Department

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Negative social evaluation can create a negative emotional response. Extreme negative evaluations create fear or anger and reduce self-efficacy (Pekrun, 2006; Shields, 2015). These negative feelings could harm the individual and they almost certainly reduce performance. Factors that neutralize the harmful effect of negative social evaluation could have utility in any performance or work setting. One factor that should be considered is the size of the social group within which the negative evaluation occurred and the “weight” of the negative evaluation. In simple terms, perhaps several positive or neutral evaluations can offset the effect of a single negative evaluation. This test will measure whether several neutral or positive evaluation will reduce the impact of one negative evaluation. The hypothesis is that in a larger group one negative evaluation will have less of an emotional impact on an individual. About 160 student participants will be tested in a performance task. The participants will be assigned to a group of either 2 or 8. Participants will be told that multiple groups are competing in the performance task. After an initial measure of performance, the participants will be told that their scores have been distributed to everyone in their group. Participants will believe this is 1 or 7 other people. The participants will then receive fabricated performance scores from the members of their team. They will rate these performances and express whether they want the team members to remain in the team. Finally, each participant will receive fabricated feedback which indicates that one team member does not want the participant to remain on the team. These will be either 100% negative evaluation in a team of 2 or 14% negative evaluation in a team of 8. Before the initial anagram task and after reading the fabricated evaluation data the participants will complete the PANAS scale (Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988). The change in the PANAS score will be the dependent measure in this study. The group size, 2 versus 8, will be the independent variable. The analysis will be an ANOVA for a 2X2 mixed design. The findings could show whether positive individuals can offset the negative impact of critical individuals. In simple terms, can the presence of neutral or positive people dilute the harmful impact of one hateful individual? If this effect were confirmed it would have implications for group management in many performance settings.

Date

October 2019

Subject

Industrial and organizational psychology

Document Type

posters

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Oct 26th, 10:00 AM Oct 26th, 10:45 AM

Can hate be diluted?

Negative social evaluation can create a negative emotional response. Extreme negative evaluations create fear or anger and reduce self-efficacy (Pekrun, 2006; Shields, 2015). These negative feelings could harm the individual and they almost certainly reduce performance. Factors that neutralize the harmful effect of negative social evaluation could have utility in any performance or work setting. One factor that should be considered is the size of the social group within which the negative evaluation occurred and the “weight” of the negative evaluation. In simple terms, perhaps several positive or neutral evaluations can offset the effect of a single negative evaluation. This test will measure whether several neutral or positive evaluation will reduce the impact of one negative evaluation. The hypothesis is that in a larger group one negative evaluation will have less of an emotional impact on an individual. About 160 student participants will be tested in a performance task. The participants will be assigned to a group of either 2 or 8. Participants will be told that multiple groups are competing in the performance task. After an initial measure of performance, the participants will be told that their scores have been distributed to everyone in their group. Participants will believe this is 1 or 7 other people. The participants will then receive fabricated performance scores from the members of their team. They will rate these performances and express whether they want the team members to remain in the team. Finally, each participant will receive fabricated feedback which indicates that one team member does not want the participant to remain on the team. These will be either 100% negative evaluation in a team of 2 or 14% negative evaluation in a team of 8. Before the initial anagram task and after reading the fabricated evaluation data the participants will complete the PANAS scale (Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988). The change in the PANAS score will be the dependent measure in this study. The group size, 2 versus 8, will be the independent variable. The analysis will be an ANOVA for a 2X2 mixed design. The findings could show whether positive individuals can offset the negative impact of critical individuals. In simple terms, can the presence of neutral or positive people dilute the harmful impact of one hateful individual? If this effect were confirmed it would have implications for group management in many performance settings.