Impression Management and Prosocial Behavior following Transgression

Author(s):  
JAMES T. TEDESCHI ◽  
CATHERINE A. RIORDAN
Author(s):  
David M. Long

Impression management is defined as controlling how one is seen by others. Most of the important outcomes in life, including friends, romantic partners, job opportunities, and happiness, are contingent on how one is perceived in social situations. Since the 1950s scholars across multiple disciplines of social science have noted the importance of impression management and have developed key theoretical interpretations and taxonomies of how, why, and for whom impression management occurs and whether it is likely to have its intended effect. Virtually any behavior can be used for impression management purposes, and the desired outcomes range from positive, when the behaviors are intended to be seen in a favorable light, to negative, when the behaviors are intended to be seen in an unfavorable light. Although impression management has been relatively free of controversy as a scholarly topic, some disagreements have formed around the ethics of managing impressions, how to best measure impression management, and whether impression management explains some of the more venerable topics in social science such as prosocial behavior, cognitive dissonance, and moral judgment. A typical episode of impression management occurs when an actor performs an act in the hope of influencing targets in a certain way, and scholarly work has noted the importance of the target in this process since the target is not only the audience who judges the actors’ performances but also the critic who provides the actors with feedback that can be used in subsequent performances. Other work has investigated how easy it is to mismanage an impression, such as when “humble bragging” and giving “backhanded compliments.”


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 752-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Sassenrath

Past research showed that empathic responses are confounded with social desirability. The present research aims at illuminating this confound. In a first step, it is examined how a measure typically implemented to screen, for response, biases based on social desirability (i.e., the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding) relate to classical measures of interindividual differences in empathic responses (i.e., the Interpersonal Reactivity Index). Moreover, it is investigated what happens to empathic responses under conditions of reduced opportunity to behave socially desirable. Results of two correlational studies indicate that impression management (IM) as well as self-deceptive enhancement as facets of a socially desirable response bias is related to self-reported empathic responses. Results of an additional experiment show that introducing conditions reducing opportunity for IM lowers empathic responses toward a person in need. Implications for research on self-reported empathy and empathy-induced prosocial behavior are discussed.


2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia A. Finkelstein ◽  
Louis A. Penner

Motive and role identity, previously studied as predictors of volunteerism, were examined as correlates of another discretionary prosocial behavior, Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). County employees (181 females, 62 males) completed questionnaires that measured frequency of OCB, motives for the behavior, and the degree to which the respondents had developed an organizational citizen identity. Motives concerned with the desire to help co-workers and/or the organization proved to be better predictors of OCB than those concerned with the desire for Impression Management. A citizen role identity also correlated with citizenship behavior but, contrary to expectation, mediated the relationship between OCB and motive only partly. The findings suggest that similar mechanisms are involved in sustaining both volunteerism and OCB.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma E. Buchtel

Abstract Is it particularly human to feel coerced into fulfilling moral obligations, or is it particularly human to enjoy them? I argue for the importance of taking into account how culture promotes prosocial behavior, discussing how Confucian heritage culture enhances the satisfaction of meeting one's obligations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-118
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Howard ◽  
Roger A. Kerin

The name similarity effect is the tendency to like people, places, and things with names similar to our own. Although many researchers have examined name similarity effects on preferences and behavior, no research to date has examined whether individual differences exist in susceptibility to those effects. This research reports the results of two experiments that examine the role of self-monitoring in moderating name similarity effects. In the first experiment, name similarity effects on brand attitude and purchase intentions were found to be stronger for respondents high, rather than low, in self-monitoring. In the second experiment, the interactive effect observed in the first study was found to be especially true in a public (vs. private) usage context. These findings are consistent with theoretical expectations of name similarity effects as an expression of egotism manifested in the image and impression management concerns of high self-monitors.


2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia A. Pauls ◽  
Jan Wacker ◽  
Nicolas W. Crost

Abstract. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between resting frontal hemispheric asymmetry (FHA) in the low α band (8-10.25 Hz) and the two components of socially desirable responding, i.e., self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) and impression management (IM), in an opposite-sex encounter. In addition, Big Five facets, self-reports of emotion, and spontaneous eye blink rate (BR), a noninvasive indicator of functional dopamine activity, were assessed. SDE as well as IM were related to relatively greater right-than-left activity in the low α band (i.e., relative left frontal activation; LFA) and to self-reported positive affect (PA), but only SDE was related to BR. We hypothesized that two independent types of motivational approach tendencies underlie individual differences in FHA and PA: affiliative motivation represented by IM and agentic incentive motivation represented by SDE. Whereas the relationship between SDE and PA was mediated by BR, the relationship between SDE and FHA was not.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Wertag ◽  
Denis Bratko

Abstract. Prosocial behavior is intended to benefit others rather than oneself and is positively linked to personality traits such as Agreeableness and Honesty-Humility, and usually negatively to the Dark Triad traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy). However, a significant proportion of the research in this area is conducted solely on self-report measures of prosocial behavior. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between prosociality and the basic (i.e., HEXACO) and dark personality traits, comparing their contribution in predicting both self-reported prosociality and prosocial behavior. Results of the hierarchical regression analyses showed that the Dark Triad traits explain prosociality and prosocial behavior above and beyond the HEXACO traits, emphasizing the importance of the Dark Triad in the personality space.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine A. Sliter ◽  
Neil D. Christiansen

The present study evaluated the impact of reading self-coaching book excerpts on success at faking a personality test. Participants (N = 207) completed an initial honest personality assessment and a subsequent assessment with faking instructions under one of the following self-coaching conditions: no coaching, chapters from a commercial book on how to fake preemployment personality scales, and personality coaching plus a chapter on avoiding lie-detection scales. Results showed that those receiving coaching materials had greater success in raising their personality scores, primarily on the traits that had been targeted in the chapters. In addition, those who read the chapter on avoiding lie-detection scales scored significantly lower on a popular impression management scale while simultaneously increasing their personality scores. Implications for the use of personality tests in personnel selection are discussed.


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