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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

  Shooting the Messenger

  Leslie John, Hayley Blunden, Heidi Liu, Leslie John, Hayley Blunden and Heidi Liu

  Eleven experiments provide evidence that people have a tendency to “shoot the messenger,” deeming innocent bearers of bad news unlikeable. In a preregistered lab experiment, participants rated messengers who delivered bad news from a random drawing as relatively unlikeable (Study 1). A second set of studies points to the specificity of the effect: Study 2A shows that it is unique to the (innocent) messenger and not mere bystanders. Study 2B shows that it is distinct from merely receiving information that one disagrees with. We suggest that people’s tendency to deem bearers of bad news as unlikeable stems in part from their desire to make sense of chance processes. Consistent with this account, receiving bad news activates the desire to sense-make (Study 3A), and in turn, activating this desire enhances the tendency to dislike bearers of bad news (Study 3B). Next, stemming from the idea that unexpected outcomes heighten the desire to sense-make, Study 4 shows that when bad news is unexpected, messenger dislike is pronounced. Finally, consistent with the notion that people fulfill the desire to sense-make by attributing agency to entities adjacent to chance events, messenger dislike is correlated with the belief that the messenger had malevolent motives (Studies 5A, 5B, & 5C). Studies 6A & 6B go further, manipulating messenger motives independently from news valence to suggest its causal role in our process account: the tendency to dislike bearers of bad news is mitigated when recipients are made aware of the benevolence of the messenger’s motives.

  Keywords: judgment; communication; sense-making; attribution; disclosure; Interpersonal Communication; Perception; Judgments; Motivation and Incentives;

  Citation:

  John, Leslie, Hayley Blunden, and Heidi Liu. "Shooting the Messenger." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 148, no. 4 (April 2019): 644–666.  View Details

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