A Counterfeit Competence: After Threat, Cheating Boosts One's Self-Image
In six studies, we show that after experiencing a threat to their abilities, individuals who misrepresent their performance as better than it actually is boost their feelings of competence. We situate these findings in the literature on self-protection. We show that this “counterfeit competence” effect holds when threat is measured (Study 1), manipulated (Study 2), and when the opportunity to cheat is randomly assigned (Study 3). We extend our findings to a workplace context, showing that threatened individuals who lie on a job application feel more capable than those who report them honestly (Study 4). Finally, consistent with the argument that counterfeit competence is driven by self-protection, we find individuals do not predict they would experience such a boost (Study 5) and that cheating after threat offers benefits similar to those provided by other established methods of self-protection (Study 6). Together, our findings suggest that, after threat, misrepresenting one’s performance can function as a mechanism that helps to restore positive self-evaluations about one’s capabilities.
Keywords: Cheating; self-perception; self-protection; Competency and Skills; Identity; Perception; Performance;
Citation:
Wakeman, S. Wiley, Celia Moore, and F. Gino. "A Counterfeit Competence: After Threat, Cheating Boosts One's Self-Image." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 82 (May 2019): 253–265. View Details