive processes and decision making, knowledge about emotions, and management of emotions, are described. Then, I propose how emotional intelligence contributes to effective leadership by focusing on five essential elements of leader effectiveness: development of collective goals and objectives; instilling in others an appreciation of the importance of work activities; generating and maintaining enthusiasm, confidence, optimism, cooperation, and trust; encouraging flexibility in decision making and change; and establishing and maintaining a meaningful identity for an organization.
Early daters (n = 34), steady daters (n = 42), and engaged daters (n = 32) provided physical attractiveness ratings for self, a dating partner, an ideal dating partner, and the expected rating of self by the dating partner. Within-person correlations on these ratings showed that, independent of gender or intensity of relationship, daters evidenced a need for partners to support their own view of physical attractiveness. On the basis of judgments provided by objective raters (n = 16), Ss generally erred in physical attractiveness attributions made to self and partner.
Research on emotions in organizations has traditionally taken an intrapersonal approach, examining how an organization member’s emotions influence his or her own cognitions, attitudes, and behavior. We argue that a full understanding of the role of emotions in organizations requires a complementary focus on their interpersonal effects—that is, how one worker’s emotions influence the feelings, cognitions, attitudes, and behavior of others. We advance Emotions as Social Information (EASI) theory, which posits that emotional expressions exert interpersonal effects by triggering affective reactions and/or inferential processes in targets, depending on the target’s information processing and the perceived appropriateness of the emotional expression. We review evidence from four domains of organizational behavior: customer service, group decision making, negotiation, and leadership. We call for new research that examines emotions in greater detail (discrete emotions, intensity, authenticity), studies different settings (organizational change, personnel selection), and considers temporal dynamics (frequency, long-term outcomes).
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101 15–17 yr old school-leavers were interviewed by a 4-member panel for places on an engineering apprentice training scheme. The nonverbal behavior (NVB) of each candidate was categorized during the interview using a schedule of 10 classes of NVB divided into 30 components. When the interviews were grouped by outcome (i.e., accept, reserve, and reject), differences were found on several important classes of NVB. Alternative causal hypotheses are suggested for the observed relationship between NVB in the interview and the decision that was made. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The concept of "emotion-as-motivation" is challenged on theoretical and empirical grounds and emotion as a response is offered as the alternative. Theoretical relations between the "intertwined concepts" of adaptation and emotion are discussed. Emotion is "said to flow from appraisal processes by which the person or infrahuman animal evaluated the adaptive significance of the stimulus." A review of empirical research on emotion involving appraisal and reappraisal of threat under laboratory conditions is presented. (132 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article discusses the conceptual meaning of partner effects, which occur when one person is affected by the behavior or characteristics of his or her partner. We show that partner effects can be used to validate the presence of a relationship and can elaborate the particular nature of that relationship. We discuss possible moderation of partner effects and show that many theoretical variables in relationship research (e.g., similarity) can be viewed as the interactions of partner effects with other variables. We present three extended examples that illustrate the importance of partner effects.
In this chapter, the authors present a social functional account of emotions that attempts to integrate the relevant insights of evolutionary and social constructivist theorists. The authors' account is summarized in 3 statements: (1) social living presents social animals with problems whose solutions are critical for individual survival; (2) emotions have been designed in the course of evolution to solve these problems; and (3) in humans, culture loosens the linkages between emotions and problems so that cultures find new ways of using emotions. In the first half of the chapter the authors synthesize the positions of diverse theorists in a taxonomy of problems of social living and then consider how evolution-based primordial emotions solve those problems by coordinating social interactions. In the second half of the chapter the authors discuss the specific processes according to which culture transforms primordial emotions and how culturally shaped elaborated emotions help solve the problems of social living. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although the identification of customer needs constitutes a cornerstone of the marketing concept, the accuracy of frontline employees' perceptions of customer needs has never been examined in a systematic manner. Following research in social cognition, this article introduces the concept of "customer need knowledge" (CNK), which describes the extent to which a frontline employee can accurately identify a given customer's hierarchy of needs. The results of two large-scale, multilevel investigations involving data from three different levels (customers, employees, and managers) demonstrate the importance of CNK for the provision of customer satisfaction and customer value. In particular, CNK fully mediates the influence of employees' customer orientation and cognitive empathy on these customer outcomes. Moreover, whereas the length of the relationship between an employee and a particular customer enhances CNK, a large age discrepancy in relation to the customer decreases employees' level of CNK.
This article provides an overview of current research on emotional intelligence. Although it has been defined in many ways, we focus on the four-branch model by Mayer and Salovey (1997), which characterizes emo-tional intelligence as a set of four related abilities: per-ceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions. The theory provides a useful framework for studying in-dividual differences in abilities related to processing emo-tional information. Despite measurement obstacles, the evidence in favor of emotional intelligence is accumulating. Emotional intelligence predicts success in important do-mains, among them personal and work relationships. KEYWORDS—emotional intelligence; emotions; social inter-action In the past decade, emotional intelligence has generated an enormous amount of interest both within and outside the field of psychology. The concept has received considerable media at-tention, and many readers of this article may have already en-countered one or more definitions of emotional intelligence. The present discussion, however, focuses on the scientific study of emotional intelligence rather than on popularizations of the concept. Mayer and Salovey (1997; see also Salovey & Mayer, 1990) proposed a model of emotional intelligence to address a growing need in psychology for a framework to organize the study of in-dividual differences in abilities related to emotion. This theo-retical model motivated the creation of the first ability-based tests of emotional intelligence. Although findings remain pre-liminary, emotional intelligence has been shown to have an ef-fect on important life outcomes such as forming satisfying personal relationships and achieving success at work. Perhaps most importantly, ability-based tests of emotional intelligence reliably measure skills that are relatively distinct from com-monly assessed aspects of personality.
This study empirically investigates the effect of perceived salesperson attractiveness on actual salesperson performance, focusing first on the moderating effect of length of the buyer - salesperson relationship and then on the mediating effects of perceived communication ability, likeability, expertise, and trustworthiness on the attractiveness effect. A sample of 339 physicians was surveyed to obtain their evaluations of pharmaceutical company sales representatives’ attractiveness as well as their perceptions of the mediators. Actual brand-by-brand market share data of the subject physicians’ prescriptions was collected as the dependent variable. The results showed that perceived salesperson attractiveness had a significant positive effect on salesperson performance, but the effect was found to diminish as the length of the salesperson-customer relationship increased. Three of the four proposed mediators were found to partially mediate the effect of attractiveness on sales performance.
Strategic management studies frequently involve obtaining retrospective data from strategic-level managers. The use of this data acquisition methodology has received relatively little codification and little critical review or comment. This seems unfortunate, as discussion and codification of the methodology could be useful for those academic researchers and corporate staff who study strategic decisions and organizational processes and for those managers who may be asked to provide the retrospective data. This paper is an attempt to remedy the current state of affairs. In particular, the paper reviews several sources of the data inaccuracies that commonly affect retrospective data and offers guidelines for reducing the occurrence or magnitude of these inaccuracies.