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• Article | Journal of Experimental Social Psychology | May 2019

  A Counterfeit Competence: After Threat, Cheating Boosts One's Self-Image

  S. Wiley Wakeman, Celia Moore and F. Gino

  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

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2017 (Revised April 2019)

  Webasto Roof Systems Americas: Leadership Through Change (A)

  Francesca Gino and Paul Green Jr.

  Webasto Roof Systems, Americas, the North American subsidiary of Germany-based Webasto Group, limped into 2014 in poor financial and operational shape. The company's early optimism emerging from the financial downturn had proven naive, and now, five years later, the company was consistently losing money and was battling severe operational challenges affecting quality and threatening customer relationships. Furthermore, senior leadership had completely turned over three times in the five-year period. Now, the new—and young—leadership is attempting to navigate that crisis and repair the organization, which was full of skittish and disengaged employees. Philipp Schramm, the new CFO, must figure out how to enact positive change with a team of unenthusiastic employees and a near-toxic culture.

  Keywords: culture change; Change Management; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Organizational Culture; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; North and Central America;

  Citation:

  Gino, Francesca, and Paul Green Jr. "Webasto Roof Systems Americas: Leadership Through Change (A)." Harvard Business School Case 917-015, May 2017. (Revised April 2019.)  View Details

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• Article | Journal of Experimental Psychology: General | April 2019

  Mitigating Malicious Envy: Why Successful Individuals Should Reveal Their Failures

  Alison Wood Brooks, Karen Huang, Nicole Abi-Esber, Ryan W. Buell, Laura Huang and Brian Hall

  People often feel malicious envy, a destructive interpersonal emotion, when they compare themselves to successful peers. Across three online experiments and a field experiment of entrepreneurs, we identify an interpersonal strategy that can mitigate feelings of malicious envy in observers: revealing one’s failures. Despite a general reluctance to reveal one’s failures—as they are happening and after they have occurred—across four experiments, we find that revealing both successes and failures encountered on the path to success (compared to revealing only successes) decreases observers’ malicious envy. This effect holds regardless of the discloser’s status and cannot be explained by a decrease in perceived status of the individual. Then, in a field experiment at an entrepreneurial pitch competition, where pride displays are common and stakes are high, we find suggestive evidence that learning about the failures of a successful entrepreneur decreases observers’ malicious envy while increasing their benign envy in addition to decreasing their perceptions of the entrepreneur’s hubristic pride (i.e., arrogance) while increasing their perceptions of the entrepreneur’s authentic pride (i.e., confidence). These findings align with previous work on the social-functional relation of envy and pride. Taken together, our results highlight how revealing failures encountered on the way to success can be a counterintuitive yet effective interpersonal emotion regulation strategy.

  Keywords: Emotions; Perception; Interpersonal Communication; Communication Strategy;

  Citation:

  Brooks, Alison Wood, Karen Huang, Nicole Abi-Esber, Ryan W. Buell, Laura Huang, and Brian Hall. "Mitigating Malicious Envy: Why Successful Individuals Should Reveal Their Failures." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 148, no. 4 (April 2019): 667–687.  View Details

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