Thought Calibration: How Thinking Just the Right Amount Increases One’s Influence and Appeal

Daniella  Kupor; Zakary L.  Tormala; Michael I. Norton; Derek D. Rucker

Article | Social Psychological & Personality Science | 2014

Thought Calibration: How Thinking Just the Right Amount Increases One’s Influence and Appeal

by Daniella Kupor, Zakary L. Tormala, Michael I. Norton and Derek D. Rucker

Abstract

Previous research suggests that people draw inferences about their attitudes and preferences based on their own thoughtfulness. The current research explores how observing other individuals make decisions more or less thoughtfully can shape perceptions of those individuals and their decisions, and ultimately impact observers' willingness to be influenced by them. Three studies suggest that observing others make more (versus less) thoughtful decisions generates more positive reactions when a choice is difficult, but more negative reactions when a choice is easy. In essence, people perceive the quality of others' decisions to be greater when other individuals engage in the right amount of thinking for the situation. These assessments then affect observers' own decisions and openness to influence.

Keywords: thoughtfulness; attitudes; liking; social influence; Decisions; Attitudes; Cognition and Thinking; Power and Influence;

Format: Print

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Citation:

Kupor, Daniella, Zakary L. Tormala, Michael I. Norton, and Derek D. Rucker. "Thought Calibration: How Thinking Just the Right Amount Increases One’s Influence and Appeal." Social Psychological & Personality Science 5, no. 3 (April 2014): 263–270.

Article | Journal of Consumer Psychology

The Feeling of Not Knowing It All

Haiyang Yang, Ziv Carmon, Dan Ariely and Michael I. Norton

How do consumers assess their mastery of knowledge they have learned? We explore this question by investigating a common knowledge consumption situation: encountering opportunities for further learning. We argue and show that such opportunities can trigger a feeling-of-not-knowing-it-all (FONKIA), which lowers consumers’ confidence in their mastery of the knowledge they already possess. Specifically, listing optional follow-up readings at the conclusion of a course lowered students’ confidence in their mastery of the course material they had already learned (Study 1). Encountering an optional learning opportunity increased the FONKIA, which mediated the decreased confidence (Studies 2 and 3). We also document two moderators consistent with our conceptualization. First, participants primed with mastery (vs. instrumental) motivation were more negatively impacted when they encountered optional learning opportunities. Second, the more related the optional opportunities were to the target topic, the lower participants’ confidence in their mastery of what they had already learned. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings, such as encouraging further learning or harming teaching evaluations.

Keywords: Knowledge consumption; Consumption of learning; Judgment of knowledge; Feeling ofknowing; Confidence in knowledge; WYSIATI; FONKIA; Knowledge Acquisition; Learning; Perception;

Citation:

Yang, Haiyang, Ziv Carmon, Dan Ariely, and Michael I. Norton. "The Feeling of Not Knowing It All." Journal of Consumer Psychology 29, no. 3 (July 2019): 455–462. View Details

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Thought Calibration: How Thinking Just the Right Amount Increases One’s Influence and Appeal

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