Dimensions Of Social Perception Research Articles

Breaking the mold with effective communication: how social initiatives enhance a brand's social perception and catalyze pro-environmental and purchase intentions

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to fill the research gap by investigating the impact of brand social initiatives on both the warmth and competence dimensions of the brand, as well as examining the brand's potential to induce pro-environmental behavioral change among consumers.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a scenario-based survey design and surveyed 415 consumers in India. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS 4.0.FindingsThe results show that social initiatives enhance both dimensions of social perception and increase cooperative intentions. Brand competence is more crucial than warmth in predicting behavioral intentions. Brand-cause fit, CSR commitment and initiatives' impact all influence the brand image. A brand's commitment to the cause is more significant than brand-cause fit in determining how consumers evaluate a brand.Practical implicationsThis research provides insights into how social initiatives can enhance brand image and encourage helping intentions through effective communication traits. It can aid brands in building consumer trust, benefiting society and boosting finances. The study offers a framework for effective cause communication strategies, highlighting the importance of commitment to the cause over fitting with the brand's image to elicit desired responses.Originality/valueThis study is a novel attempt that uses the stereotype content model and costly signaling theory to explore how social initiatives influence a brand's warmth and competence and impact consumer behavior. It provides critical insights into the psychological mechanisms behind social initiatives' impact on consumer behavioral intentions.

Image of Teaching Profession According to Teachers Evaluations

This study, which was carried out using a mixed method research model, aims to explain how teachers' thoughts and observations about the image of the teaching profession and their suggestions for solutions to the problems related to the image of the teaching profession are seen by those who perform the profession. The research was conducted in Konya. Quantitative data were obtained from 439 teachers by stratified random sampling method and qualitative data were obtained from 16 teachers by maximum diversity sampling method. According to the quantitative findings of the study, it was concluded that the image of the teaching profession was at a medium level, the sub-dimensions of professional and personal characteristics, professional attractiveness and status were at a high level, and the dimensions of social perception and media were at a low level. According to the qualitative findings of the study, most of the teachers who participated in the research see the image of the teaching profession at a very low level or negatively. In order for the image of the teaching profession to reach a better level, the statements that teachers should continuously improve themselves and exhibit positive behaviours, and the suggestions that the Ministry of National Education and political actors should take care of teachers and better explain the activities and practices of teachers to the society came to the fore.

Workplace ostracism as an antecedent to workplace envy: the mediating roles of metacognitive resources and dimensions of social perception

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to explore novel antecedents to workplace envy. The authors explore the role of workplace ostracism (WO) as a contextual antecedent in triggering envy, as well as the mediating effects of metacognitive resources (MR) and dimensions of social perception (DSP) as cognitive antecedents. The authors integrate affective events theory, social comparison theory and schema theory to develop their arguments.Design/methodology/approachUsing the survey approach, the authors recruited 490 professionals employed in Egypt and validated the proposed model and hypotheses in structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsThe results show a significant relationship between WO and workplace envy. Additionally, metacognitive experiences (MEs) and warmth mediate the relationship among them.Originality/valueBy addressing how WO is a predictor of envy, this study is among the few to consider social-related events as predictors of envy. Additionally, the study is one of the first that has extended affective events theory to explore the role of an individual's cognition in generating envy.

The primacy of communality in humanization

Ascribing and denying humanity has profound consequences, often leading to devastating outcomes (e.g., violence, genocide). As such, understanding what, exactly, makes “someone human” becomes imperative. In this paper, we leverage the ubiquitous Big Two dimensions of social perception (agency and communality) to examine the process of humanization. In five studies (N = 1900), we find that the “Big Two” dimensions—agency (assertiveness, competence) and communality (warmth, kindness)—predict humanization, and critically, we show the primacy of communality in this process. We find that communality takes primacy in humanization when anthropomorphizing, describing an alien species, or ascribing humanness to real-world social targets (Studies 1–3); it is only for contexts where, or targets for whom, agency is particularly relevant that agency predicts humanization (Studies 4–5). We conclude with implications for research on (de)humanization, mind-perception, and social-perception.

The \u201cBig Two\u201d and socially induced emotions: Agency and communion jointly influence emotional contagion and emotional mimicry

Three studies investigated the effects of two fundamental dimensions of social perception on emotional contagion (i.e., the transfer of emotions between people). Rooting our hypotheses in the Dual Perspective Model of Agency and Communion (Abele and Wojciszke in Adv Exp Soc Psychol 50:198–255, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-800284-1.00004-7, 2014), we predicted that agency would strengthen the effects of communion on emotional contagion and emotional mimicry (a process often considered a key mechanism behind emotional contagion). To test this hypothesis, we exposed participants to happy, sad, and angry senders characterized by low vs. high communion and agency. Our results demonstrated that, as expected, the effects of the two dimensions on socially induced emotions were interactive. The strength and direction of these effects, however, were consistent with our predictions only when the senders expressed happiness. When the senders expressed sadness, we found no effects of agency or communion on participants’ emotional responses, whereas for anger a mixed pattern emerged. Overall, our results align with the notion that emotional contagion and mimicry are modulated not only by the senders’ traits but also by the social meaning of the expressed emotion.

“The Late Leader”: Influence of Political Leader’s Death on Their Evaluation

Of the dead, nothing unless good—has this Latin quote practical implications for political marketers? We tend to view dead people (especially leaders) more favorably than their living equivalents. The phenomenon that psychology refers to as of “death positivity bias” (DPB) has been observed in the case of both business and political leaders. People show a death positivity bias even in impressions about politicians who were ineffective. Death seems to cement leader’s legacy, which encourages a sense of pride and identity and tends to foster group cohesiveness and involvement. In this paper we aim to verify 1) if people show a death positivity bias in their judgments about a real political figure, former Polish President Lech Kaczyński, 2) whether a DPB occurs also in the case of fictitious leaders with differences by gender and leadership styles. Study 1, based on opinion polls surveys completed before and after Kaczyński’s death, shows that voters evaluated him more favorably after his death than when he was alive. An experimental Study 2 shows that people express a DPB in their judgments about fictitious leaders within the two basic dimensions of social perception, i.e. communion and agency, while the leadership style and gender of a leader might have a moderating effect. Leader’s death as a valuable tool in political marketing campaigns and party image creation is discussed.

The complexity of relations between dimensions of social perception: Decomposing bivariate associations with crossed random factors

Theories of social perception argue that there are two underlying dimensions of social judgment, variously labeled competence/agency and warmth/communality. How these relate to each other has been the focus of extensive empirical work with research showing both a ‘halo” relation (targets rated more positively on one dimension are rated more positively on the other) and a “compensatory” relation (targets rated more positively on one dimension are rated more negatively on the other). We argue that these divergent findings result from different comparative contexts under which participants judge social stimuli and on the underlying factors that contribute to variance in the resulting judgments. In two studies, we vary the comparative context under which perceivers made judgments and we decompose the variance in such judgments (and their covariance) into components due to the random factors of participants, targets, and their interaction. Halo relations emerge for participant means, regardless of comparative context. On the other hand, the covariance between target means changes signs under different comparative contexts, as does the interaction covariance.

Investor Perception in Delegated Portfolio Management: How Manager Texts Influence Investor Behavior

We show that investors base parts of their investment decisions in delegated portfolio management on their social perception of the manager. Relying on a novel dataset of a European social trading platform, in which portfolio managers describe themselves and their expertise by written text, we show that a positive tone of these descriptions has an inverted u-shaped effect on portfolio inflows. At the same time, we find no significant differences in performance of managers. By testing the underlying mechanism in two experiments conducted in Germany and the US, our results reveal that the use of positive tone influences portfolio inflows because managers are perceived differently on the two global dimensions of social perception, warmth and competence.

Warmth‐Competence Tradeoffs in Impression Management across Race and Social‐Class Divides

The Great Recession widened social‐class divides, so social interactions across gaps in workplace status and in race generally may be more salient and more fraught. Different statuses and races both carry stereotypes that targets know (meta‐perceptions, how they expect to be viewed by the outgroup). In both cross‐status and cross‐race interactions, targets may aim to manage the impressions they create. Reviewing literature and our own recent work invokes (a) the role of the Stereotype Content Model's two dimensions of social perception, namely warmth and competence; (b) the compensation effect, a tendency to tradeoff between them, especially downplaying one to convey the other; and (c) diverging warmth and competence concerns of people with lower and higher status and racial‐group positions. Higher‐status people and Whites, both stereotyped as competent but cold, seek to warm up their image. Lower‐status people and Blacks, both stereotyped as warm but incompetent, seek respect for their competence. Overviews of two previously separate research programs and the background literature converge on shared findings that higher‐status people, comparing down, display a competence downshift, consistent with communicating apparent warmth. Meanwhile, lower‐status people, comparing up, often display less warmth, to communicate competence. Previous research and our diverse samples—online workplace scenarios, online cross‐race interactions, and presidential candidates’ speeches—suggest a novel, robust interpersonal mechanism that perpetuates race, status, and social‐class divides.

To Strike a Pose: No Stereotype Backlash for Power Posing Women

Power posing, the adoption of open and powerful postures, has effects that parallel those of actual social power. This study explored the social evaluation of adopting powerful vs. powerless body postures in men and women regarding perceived warmth, competence, and the likelihood of eliciting admiration, envy, pity, and contempt. Previous findings suggest that the display of power by women may have side effects due to gender stereotyping, namely reduced warmth ratings and negative emotional reactions. An experiment (N = 2,473) asked participants to rate pictures of men and women who adopted high-power or low-power body postures. High-power posers were rated higher on competence, admiration, envy, and contempt compared to low-power posers, whereas the opposite was true for pity. There was no impact of power posing on perceived warmth. Contrary to expectations, the poser’s gender did not moderate any of the effects. These findings suggest that non-verbal displays of power do influence fundamental dimensions of social perception and their accompanying emotional reactions but result in comparably positive and negative evaluations for both genders.

Measuring warmth and competence at inter-group, interpersonal and individual levels / Medición de la cordialidad y la competencia en los niveles intergrupal, interindividual e individual

Warmth and competence are universal dimensions of social perception that articulate the perception of other individuals and social groups. However, there are no scales that have systematically been used in psychosocial research. The purpose of this study is to construct two scales, one on warmth and another on competence, which could be used at the inter-group, interpersonal and individual levels. To accomplish this, we performed two studies. In Study I (N = 578 students and N = 540 general population), we tested the scales at the intergroup level (immigrant groups and Spaniards), the interpersonal level (people close to the participants) and the individual level (the participants themselves). In Study 2 (N = 184 students), the two scales were tested at an interpersonal level by evaluating 16 public figures. The results of both studies show that both the warmth scale (kind, pleasant, friendly, warm) and the competence scale (competent, effective, skilled, intelligent) achieved a high degree of reliability when reflecting the perception of groups, individuals and oneself.

Social Perception of Corporate Social Responsibility and Irresponsibility: Asymmetric Benefits and Penalties of CSR Strategy

This study examines how social perception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and irresponsibility (CSI) affects organizational outcomes. Drawing from the social psychology literature on stereotypes, we argue that two fundamental dimensions of social perception — warmth and competence — mediate and moderate the effects of socially responsible and irresponsible practices. We propose that firms engaging in CSR are perceived as higher in warmth and, by default, competence than firms engaging in CSI; moreover, different perceptions of warmth and competence of the organization explain the asymmetric rewards and penalties for CSR and CSI. We conduct two experiments: Experiment 1 links CSR with perceptions of warmth and competence, and shows that warmth perceptions mediate the relationship between CSR and important organizational outcomes, such as sales and reputation. Experiment 2 adds information on firms’ countries of origin to show that CSR rewards and CSI penalties will differ depending on the (mis)alignment of CSR strategy with country stereotypes. We find that firms from high-warmth countries (USA, Portugal) receive lower benefits for CSR and pay higher penalties for CSI than firms from low-warmth countries (Germany, Pakistan); furthermore, this effect reverses when combined with high competence. This micro-macro study extends social evaluation, strategic CSR, and international management literatures.

Losing Hair, Losing Points?: The Effects of Male Pattern Baldness on Social Impression Formation1

In the voluminous research on the psychology of physical appearance, the psychosocial effects of common male pattern baldness (MPB) have been largely neglected. The present experiment examined the influence of MPB on the initial social perceptions of men by both sexes. Eighteen pairs of photographic slides of balding and nonbalding control men were matched on the actual age, race, and other physical attributes of the men. In a first‐impressions context, 54 men and 54 women rated these stimulus persons on seven dimensions of social perception. MPB caused generally less favorable initial impressions, including lower ratings of physical attractiveness, judgments of less desirable personal and interpersonal characteristics, and misperceptions of age. The moderating effects of perceivers' sex and age and stimulus persons' age were examined, mostly without consequence. The baldness stereotype was substantially attenuated when physical attractiveness was statistically controlled.

A Multidimensional Scaling Study Of Person Perception In Children.

Anglo and Black children at two age levels and of both sexes judged the similarity of twelve stimulus persons, using a proximity setting technique. The stimuli consisted of cardboard caricatures of individuals representing the roles of policemen, male and female teachers, parents, male and female peers, and self. Where appropriate, stimuli of both Black and Anglo races were present. The judgments were used as inputs for an individual difference multidimensional scaling program. The resultant dimensions of social perception were interpreted as racial identification, sex, and age. Some differences in perception between subjects were obtained. Implications of the present investigation for future research were discussed.

A constant error approach to the study of dimensions of social perception.

A constant error approach to the study of dimensions of social perception.