Robert B. Lount

The Impact of Positive Mood on Trust in Interpersonal and Intergroup Interactions

Although the trust development literature has been characterized overwhelmingly by rationality-based models, the current research attempts to explain how affect can influence this process. To better understand how and why affect would influence trust development, 5 experiments were conducted to examine the effects of positive mood on peoples tendencies to trust and distrust others. Consistent with theory, which argues that positive mood promotes schema reliance, the relationship between positive mood and trust was influenced by the presence of cues that indicated whether the other party was trustworthy or untrustworthy. Across 5 studies, trusting behaviors (Experiments 1-3) and perceptions of trustworthiness (Experiments 4 and 5) were found to be influenced by cues associated with trust or distrust. Specifically, when available cues about the other party promoted trust, people in a positive mood increased their trust; when cues promoted distrust, people in a positive mood decreased their trust. The data support the expectation that affect can influence trust development, although the relationship is more complex than main effect predictions of mood-congruency models.

Getting Off on the Wrong Foot: The Timing of a Breach and the Restoration of Trust

Few interpersonal relationships endure without one party violating the others expectations. Thus, the ability to build trust and to restore cooperation after a breach can be critical for the preservation of positive relationships. Using an iterated prisoners dilemma, this article presents two experiments that investigated the effects of the timing of a trust breach—at the start of an interaction, after 5 trials, after 10 trials, or not at all. The findings indicate that getting off on the wrong foot has devastating long-term consequences. Although later breaches seemed to limit cooperation for only a short time, they still planted a seed of distrust that surfaced in the end.

Psychological Mechanisms Underlying the Köhler Motivation Gain

Sometimes group work conditions lead to motivation gains rather than to social loafing. Two theoretical explanations for the Köhler motivation gain effect are identified, one stressing social comparison and a second stressing the indispensability of ones effort to the group. The results of three new experiments are reported. Experiment 1 suggested that both explanations are valid and contribute to the Köhler effect. Prior studies suggested that there might be gender differences in the relative importance of these two explanatory processes. Experiment 2 confirmed this suggestion. In Experiment 3, the gender difference was eliminated by priming women with a goal (viz., competition) presumed to be chronically more important to men. It is argued that the relative importance of these two motivational processes will depend on the immediate and chronic importance attached to more personal (viz., to achieve a favorable social comparison) versus collective (viz., to contribute to ones group) goals.

Evaluation Concerns and the Köhler Effect The Impact of Physical Presence on Motivation Gains

This study examined whether increasing evaluation concerns would increase the magnitude of the Köhler effect (i.e., one type of motivation gain that has been documented to occur in small groups). Evaluation concerns were manipulated by having participants work in the physical presence or virtual presence of their coworker. As anticipated, motivation gains were significantly greater for participants who worked in the physical presence of their coworker. These results suggest that evaluation concerns can potentially increase the magnitude of the Köhler effect. Furthermore, the findings have implications for practitioners and researchers interested in the differential impact that face-to-face and virtual mediums have on motivation in groups or teams.

An examination of the stability and persistence of the Köhler motivation gain effect

The current paper reports the findings of an experiment designed to investigate the persistence of motivation gains in small groups. The current study had participants work on a conjunctive task, where they believed that their performance was highly instrumental for the group to perform well. Building on prior work on the Kohler effect, although motivation gains became smaller over time, these gains in effort still remained statistically significant across several work trials. Moreover, the attenuation of the Kohler effect was found to be moderated by the stability of group membership. More specifically, as compared with people who worked with the same partner (i.e., closed groups), gains in effort were found to be more robust for participants who worked with several different partners (i.e., open groups). The current findings help fill an important gap in the motivation gains literature by demonstrating that motivation gains in groups can persist across multiple work trials.

Trying Harder for Different Reasons

Summary: Past investigations of performance on a conjunctive physical persistence task have yielded consistent evidence of motivation gains in the less able worker - a pattern first seen in data collected over 70 years ago (Kohler, 1926, 1927). Moreover, recent work indicates that these gains are due to the increased instrumentality of the weaker participants efforts. The present study sought to demonstrate that another potential factor in the work context - the sex composition of the group, which is known to moderate self-presentation concerns - could also affect such motivation gains. Male and female members of work teams performed a physical persistence task. In one condition they performed work trials as individuals. In others, they first worked on the task alone and then were paired with a more capable same- or other-sexed teammate to perform the task conjunctively - i. e., this trial was over as soon as either person stopped. As expected, these less capable participants worked significantly harder ...

Interactions Among Same-Status Peers Effects of Behavioral Style and Status Level

When can status peers—group members at the same status level whose relationship can often be characterized by competition and rivalry—experience more harmony than discord? In the current article, we focus on different behavioral styles and status level as joint predictors of interaction among status peers. Specifically, we posit and find that group members’ responses to varying behavioral styles exhibited by their status peers shape important group outcomes (i.e., the desire to continue working together and influence accepted from the peer), with the greatest sensitivity to peer behaviors enacted at the highest status levels. Implications for theories of status and influence in groups are discussed.

Through whose eyes? The impact of identification on judgments of group status

This paper examines how group identification influences individuals’ judgments of the in-group’s status. Across four studies, using multiple manipulations of identification and measurements of group status, we demonstrate that increased identification with one’s group positively influences judgments of the in-group’s status. Moreover, we find confirmatory support for our prediction that this relationship is mediated by collective self-esteem. Implications of this research for social identity theory and both intragroup and intergroup status perceptions are discussed.

Biased Perceptions of Racially Diverse Teams and Their Consequences for Resource Support

We examine whether observers hold biases that can negatively affect how racially diverse teams are evaluated, and ultimately treated, relative to racially homogeneous groups. In three experiments, which held the actual content of observed behavior constant across diverse and homogeneous teams, observers were less willing to allocate additional resources to diverse teams. Through applying both statistical mediation Studies 1 and 2 and moderation-of-process methods Study 3, our findings supported the expectation that biased perceptions of relationship conflict accounted for this reduced support of diverse teams. Implications for diverse teams in organizations are discussed.

Advancing the scientific understanding of trust in the contexts of negotiations and repeated bargaining

Advancing the scientific understanding of trust in the contexts of negotiations and repeated bargaining Dejun Tony Kong, Robert B. Lount Jr, Mara Olekalns and Donald L. Ferrin Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA; Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, Singapore