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Full-Text Articles in Social Psychology

Biting The Hand That Feeds: A Status-Based Model Of When And Why Receiving Help Motivates Social Undermining, Kenneth Tai, Katrina Jia Lin, Catherice K. Lam, Wu Liu Jan 2023

Biting The Hand That Feeds: A Status-Based Model Of When And Why Receiving Help Motivates Social Undermining, Kenneth Tai, Katrina Jia Lin, Catherice K. Lam, Wu Liu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Social exchange theory suggests that after receiving help, people reciprocate by helping the original helpgiver. However, we propose that help recipients may respond negatively and harm the help giver when they perceive helping as a status threat and experience envy. Integrating the helping as status relations framework and the social functional perspective of envy, we examine when and why receiving help may prompt help recipients to undermine help givers. Across four studies, we find progressive support for our results, which show that when individuals receive task-related help from help givers who are perceived to be more, rather than less, competent …


Burnout Isn’T Just Exhaustion: Workers Can Also Feel Cynical Or Inadequate, Tina Li Yi Ng, Andree Hartanto Nov 2021

Burnout Isn’T Just Exhaustion: Workers Can Also Feel Cynical Or Inadequate, Tina Li Yi Ng, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Employers, take note: There’s more to burnout which corporate wellness initiatives alone cannot solve, say SMU researchers. The huge wave of resignations spurred by the pandemic has forced companies to confront burnout, implementing “burnout breaks” to curb the loss of productivity that comes with working too much. Though initiatives like “mental health weeks” are widely appreciated, they merely scratch the surface and do not solve the issue. To truly put out the flames of burnout, a precise diagnosis of the problem is critical. This is especially true in Singapore, the world’s most fatigued country where one in two workers feels …


Covid-19, Coronavirus, Wuhan Virus, Or China Virus? Understanding How To “Do No Harm" When Naming An Infectious Disease, Theodore C. Masters-Waage, Nilotpal Jha, Jochen Reb Dec 2020

Covid-19, Coronavirus, Wuhan Virus, Or China Virus? Understanding How To “Do No Harm" When Naming An Infectious Disease, Theodore C. Masters-Waage, Nilotpal Jha, Jochen Reb

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

When labeling an infectious disease, officially sanctioned scientific names, e.g., “H1N1 virus,” are recommended over place-specific names, e.g., “Spanish flu.” This is due to concerns from policymakers and the WHO that the latter might lead to unintended stigmatization. However, with little empirical support for such negative consequences, authorities might be focusing on limited resources on an overstated issue. This paper empirically investigates the impact of naming against the current backdrop of the 2019-2020 pandemic.


The Attractiveness Advantage At Work: A Cross-Disciplinary Integrative Review, Kelly A Nault, Marko Pitesa, Stefan Thau Oct 2020

The Attractiveness Advantage At Work: A Cross-Disciplinary Integrative Review, Kelly A Nault, Marko Pitesa, Stefan Thau

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Compared with people of average attractiveness, the highly attractive earn roughly 20 percent more and are recommended for promotion more frequently. The dominant view of this “attractiveness advantage” is one of taste-based discrimination, whereby attractive individuals are preferred without justification in economic productivity. We conduct a comprehensive review of research on attractiveness discrimination, finding relatively more evidence that this phenomenon constitutes, to some extent, statistical (as opposed to solely taste-based) discrimination, in which decision makers assume that attractive people are more competent and discriminate based on instrumental motives. We then review research that speaks to whether decision makers might be …


Imaginary Alternatives: The Impact Of Mental Simulation On Powerless Negotiators, Michael Schaerer, Martin Schweinsberg, Roderick I. Swaab Jan 2018

Imaginary Alternatives: The Impact Of Mental Simulation On Powerless Negotiators, Michael Schaerer, Martin Schweinsberg, Roderick I. Swaab

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The present research demonstrates that negotiators can act powerfully without having power.Researchers and practitioners advise people to obtain strong alternatives prior to negotiating toenhance their power. However, alternatives are not always readily available, often forcingnegotiators to negotiate without much, or any, power. Building on research suggesting thatsubjective feelings of power and objective outcomes are disconnected and that mental simulationcan increase individuals’ aspirations, we hypothesized that the mental imagery of a strongalternative could provide similar psychological benefits to having an actual alternative. Ourstudies demonstrate that imagining strong alternatives causes individuals to negotiate moreambitiously and provides them with a distributive advantage: negotiators …


Perspective-Taking And Willingness To Engage In Intergroup Contact, Cynthia S. Wang, Kenneth Tai, Gillian Ku, Adam D. Galinsky Jan 2014

Perspective-Taking And Willingness To Engage In Intergroup Contact, Cynthia S. Wang, Kenneth Tai, Gillian Ku, Adam D. Galinsky

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The current research explored whether perspective-taking increases willingness to engage in contact with stereotyped outgroup members. Across three studies, we find that perspective-taking increases willingness to engage in contact with negatively-stereotyped targets. In Study 1, perspective-takers sat closer to, whereas stereotype suppressors sat further from, a hooligan compared to control participants. In Study 2, individual differences in perspective-taking tendencies predicted individuals’ willingness to engage in contact with a hooligan, having effects above and beyond those of empathic concern. Finally, Study 3 demonstrated that perspective-taking’s effects on intergroup contact extend to the target’s group (i.e., another homeless man), but not to …


Stupid Doctors And Smart Construction Workers: Perspective-Taking Reduces Stereotyping Of Both Negative And Positive Targets, Cynthia S. Wang, Gillian Ku, Kenneth Tai, Adam D. Galinsky Sep 2013

Stupid Doctors And Smart Construction Workers: Perspective-Taking Reduces Stereotyping Of Both Negative And Positive Targets, Cynthia S. Wang, Gillian Ku, Kenneth Tai, Adam D. Galinsky

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Numerous studies have found that perspective-taking reduces stereotyping and prejudice, but they have only involved negative stereotypes. Because target negativity has been empirically confounded with reduced stereotyping, the general effects of perspective-taking on stereotyping and prejudice are unclear. By including both positively and negatively stereotyped targets, this research offers the first empirical test of two competing hypotheses: The positivity hypothesis predicts that perspective-taking produces a positivity bias, with less stereotyping of negative targets but more stereotyping of positive targets. In contrast, the stereotype-reduction hypothesis predicts that perspective-taking reduces stereotyping, regardless of target valence. Three studies support the stereotype-reduction hypothesis. Perspective-taking …


Mimicry And Just World Beliefs: Mimicking Makes Men View The World As More Personally Just, Marielle Stel, Kees Van Der Bos, Su-Hsien Samantha Sim, Sonja Rispens Jan 2013

Mimicry And Just World Beliefs: Mimicking Makes Men View The World As More Personally Just, Marielle Stel, Kees Van Der Bos, Su-Hsien Samantha Sim, Sonja Rispens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

People's just world beliefs are related to how they feel and behave towards others: the stronger people hold beliefs that the world treats them fairly, the more they feel and act pro-socially towards others. It is conceivable, therefore, that pro-social feelings and behaviours towards others can strengthen people's personal belief in a just world, especially when people expect these positive feelings to be returned. Because mimicry enhances pro-social feelings towards others, we argue that mimicry may strengthen peoples’ personal just world beliefs via positive feelings for the mimicked person and the expectation that these positive feelings are returned. Moreover, we …


Envy As Pain: Rethinking The Nature Of Envy And Its Implications For Employees And Organizations, Kenneth Tai, Jayanth Narayanan, Daniel J. Mcallister Jan 2012

Envy As Pain: Rethinking The Nature Of Envy And Its Implications For Employees And Organizations, Kenneth Tai, Jayanth Narayanan, Daniel J. Mcallister

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although envy has been characterized by resentment, hostility, and ill will, researchers have begun to investigate envy's benign manifestations. We contend that the substance of envy has been confounded with its consequences. We conceptualize envy as pain at another's good fortune. This reconceptualization allows envy to result in both positive and negative consequences. We then examine how envy affects interpersonal behaviors and job performance, contingent on core self-evaluation, referent cognitions, and perceived organizational support.


Touching A Teddy Bear Mitigates The Negative Effects Of Social Exclusion, Kenneth Tai, Xue Zheng, Jayanth Narayanan Apr 2011

Touching A Teddy Bear Mitigates The Negative Effects Of Social Exclusion, Kenneth Tai, Xue Zheng, Jayanth Narayanan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

There is little empirical research to date that looks at how the deleterious effects of social exclusion can be mitigated. We examined how touching an inanimate object—a teddy bear—might impact the effect of social exclusion on prosocial behavior. Across two studies, we found that socially excluded individuals who touched a teddy bear acted more prosocially as compared to socially excluded individuals who just viewed the teddy bear from a distance. This effect was only observed for socially excluded participants and not for socially included (or control) participants. Overall, the findings suggest that touching a teddy bear mitigates the negative effects …