In this research, we examined whether psychological entitlement predicted noncompliance with the health guidelines of the COVID-19 pandemic. People higher in psychological entitlement typically try ...to avoid behaviors that might cause themselves harm, but their high expectations, lack of concern about others, and distrust of authority figures could affect their perceptions of the threat of the coronavirus and their views on the benefits of following the health guidelines. Across three studies (N = 1004, online samples from the United States), people higher in psychological entitlement reported less compliance with the health guidelines of the COVID-19 pandemic than people lower in psychological entitlement. Moreover, people higher in psychological entitlement believed that the threat of the virus was overblown and were less concerned about harming others, views that may partly explain their noncompliance. People higher in psychological entitlement were also more likely to report that they had contracted COVID-19, and thus their refusal to follow the health guidelines may have had negative consequences for them. An appeal to self-image concerns did not lead individuals higher in entitlement to be more likely to comply with the health guidelines.
•Entitled people are less likely to comply with the pandemic health guidelines.•They tend to believe that they won't infect others and the threat is overblown.•Yet entitled people were more likely to say they have contracted COVID-19.•Appealing to self-image concerns did not increase entitled people's compliance.
The present studies examined the hypothesis that loss of personal significance fuels extremism via the need for cognitive closure. Situations of significance loss-those that make one feel ashamed, ...humiliated, or demeaned-are inconsistent with the desire for a positive self-image, and instill a sense of uncertainty about the self. Consequently, individuals become motivated to seek certainty and closure that affords the restoration of personal significance. Extremist ideologies should thus increase in appeal, because they promise clear-cut strategies for such restoration. These notions were supported in a series of studies ranging from field surveys of political extremists imprisoned in the Philippines (Study 1) and Sri Lanka (Study 2) to experiments conducted with American samples (Studies 3-4). Implications of these findings are considered for the psychology of extremism, and for approaches to counterradicalization, and deradicalization.
Employee unethical behavior continues to be an area of interest as real-world business scandals persist. We investigate what happens after people engage in unethical behavior. Drawing from emotion ...theories (e.g., Tangney & Dearing, 2002) and the self-presentation literature (e.g., Leary & Miller, 2000), we first argue that people are socialized to experience shame after moral violations (Hypothesis 1). People then manage their shame and try to protect their self-images by engaging in exemplification behaviors (i.e., self-sacrificial behaviors that give the attribution of being a dedicated person; Hypothesis 2). We also examine the moderating role of supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM; i.e., a supervisor's singular focus on pursuing bottom-line outcomes) in relation to our theoretical model. We argue that high supervisor BLM intensifies the employee unethical behavior to shame relationship (Hypothesis 3) and results in heightened exemplification as a way to protect one's self-image by portraying the self as a dedicated person who is worthy of association (Hypothesis 4). We test our theoretical model across 2 experimental studies and 2 field studies. Although our results provide general support for Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3, our results produced mixed findings for Hypothesis 4. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Through earnings announcements, conference calls, and other press releases, corporate executives have an opportunity to frame the narrative of financial disclosures. Numerous studies have shown that ...textual tone significantly influences stock returns, suggesting that through word choice, upper management may impact market reaction. In this study, we examine the influence of CEO personality traits on corporate disclosures by analyzing the tone of earnings announcements for a sample of Fortune 500 CEOs over nearly two decades. Our hypotheses are twofold: (1) that qualitative disclosures in firms with narcissistic leaders will be biased upward and (2) the bias will moderate as CEOs becomes older. Our empirical results support these hypotheses and suggest that more narcissistic CEOs tend to reinforce their grandiose self-image by issuing more positive earnings announcements but this desire wanes with CEO age. We also find that the stock market response to the tone of the earnings announcement is less pronounced for more narcissistic CEOs, suggesting the market takes into account the bias in narcissistic CEO announcements.
This research considers two theoretical perspectives on employees’ motivation associated with diminished self-esteem from abusive supervision. The self-defense view of diminished self-esteem suggests ...that abusive supervision motivates destructive behavior in an attempt to reassert personal control and protect victims’ self-image. The self-presentational view of diminished self-esteem suggests abusive supervision motivates behavior that attempts to signal fit with and value to the workgroup and organization. On the basis of these two theoretical perspectives, we examine how employees’ diminished self-esteem from abusive supervision can motivate destructive work behavior (i.e., supervisor-directed deviance, organizational deviance) and self-presentational behavior (i.e., putting on a façade, ingratiation). Additionally, employees’ turnover intentions, which are an indicator of employees’ psychological detachment from the organization, are considered a moderator of the effects of abusive supervision on diminished self-esteem and associated behavior such that high turnover intentions attenuate the effects. Results of two field studies and a daily diary study support the hypothesized model and show that abusive supervision indirectly influences employees’ workplace deviance and self-presentational behavior via diminished self-esteem. As predicted, the effects are stronger for employees with lower versus higher turnover intentions.
Although coping with an abusive boss can be psychologically demanding, those who suffer from leader abuse often stay in these unpleasant relationships, actively managing the way they are viewed in ...the eyes of their abusive leader (source of the abuse) and coworkers (observers of the abuse). Accordingly, the abusive supervision literature has relied almost exclusively on an emotional appraisal perspective to study the self-image implications following leader abuse. The present study seeks to add to this emerging line of scholarly conversations by presenting a novel theoretical alternative. Specifically, we integrate self-presentation and self-concept orientation perspectives to portray individuals’ identity-driven self-image maintenance following leader abuse. We argue that only those with a stronger relational self-concept are likely to be motivated to preserve their identity-consistent self-image and present themselves in positive and socially desirable ways toward both their coworkers and leader, following leader abuse. Using survey data collected from working professionals in China across two field studies, we found support for our hypotheses that when employees with a stronger relational self-concept experienced abusive supervision, they were motivated to help their coworkers as a result of their relational reputation maintenance concerns, and to use ingratiation tactics toward their leader due to their image preservation motives. We also offer insights about both the theoretical and practical implications of our research and discuss study limitations and directions for future research.
People sometimes avoid information about the impact of their actions as an excuse to be selfish. Such "willful ignorance" reduces altruistic behavior and has detrimental effects in many consumer and ...organizational contexts. We report the first meta-analysis on willful ignorance, testing the robustness of its impact on altruistic behavior and examining its underlying motives. We analyze 33,603 decisions made by 6,531 participants in 56 different treatment effects, all employing variations of an experimental paradigm assessing willful ignorance. Meta-analytic results reveal that 40% of participants avoid easily obtainable information about the consequences of their actions on others, leading to a 15.6-percentage point decrease in altruistic behavior compared to when information is provided. We discuss the motives behind willful ignorance and provide evidence consistent with excuse-seeking behaviors to maintain a positive self-image. We investigate the moderators of willful ignorance and address the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of our findings on who engages in willful ignorance, as well as when and why.
Public Significance Statement
We present the first meta-analysis on willful ignorance-when individuals avoid information about the negative consequences of their actions to maximize personal outcomes-covering 33,603 decisions made by 6,531 participants across 56 treatment effects. Results demonstrate that the ability to avoid such information decreases altruistic behavior, and that seemingly altruistic behavior may not reflect a true concern for others.
Since 2015 Dutch street-level bureaucrats have ample discretionary space to determine how to help clients. Simultaneously, resources were reduced. According to Zacka SLBs should avoid three ...pathological positions: indifference, caregiving, and enforcing. At the individual level SLBs supposedly accomplish that by a gymnastics of the self. We observed SLBs. They avoided the pathological positions by (1) reframing the reigning policy for clients (enforcing caringly) and (2) managing clients’ self-image, bolstering their confidence, or tempering their expectations (caring forcefully). SLBs practice a gymnastics of the client alongside a gymnastics of the self. SLBs thus make the reigning policy palatable for clients.
This paper engages with debates over the Liberal International Order (LIO) and Latin America by focusing on Brazil. More specifically, it addresses President Jair Bolsonaro's foreign policy. His ...radical-right populist and religious-infused approach has been characterised by an explicit rejection of practically all elements of the LIO, including multilateralism, multiculturism, and regionalism-historically core features of Brazilian foreign policy. We seek to answer two interrelated questions: (1) what were the political conditions-domestic and international-that allowed for such dramatic foreign policy change? (2) what impact is Brazil's new foreign policy orientation having on the LIO? To address them, we resort to the aspirational constructivist theory, which has allowed us to theorise Brazil's new identity formation. We argue that Bolsonaro has reshaped Brazil's foreign policy as part of his endeavour to create a national self-image based on three pillars: anti-globalism, anti-Communism, and religious nationalism. By doing so, the Bolsonaro administration has transformed Brazil, otherwise an avid supporter of the LIO, into one of the order's most vocal critics. While anti-globalism (and, subsidiarily, anti-Communism) undermines the normative and institutional foundations of the LIO, religious nationalism offers a replacement to the order, based on independent ethno-nationalist communities. If Brazil's radical right populist model spreads across Latin America, it has the potential to hollow out the region's support to the LIO.
Explicit racism’s increased presence in Dutch public space did not lead to public recognition of the existence of structural forms of racism in the Netherlands until recently. Previously, I argued ...this denial was historically rooted in the construction of the Dutch self-image as charitable and open versus the framing of migrants as “weak”, “disadvantaged” others who need help from the majority group. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement changed this denial of structural racism in the Netherlands. Never before have structural forms of racism been addressed so widely and cross-racially in the Dutch public space and within institutions. Additionally, awareness of structural racism is growing among non-White young professionals, who previously thought their exclusion from or marginalisation within Dutch society was due to personal inability and lack of strategies to “adapt”. The increasing calls against institutional racism in the Netherlands mean unsettling the status quo and creating inclusionary spaces and practices.
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