Culture’s Constraints

What are the reputational consequences of being overconfident? We propose that the channel of confidence expression is one key moderator-that is, whether confidence is expressed verbally or nonverbally. In a series of experiments, participants assessed target individuals (potential collaborators or advisors) who were either overconfident or cautious. Targets expressed confidence, or a lack thereof, verbally or nonverbally. Participants then learned targets' actual performance. Across studies, overconfidence was advantageous initially-regardless of whether targets expressed confidence verbally or nonverbally. After performance was revealed, overconfident targets who had expressed confidence verbally were viewed more negatively than cautious targets; however, overconfident targets who had expressed confidence nonverbally were still viewed more positively than cautious ones. The one condition wherein nonverbal overconfidence was detrimental was when confidence was clearly tied to a falsifiable claim. Results suggest that, compared to verbal statements, nonverbal overconfidence reaps reputational benefits because of its plausible deniability.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is overconfidence a social liability? The effect of verbal versus nonverbal expressions of confidence.

Tenney¹,

Meikle²,

Hunsaker³

et al. 2019

“…Another potential limitation is that we focused on only one cultural factor, social interdependence. However, cultures vary along multiple dimensions (e.g., Hofstede, 1980;Gelfand et al, 2011) and responses to ostracism are likely to be influenced by multiple social factors including the nature of peer relations within the group (e.g., Abrams & Killen, 2014;Killen & Stangor, 2001), parenting practices (e.g., Keller et al, 2006) and the amount of interaction with close others and strangers (Uskul & Over, 2014). It will be important for future research to investigate how these other aspects of culture influence childrenÕs responses to ostracism and how multiple factors interact within development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture moderates children’s responses to ostracism situations.

Over¹,

Üskül²

2016

Across a series of studies, we investigated cultural differences in children's responses to ostracism situations. Working with the children of farmers and herders, we focused on how painful children estimate ostracism to be. Study 1a showed that 4- to 8-year-old children from a socially interdependent farming community estimated ostracism to be less painful than did children from an independent herding community. Study 1b showed that this cultural difference was specific to social pain and did not apply to physical pain. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1a and showed that individual differences in parents' level of social interdependence mediated the relationship between cultural group and how painful children estimate ostracism to be. Study 3 replicated this effect again and showed that children's tendency to recommend seeking social support following ostracism mediated the relationship between cultural group and the perceived pain of being excluded. Finally, Study 4 investigated cultural differences in moral responses to ostracism and showed that children from the farming community punished an individual who ostracized someone else less harshly than did children from the independent herding community. Thus different economic cultures are associated with striking differences in social interdependence and responses to ostracism from early in development. (PsycINFO Database Record

“…To the best of our knowledge, this type of thinking has only been explored thus far as an individual difference within cultures. However, it might be more common in some cultures than others, and could potentially relate to other cultural differences in cognition, perception, or worldviews, for example dialectical thinking (Peng & Nisbett, 1999), or cultural tightness versus looseness (Gelfand et al, 2011). If highly dichotomous thinking was established as a norm in this cultural setting, this might impact the ways that personality measures are used, and it could threaten the validity of Likert scales.…”

Section: Personality Structure In East and West Africa 45mentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality structure in east and west Africa: Lexical studies of personality in Maa and Supyire-Senufo.

Thalmayer¹,

Saucier²,

Ole-Kotikash³

et al. 2020

provided the dictionary on which the Supyire-Senufo study was based, and assisted in extracting terms and refining the questionnaire, in consultation with local colleagues. Lamine Sanogo, (Société Internationale de Linguistique, Mali) conducted the interviews in Supyire. We are grateful to Zanga Traore for later assistance interpreting some Supyire terms, to Stephen Munet for assistance interpreting some Maa terms, and to University of Oregon research assistants who helped rate and categorize English translations of terms: Kassidy Sherman, Barkley Saltzman, PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EAST AND WEST AFRICA 2 Yasmeen Lee, Chase Hardt, and Samantha Sheffels. The data, syntax used for analyses, and copies of the original surveys are available in an Open Science Framework repository: https://osf.io/x79qz/