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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

  Fostering Perceptions of Authenticity via Sensitive Self-Disclosure

  Li Jiang, Maryam Kouchaki, Francesca Gino, Reihane Boghrati and Leslie John

  Leaders’ perceived authenticity – the sense that a leader is acting in accordance with her “true self” – is associated with positive outcomes for both employees and organizations alike. How might a leader foster this impression? Using field and experimental data, we test whether sensitive self-disclosures – for example, revealing an aversion to public speaking – make leaders come across as authentic and lead to positive outcomes, such as an enhanced desire to work with that leader (Studies 1, 2A, 2B, and 3). Stemming from our conceptual account, we show that these benefits emerge when the self-disclosure is mild to moderately sensitive in nature (Study 4) and made voluntarily (as opposed to by requirement) (Study 6) by a relatively high-status person (Study 5). Would-be disclosers do not intuit these positive consequences of self-disclosure (Study 7), suggesting that leaders may under-employ an effective tool for making a positive impression.

  Keywords: Authenticity; disclosure; Leaders; impression management;

  Citation:

  Jiang, Li, Maryam Kouchaki, Francesca Gino, Reihane Boghrati, and Leslie John. "Fostering Perceptions of Authenticity via Sensitive Self-Disclosure." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-070, January 2020.  View Details

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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | December 2019

  Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the Third Place Ideal

  Francesca Gino and Katherine B. Coffman

  Citation:

  Gino, Francesca, and Katherine B. Coffman. "Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the Third Place Ideal." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 920-031, December 2019.  View Details

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• Article | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | December 2019

  It Helps to Ask: The Cumulative Benefits of Asking Follow-up Questions

  Michael Yeomans, Alison Wood Brooks, Karen Huang, Julia A. Minson, Francesca Gino, Michael Yeomans, Alison Wood Brooks, Karen Huang, Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino

  In a recent article published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP; Huang, Yeomans, Brooks, Minson, & Gino, 2017), we reported the results of 2 experiments involving “getting acquainted” conversations among strangers and an observational field study of heterosexual speed daters. In all 3 studies, we found that asking more questions in conversation, especially follow-up questions (that indicate responsiveness to a partner), increases interpersonal liking of the question asker. Kluger and Malloy (2019) offer a critique of the analyses in Study 3 of our article. Though their response is a positive signal of engaged interest in our research, they made 3 core mistakes in their analyses that render their critique invalid. First, they tested the wrong variables, leading to conclusions that were erroneous. Second, even if they had analyzed the correct variables, some of their analytical choices were not valid for our speed-dating dataset, casting doubt on their conclusions. Third, they misrepresented our original findings, ignoring results in all 3 of our studies that disprove some of their central criticisms. In summary, the conclusions that Kluger and Malloy (2019) drew about Huang et al. (2017)’s findings are incorrect. The original results are reliable and robust: Asking more questions, especially follow-up questions, increases interpersonal liking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

  Keywords: question-asking; Conversation; Communication; Relationships; Interpersonal Communication;

  Citation:

  Yeomans, Michael, Alison Wood Brooks, Karen Huang, Julia A. Minson, and Francesca Gino. "It Helps to Ask: The Cumulative Benefits of Asking Follow-up Questions." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 117, no. 6 (December 2019): 1139–1144.  View Details

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