Psyched
Quitters Never Win: The (Adverse) Incentive Effects of Competing with Superstars
Jennifer Brown
Journal of Political Economy, October 2011, Pages 982-1013
Abstract:
Internal competition may motivate worker effort, yet the benefits of competition may depend critically on workers' relative abilities: large skill differences may reduce efforts. I use panel data from professional golf tournaments and find that the presence of a superstar is associated with lower performance. On average, golfers' first-round scores are approximately 0.2 strokes worse when Tiger Woods participates relative to when Woods is absent. The overall tournament effect is 0.8 strokes. The adverse superstar effect varies with the quality of Woods's play. There is no evidence that reduced performance is attributable to media attention intensity or risky strategy adoption.
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Time, money, and happiness: How does putting a price on time affect our ability to smell the roses?
Sanford DeVoe & Julian House
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper, we investigate how the impatience that results from placing a price on time impairs individuals' ability to derive happiness from pleasurable experiences. Experiment 1 demonstrated that thinking about one's income as an hourly wage reduced the happiness that participants derived from leisure time on the internet. Experiment 2 revealed that a similar manipulation decreased participants' state of happiness after listening to a pleasant song and that this effect was fully mediated by the degree of impatience experienced during the music. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that the deleterious effect on happiness caused by impatience was attenuated by offering participants monetary compensation in exchange for time spent listening to music, suggesting that a sensation of unprofitably wasted time underlay the induced impatience. Together these experiments establish that thinking about time in terms of money can influence how people experience pleasurable events by instigating greater impatience during unpaid time.
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Self-deception's adaptive value: Effects of positive thinking and the winner effect
Jason Kido Lopez & Matthew Fuxjager
Consciousness and Cognition, forthcoming
Abstract:
There is a puzzle about why self-deception, a process that obscures the truth, is so pervasive in human behavior given that tracking the truth seems important for our survival and reproduction. William von Hippel and Robert Trivers argue that, despite appearances, there is good reason to think that self-deception is an adaptation by arguing: (1) self-deception leads to a positive self-perception and (2) a positive self-perception increases an individual's fitness. D.S. Neil Van Leeuwen, however, gives persuasive arguments against both steps. In response, we will defend both propositions, thereby supporting the conclusion that self-deception indeed has adaptive value. The first premise will be bolstered by a survey of the philosophical literature and empirical work on self-deception, whereas the second will be strengthened by empirical research on a behavioral phenomenon known as the winner effect.
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Competitiveness across the life span: The feisty fifties
Ulrich Mayr et al.
Psychology and Aging, forthcoming
Abstract:
Existing theories on life span changes in confidence or motivation suggest that individuals' preferences to enter competitive situations should gradually decline with age. We examined competitive preferences in a field experiment using real financial stakes in 25- to 75-year-olds (N = 543). The critical dependent variable was whether participants chose to perform a simple mental arithmetic task either under a piece-rate payment schedule (i.e., $.25 per solved item) or a competitive payment schedule ($.50 per solved item if the overall score is better than that of a randomly selected opponent, $0 otherwise). Results revealed that competitive preferences increased across the life span until they peaked around age 50, and dropped thereafter. We also found that throughout, men had a substantially larger preference for competing than women - extending previous findings on college-aged participants. The age/gender differences in preferences were neither accounted for by actual differences in performance nor individuals' subjective confidence. This first systematic attempt to characterize age differences in competitive behavior suggests that a simple decline conception of competitiveness needs to be reconsidered.
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The end justifies the means, but only in the middle
Maferima Touré-Tillery & Ayelet Fishbach
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
Achieving goals often requires the completion of sequential actions, such as finishing a series of assignments to pass a class. In the course of pursuing such goals, people can decide how closely to follow their personal standards for each action. We propose that actions at the beginning and end of a sequence appear more diagnostic of the pursuer's personal standards than do actions in the middle. Therefore, people are more likely to adhere to their standards at the beginning and end of goal pursuit - and slack in the middle. We demonstrate this pattern of judgment and behavior in adherence to ethical standards (e.g., cheating), religious traditions (e.g., skipping religious rituals), and performance standards (e.g., "cutting corners" on a task). We also show that the motivation to adhere to standards by using proper means is independent and follows a different pattern from the motivation to reach the end state of goal pursuit.
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I Can Do That: The Impact of Implicit Theories on Leadership Role Model Effectiveness
Crystal Hoyt, Jeni Burnette & Audrey Innella
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research investigates the role of implicit theories in influencing the effectiveness of successful role models in the leadership domain. Across two studies, the authors test the prediction that incremental theorists ("leaders are made") compared to entity theorists ("leaders are born") will respond more positively to being presented with a role model before undertaking a leadership task. In Study 1, measuring people's naturally occurring implicit theories of leadership, the authors showed that after being primed with a role model, incremental theorists reported greater leadership confidence and less anxious-depressed affect than entity theorists following the leadership task. In Study 2, the authors demonstrated the causal role of implicit theories by manipulating participants' theory of leadership ability. They replicated the findings from Study 1 and demonstrated that identification with the role model mediated the relationship between implicit theories and both confidence and affect. In addition, incremental theorists outperformed entity theorists on the leadership task.
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Selecting the Best? Spillover and Shadows in Elimination Tournaments
Jennifer Brown & Dylan Minor
NBER Working Paper, December 2011
Abstract:
We consider how an elimination tournament's ability to select the most skilled competitor as the winner is shaped by past, current, and future competition. We present a two-stage model that yields the following main results: (1) a shadow effect - the weaker the expected future competitor, the greater the probability that the stronger player wins in the current stage and (2) an effort spillover effect - previous effort reduces the probability that the stronger player wins in the current stage. We test our theory predictions using data from high-stakes tournaments and betting markets. Empirical results suggest that shadow and spillover effects influence match outcomes.
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Contracting with Self-Esteem Concerns
Junichiro Ishida
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
It is widely accepted in social psychology that the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem is a fundamental human motive. We incorporate this factor into an otherwise ordinary principal-agent framework and examine its impact on the optimal incentive scheme and the agent's behavior, especially focusing on the form of intrapersonal strategy known as self-handicapping. Incorporating self-esteem concerns into a contracting situation yields an implication that runs counter to conventional wisdom; that is, the standard tradeoff between risk and incentives may break down (i.e., more uncertainty reduces agency cost and hence results in stronger incentives) in the presence of self-esteem concerns. This is because uncertainty mitigates the need for self-handicapping. This result provides a possible reason for why we do not empirically observe this tradeoff in a robust manner. We present an intuitive condition for this anomaly to arise and provide a set of testable implications. The present framework also reveals why and how team production can be made more profitable by providing an explanation for the increasing popularity of team production. Finally, this simple logic is applied to identify additional implications for the hidden costs of external enforcers, such as evaluation and monitoring, which are discussed extensively in social psychology.
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Avoiding negative vs. achieving positive outcomes in hard and prosperous economic times
Kobe Millet, Lien Lamey & Bram Van den Bergh
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, forthcoming
Abstract:
Three studies suggest that business cycle fluctuations trigger distinct motivational orientations that selectively affect economic judgment and decision making. Economic contractions induce avoidance motivation and affect negative economic sentiment, but leave approach motivation and positive economic sentiment unaffected. In contrast, economic expansions induce approach motivation and positive economic sentiment, but do not affect avoidance motivation or negative economic sentiment (study 1). Moreover, economic contractions induce risk aversion for negative outcomes, but not for positive outcomes, while economic expansions instigate risk seeking for positive outcomes, but not for negative outcomes (study 2). A time-series study based on consumer spending over eight decades mirrors the findings of the experimental studies: The consumption of products associated with avoiding negative outcomes increases during economic contractions, but not during expansions. In contrast, the consumption of products associated with achieving positive outcomes increases in expansions, but is unaffected by contractions (study 3).
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Elanor Williams & Thomas Gilovich
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine whether people call to mind different manifestations of various traits when considering what they are like than when considering what others are like. Specifically, do people think that peak manifestations of their traits and abilities best capture who they are themselves, but that other people are better captured by their average performances or trait expressions? In Studies 1a and 1b, participants were more likely to believe that their own most attractive photographs best represent their typical appearance than others' do. In Study 2, participants' estimates of where they stand on various trait dimensions coincided with their highest possible standing, whereas their estimates of an acquaintance's standing coincided with the midpoint between the latter's highest and lowest possible standing. In Study 3, regression analyses revealed that students' predictions of their own final exam score were based most heavily on their highest score received to that point, but their predictions of someone else's final exam score was based most heavily on that student's average score. We discuss how this tendency fits in the broader literature on self-other differences in evaluation and how it contributes to above-average effect.
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Maferima Touré-Tillery & Ayelet Fishbach
Journal of Consumer Psychology, October 2011, Pages 414-423
Abstract:
This article explores the course of motivation in pursuing various goals. We distinguish between two dimensions of motivation: the motivation to attain a focal goal (outcome-focused dimension) and the motivation to "do things right" in the process of reaching that goal (means-focused dimension). We identify the conditions under which the motivation to reach a focal goal increases versus decreases over the course of goal pursuit. We then propose that the motivation to "do things right" follows a u-shaped pattern, such that it is higher at the beginning and end of goal pursuit than in the middle.
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Young-Hoon Kim & Chi-Yue Chiu
Emotion, October 2011, Pages 1096-1104
Abstract:
Despite the popularity of the idea in American culture that self-enhancement confers psychological benefits, the evidence for this idea is mixed. In the present research, we tested the contention that overly positive self-assessments could lead to psychological distress. In two correlational studies (Studies 1 and 2), we addressed some previous problems related to the measurement of self-enhancement. By measuring self-enhancement through the discrepancy between self-assessments of relative task performance and actual relative task performance, we found that self-enhancement, like self-effacement, was associated with greater vulnerability to depression. In two subsequent experiments (Studies 3 and 4), we found that leading low (or high) performers to perceive their performance as high (or low) through providing bogus performance feedback produced analogous effects on the magnitude of experienced dejection.
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Memory for Emotional Simulations: Remembering a Rosy Future
Karl Szpunar, Donna Rose Addis & Daniel Schacter
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Mental simulations of future experiences are often concerned with emotionally arousing events. Although it is widely believed that mental simulations enhance future behavior, virtually nothing is known about how memory for these simulations changes over time or whether simulations of emotional experiences are especially well remembered. We used a novel paradigm that combined recently developed methods for generating simulations of future events and well-established procedures for testing memory to examine the retention of positive, negative, and neutral simulations over delays of 10 min and 1 day. We found that at the longer delay, details associated with negative simulations were more difficult to remember than details associated with positive or neutral simulations. We suggest that these effects reflect the influence of the fading-affect bias, whereby negative reactions fade more quickly than positive reactions, and that this influence results in a tendency to remember a rosy simulated future. We discuss implications of our findings for individuals with affective disorders, such as depression and anxiety.
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Traci Sitzmann & Stefanie Johnson
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, forthcoming
Abstract:
Two studies were conducted to examine the implications of inaccurate self-appraisals in online training. Self-assessment of knowledge moderated the effects of trainees' performance on subsequent performance and attrition. Performance was highest after uniformly positive ratings (i.e., high self-assessment and high performance), followed by underestimation, overestimation, and uniformly negative ratings, respectively. Attrition was lowest after uniformly positive ratings, followed by underestimation, uniformly negative ratings, and overestimation, respectively. Effort had a more positive effect on performance following low than high self-assessments and this interaction fully mediated the self-assessment/performance interaction on subsequent performance. Commitment had a more negative effect on subsequent attrition following low than high self-assessments and this interaction fully mediated the self-assessment/performance interaction on subsequent attrition. Finally, trainee conscientiousness affected their behavior when their performance and self-assessments were inconsistent - overestimating and underestimating performance increased attrition more for trainees low in conscientiousness and impaired performance more for trainees high in conscientiousness.