Impression (Mis) Management When Communicating Success

Steinmetz, Janina

doi:10.1080/01973533.2018.1500289

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…Additionally, the words the communicator uses to convey the success may impact the target's perception of and relationship with the communicator. For example, downplaying the significance of the success or the amount of effort involved may influence the target's perception of the communicator (Steinmetz, 2018). Future research should explore how the medium and content affects the relational costs of sharing versus hiding success.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hiding Success

Roberts¹,

Levine²,

Sezer³

2020

Preprint

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Self-promotion is common in everyday life. Yet, across seven studies (N = 1,672) examining a broad range of personal and professional successes, we find that individuals often hide their successes from others and that such hiding has harmful relational consequences. We document these effects among close relational partners, strangers, and within hypothetical relationships. In Study 1, we find that targets feel less close to and more insulted by communicators who hide rather than share their successes. Conversely, sharing success increases closeness, despite also triggering envy. In Study 2, we find that hiding is more costly than sharing success, even when the target does not learn about the act of hiding. That is, hiding success harms relationships both when the success is eventually discovered and when it is not. In Studies 3 and 4, we explore the mechanism underlying these interpersonal costs: Targets infer that communicators have paternalistic motives when they hide their success, which leads them to feel insulted. Studies 5 and 6 explore this mechanism in greater detail by documenting the contextual cues that elicit inferences of paternalistic motives. While a large body of existing research highlights the negative consequences of sharing one’s accomplishments with others, our research demonstrates that sharing is often superior to hiding. In doing so, we shed new light on the consequences of paternalism and the relational costs of hiding information in everyday communication.

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Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hiding Success

Roberts¹,

Levine²,

Sezer³

2020

Preprint

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show abstract

“…Even under explicit impression management instructions, people do not anticipate accurately how others judge their positive qualities. In particular, receivers express higher liking for a self‐presenter who claims that success is due to hard work than for a self‐presenter who claims that success is due to natural talent (Steinmetz, ). They like the former self‐presenter better, because they judge “hard work stories” as warm and relatable.…”

Section: Recent Insights On Impression Mismanagement: the Inept Self‐mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another example refers to participants being instructed to maximize an impression of themselves on a date versus in a job interview. Although these two situations render different traits and behaviors desirable, people show the same pattern of impression mismanagement by downplaying their efforts (Steinmetz, ). In our article, then, we highlighted some of the most striking strategies of impression mismanagement that undermine not only liking but also the transmission of the desired trait.…”

Section: Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impression mismanagement: People as inept self‐presenters

Steinmetz

Sezer²,

Sedikides

2017

Social & Personality Psych

Self Cite

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People routinely manage the impressions they make on others, attempting to project a favorable self‐image. The bulk of the literature has portrayed people as savvy self‐presenters who typically succeed at conveying a desired impression. When people fail at making a favorable impression, such as when they come across as braggers, regulatory resource depletion is to blame. Recent research, however, has identified antecedents and strategies that foster systematic impression management failures (independently of regulatory resource depletion), suggesting that self‐presenters are far from savvy. In fact, they commonly mismanage their impressions without recognizing it. We review failed perspective taking and narcissism as two prominent antecedents of impression mismanagement. Further, we argue that failed perspective taking, exacerbated by narcissism, contributes to suboptimal impression management strategies, such as hubris, humblebragging, hypocrisy, and backhanded compliments. We conclude by discussing how self‐presenters might overcome some of the common traps of impression mismanagement.

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“…Thus, even young children may recognize that certain behaviors may involve important trade‐offs. For instance, putting in effort in the presence of peers could help one appear hard‐working but could also threaten one's appearance of being competent (and instead imply greater warmth; for adult work on these topics, see Chaudhry & Loewenstein, 2019; Steinmetz, 2018). Additionally, children's inferences about competence‐related reputational motives may be shaped by features of the achievement context.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Being versus appearing smart: Children’s developing intuitions about how reputational motives guide behavior

Good

Shaw

2021

Child Development

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Children engage in reputation management to appear favorably to others. The present studies explore when children use reputational motives to predict others’ behavior. Four‐ to 9‐year‐old children (N = 576; 53% female; approximately 60% White) heard stories about two kids: one who cares about being competent, and one who cares about appearing competent. Across five studies, with age, children predicted the reputationally motivated child would be more likely to lie to cover up failure (OR = 1.97) but less likely to seek help in public (vs. private; OR = 0.53) or downplay success (OR = 0.66). With age, children also liked this character less (OR = 0.56). Implications of these findings for children's reputation management and achievement motivation are discussed.

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Impression (Mis) Management When Communicating Success

Cited by 11 publications

References 31 publications

Hiding Success

Hiding Success

Impression mismanagement: People as inept self‐presenters

Being versus appearing smart: Children’s developing intuitions about how reputational motives guide behavior

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