Kyle J. Emich

Stretching the Moral Gray Zone Positive Affect, Moral Disengagement, and Dishonesty

We propose that positive affect promotes dishonest behavior by providing the cognitive flexibility necessary to reframe and to rationalize dishonest acts. This hypothesis was tested in two studies. The results of Study 1 showed that individuals experiencing positive affect morally disengage to a greater extent than do individuals experiencing neutral affect. Study 2 built on this finding by demonstrating that the ability to morally disengage can lead individuals who experience positive affect to behave dishonestly. Specifically, the results of Study 2 showed that people experiencing positive affect are more likely to steal than individuals experiencing neutral affect, particularly when self-awareness is low. Furthermore, moral disengagement fully mediated this effect. Taken together, the results suggest that positive affect paves the way for the commission of dishonest acts by altering how individuals evaluate the moral implications of their own behavior.

How Expectancy Motivation Influences Information Exchange in Small Groups

Groups rarely use the unique knowledge of their members when making decisions, focusing instead on knowledge that members have in common. This tendency to neglect the expertise of group members severely limits the effectiveness of group decision making. Previously, this problem has been addressed by showing that groups will pool task-relevant information and make effective decisions if members have knowledge of each other’s expertise. However, these studies are generally limited because they disregard why people use each other’s expertise once they are aware of it. The current study uses expectancy theory to investigate this issue and to link motivation to information exchange in groups. Results of a hidden profile study involving 40 groups indicated that expectancy motivation drives groups to use expertise awareness, exchange more unique information, and thus solve a hidden profile problem correctly.

Transpersonal Efficacy: How Efficacy Perceptions of Single Others Influence Task Performance

In addition to self-efficacy, efficacy perceptions of others within a task environment influence task performance. I define such efficacy perceptions of single others as transpersonal efficacy and investigate it in two studies. The first shows transpersonal efficacy can drive performance. The second then builds upon the first by investigating how self- and transpersonal efficacy jointly influence task performance. Further, the role of the focal other within the task environment, as an outcome interdependent or noninterdependent partner, or as an opponent, is shown to moderate these relationships. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of investigating transpersonal efficacy due to the increasingly complex problems facing modern organizations necessitating task environments involving multiple individuals.

The affective antecedents of cognitive social network activation

Abstract How might peoples moment-to-moment feelings influence the social network contacts they call to mind? Three datasets indicate that experiencing positive affect leads people to cognitively activate larger and more sparsely connected social network structures, while experiencing negative affect leads them to activate smaller, redundant social network structures. A preliminary association emerged between positive affect and activating large, diversified network structures in the General Social Survey. To isolate causality, we then conducted two experiments where we randomly assigned participants to experience either positive or negative affect. Both studies supported the hypothesized relationship between affect and cognitive network activation. These findings contribute to a burgeoning literature examining how psychological states shape the activation of social network structures.

But consider the alternative: The influence of positive affect on overconfidence

Three studies find evidence that positive affect reduces comparative overconfidence (overplacement). This occurs because positive affect attenuates focalism via decreasing peoples tendency to overweight information regarding themselves in the light of information concerning others. Specifically, Study 1 provides evidence that positive affect leads to more realistic estimates of comparative ability and that other-focus partially mediates this effect. Then, Study 2 provides causal evidence that positive affect independently influences other-focus and that other-focus, in turn, influences overplacement. Additionally, Study 2 uses an indirect measure of focalism to better capture this attentional process. Finally, Study 3 explores the influence of negative affect on overplacement. In addition, each study finds that positive affect does not influence overconfidence regarding participants raw performances (overestimation) as this type of overconfidence is not dependent on self-other comparisons.

Evaluating the Interdisciplinary Mission of Small Group Research Using Computational Analytics

Richard Kettner-Polley and Charles Gavin founded Small Group Research (SGR) to present research, build theory, and generally advance the study of small groups by combining insights from multiple disciplines. Currently, we evaluate the extent to which this interdisciplinary mission has been upheld over time. To do this, we apply the perspective and tools of big data analytics to the nearly 3 million words that span the 829 articles that comprise the SGR corpus from February 1990 to June 2017. Keyword analysis, ontological ordering, and interdisciplinary content analyses identify intriguing patterns and detect latent trends. Our results speak to the consistent interdisciplinarity of SGR while identifying opportunities for further development and more complex disciplinary integration in research on small groups.