Warmth Judgments Research Articles

Keeping warm: racial disparities of warmth judgments in the service industry

PurposePeople develop general stereotypes and beliefs about how people look and behave, and discrepancies in perceptions of warmth and competence can lead to incongruence in expected behaviors during service interactions. These perceptions can contribute to negative outcomes for employees; therefore, this study aims to examine how perceptions of warmth affect both customer reactions to employees who are Asian and the work stress, strain and attitudes of employees who are Asian toward their jobs.Design/methodology/approachTo investigate the phenomenon, the authors conducted three studies. The first study examined whether occupational-racial stereotypes influence customers’ evaluation of employees’ service recovery performance. The second study temporally examined whether employees who are Asian engage in more emotional labor strategies to counter these occupational-racial stereotypes and as a result experience more negative outcomes. And a third study investigated the cumulative effects of negative perceptions on employee outcomes.FindingsThe results suggest employees in the hospitality industry who are Asian are perceived as less warm during service failure interactions and, thus, must work harder to regulate their emotions. As a result, employees who are Asian reported experiencing more negative outcomes, supporting the notion that occupational-racial stereotypes contribute to racial disparity and act as challenges and barriers for employees in the service industry.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings emphasize the need to understand and address occupational-racial stereotypes for employees who are Asian to mitigate racial disparities in the service industry. Organizations can promote diverse work climates, provide emotional support and foster high-quality relationships to support employee well-being and satisfaction.Originality/valueThe results provide insight into how stereotypical warmth perceptions of employees who are Asian may affect the demands they face when engaging in service recovery, and how these increased demands may reduce the quality of their work experiences.

Humans perceive warmth and competence in artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (A.I.) increasingly suffuses everyday life. However, people are frequently reluctant to interact with A.I. systems. This challenges both the deployment of beneficial A.I. technology and the development of deep learning systems that depend on humans for oversight, direction, and regulation. Nine studies (N= 3,300) demonstrate that social-cognitive processes guide human interactions across a diverse range of real-world A.I. systems. Across studies, perceived warmth and competence emerge prominently in participants' impressions of A.I. systems. Judgments of warmth and competence systematically depend on human-A.I. interdependence and autonomy. In particular, participants perceive systems that optimize interests aligned with human interests as warmer and systems that operate independently from human direction as more competent. Finally, a prisoner's dilemma game shows that warmth and competence judgments predict participants' willingness to cooperate with a deep-learning system. These results underscore the generality of intent detection to perceptions of a broad array of algorithmic actors.

EFFECTS OF SOCIAL INCLUSIONARY STATUS ON SELF-EVALUATION DEPENDS ON SOCIAL ANXIETY

Social inclusionary status might have diverse effects on self-perception. We conducted an online experiment (N=170) to examine the effects of social inclusionary status and social anxiety on self-evaluation. Our hypothesis was that the social exclusion experience will negatively affect self-evaluations in the competence dimension and social anxiety is expected to moderate this relationship. Participants filled out the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and wrote a short autobiographical essay about an experience from their lives when they felt excluded/rejected (exclusion condition) or included (inclusion condition). Self-evaluation was approached with the two dimensions -warmth and competence- as proposed in the Stereotype Content Model. Results had shown that participants’ warmth judgments about themselves were not affected by neither inclusionary status nor social anxiety. On the other hand, inclusionary status had an effect on self-competence evaluations as a function of participants’ social anxiety levels. Accordingly, remembering an inclusive experience (from their past) was related with higher self-competence only among low social anxiety participants. The positive effect of remembering social inclusion experience was not observed among high social anxiety individuals. In conclusion, the effect of social inclusionary status on self-competence assessments was moderated by social anxiety.

Prevalence, age of decision, and interpersonal warmth judgements of childfree adults

Childfree adults do not want to have children, making them distinct from parents and other adults without children. However, they are difficult to study because they cannot be identified using conventional data on fertility. We use data from a representative sample in the United States to examine the prevalence, age of decision, and interpersonal warmth judgments by and about childfree adults. Our prevalence estimates suggest that childfree adults are quite common, comprising over one-fifth (21.64%) of the population. Our analysis of age-to-decision suggests that most childfree adults reported that they decided they did not want children early in life. Finally, our analysis of interpersonal warmth suggests asymmetric affective polarization among parents and childfree adults driven primarily by parent’s ingroup favoritism. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of childfree adults and for future research on this historically overlooked segment of the population.

Revisiting the effects of smile intensity on judgments of warmth and competence: The role of industry context

While prior work has assumed the compensation effect of social judgments in relation to smile intensity, this research proposes and finds that judgments of warmth elicited from broad smiles of service employees influence perceptions of competence, which in turn heighten customers' purchase intentions. Furthermore, this research unveils the moderating role of industry contexts on the smile intensity → judgments of warmth → judgments of competence relationship, suggesting that service employees' broad smiles increase perceptions of warmth, and the positive effect of judgments of warmth on judgments of competence is stronger for employees in a hedonic-oriented service industry (e.g., restaurant) than in a utilitarian-oriented service industry (e.g., law office).

How to be “groupy” matters: Groups with shared traits and shared goals engender distinct patterns of social judgments

By bringing in the Big-Two model of social perception, the present research extended previous literature regarding how people perceive homogeneous and cohesive groups from the process level to the content level. We compared the effects of intragroup similarity and interaction on warmth and competence judgments about groups. The similarity or interaction (high or low) of the novel groups (Study 1) and an international group (Study 2) was manipulated by descriptions. Participants were asked to rate the target groups on warmth- and competence-related traits. Consistent with our hypotheses, similarity polarized both warmth and competence judgments, whereas interaction polarized warmth judgments but enhanced competence judgments. The current research not only advances group perception research but also provides practical implications for improving group image and intergroup relations.

The “ins” and “outs” of product and services marketing: The influence of consonant wanderings in consumer decision‐making

AbstractThe established preference for words featuring consonants ordered inward in the oral cavity—the in–out effect, may assist marketeers when naming new products and services. To investigate the conditions under which this effect may affect consumer preference we conducted four experiments (N = 818) examining the influence of consonant wanderings in the evaluation of different professionals and food products. While inward articulation direction selectively biased warmth judgments about workers who are perceived as relatively neutral on both warmth and competence, for professionals traditionally associated with either a warmth or a competence dimension inward‐wandering usernames systematically presented a competitive advantage. In the same way, hypothetical food products with inward‐wandering names were judged as more hedonic and more utilitarian. The present evidence supports the potential of the in–out effect to market products and services and highlights the relevance of exploiting this and other oral kinematics phenomena as an asset for managerial practice.

Warmth portrayals to recruit students into science majors

Negative perception of scientists is disquieting for the future of science and US economic and scientific competitiveness. Drawing on studies suggesting that warmth guides people’s judgments of social groups and professions, this study aims to communicate the interpersonal warmth of scientists using two non-verbal behaviors, namely, smiling and collaboration. Building on the visual communication literature, posters were used in a 2 x 2 x 3 within-subject, online experiment in the context of College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, as a test case for Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) colleges. Analyses showed main and interaction effects of smile and collaboration on warmth judgments. Students who smile were perceived as warmer than those who don’t smile. Further, students who collaborate were perceived as warmer than an individual student who works alone. Finally, students who collaborate and smile were perceived as higher in interpersonal warmth than those who work alone without smiling. Implications for the use of visuals to communicate warmth and change scientists’ negative stereotypes are discussed.

The Primacy-of-Warmth Effect on Spontaneous Trait Inferences and the Moderating Role of Trait Valence: Evidence From Chinese Undergraduates.

Research has shown that warmth and competence are the fundamental content dimensions underlying social judgment, and warmth judgments are primary. However, the overwhelming majority of research concerning “primacy-of-warmth” rests on trait judgment or lexical recognition, and little attention has been paid to spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) that are made on exposure to trait-implying behaviors. Two studies were performed to examine the primacy-of-warmth effect on STIs and to further explore whether trait valence moderates the effect. Consistent with our expectations, the results of Experiments 1 and 2 (for spontaneous trait activation and spontaneous trait binding, respectively) consistently demonstrated the primacy-of-warmth on STIs. Participants were more likely to draw STIs from behaviors implying warmth traits than those implying competence traits. Moreover, the primacy-of-warmth effect on STIs was moderated by trait valence. In concrete terms, participants were more likely to draw STIs from negative warmth behavioral sentences than negative competence behavioral sentences, whereas participants draw STIs from positive warmth behavioral sentences and from positive competence behavioral sentences equally. An original contribution made by our study is that we obtained the primacy-of-warmth effect on STIs, providing further evidence for the primacy-of-warmth effect in the domain of implicit social cognition.

Fake It to Make It? Emotional Labor Reduces the Racial Disparity in Service Performance Judgments

Service providers who are Black tend to be evaluated less favorably than those who are White, hindering opportunities for advancement. We propose that the Black-White racial disparity in service performance evaluations is due to occupational-racial stereotype incongruence for interpersonal warmth and that more emotional labor is necessary from Blacks to reduce this incongruence. A pilot study manipulating employee race and occupation confirmed warmth and person-occupation fit judgments are lower for an otherwise equal Black than White service provider. We then demonstrate the racial disparity in service performance is due to interpersonal warmth differences in an experimental study with participants evaluating videos of retail clerks (Study 1) and a multisource field study of grocery clerks with supervisor-rated judgments (Study 2). Furthermore, White service providers are rated highly regardless of emotional labor, but performing more emotional labor (i.e., amplifying positive expressions) is necessary for Black providers to increase warmth judgments and reduce the racial disparity. In other words, Black providers are held to a higher standard where they must “fake it to make it” in service roles. We discuss implications for stereotype fit and expectation states theory, emotional labor, and service management.

Judgments of warmth and competence in a computerized paradigm: Little evidence of proposed impression formation asymmetries.

Much of what we know concerning impression formation is based on experimental methods where the participant receives a list of traits or behaviors and is asked to make trait judgments or meta-cognitive judgments. The present study aimed to put some well-known effects from the impression formation literature to a test in a more dynamic computerized environment, more akin to many real world impression formation scenarios. In three studies participants were introduced to multiple target persons. They were given information about the target persons’ behavior, one at a time, while making ratings of their warmth and competence, and their probability of performing related behaviors in the future. In neither of the studies the negativity effect of warmth or the positivity effect of competence were reproduced.

Action Contribution to Competence Judgments: The Use of the Journey Schema.

The current research considered the question of how performing an action, or merely preparing the body for action, can have an impact on social judgments related to person perception. Participants were asked to ascribe competence and warmth characteristics to a target person by reading a metaphoric text while their body was manipulated to be prepared for the processing of action-congruent information. In Experiment 1, participants whose forward body action matched the metaphoric action described in the text ascribed more competence characteristics to a politician than did control participants. In Experiment 2, participants whose body was merely prepared for forward movement also ascribed more competence characteristics to a politician than did control participants. In addition, the data from Experiment 2 ruled out an alternative non-embodied explanation (i.e., that effect is due to basic associative processes) grounded in the existing literatures on attitudes by demonstrating that body manipulation had no effect on competence when a non-metaphoric text was used. Finally, no evidence was found that body manipulation affects warmth judgments. These studies converge in demonstrating that forward body movements enhance the favorability of competence judgments when these match the metaphoric forward movements described by text.

The development of stereotype content: The use of warmth and competence in assessing social groups

Past research suggests that warmth and competence are primary dimensions of social perception used by adults to understand social groups. The current study investigated whether children use these two dimensions to structure their representations of familiar groups. Results indicated that adult warmth and competence judgments were independent from one another and placed groups in warmth by competence space in ways consistent with past work. However, children showed some sensitivity to both dimensions but did not treat them as independent. Children’s judgments of competence were closely aligned with adult judgments, but their judgments of warmth were influenced by factors that solely influenced adult judgments of competence. These data suggest that children develop an understanding of competence as an independent dimension prior to developing an understanding of warmth as an independent dimension and that their judgments of warmth may reflect a more general summing of all available evaluative information. Implications for children’s developing understanding of the broader intergroup landscape are discussed.

Social Judgments of Warmth and Competence Drive Object Evaluation

The current research investigated whether the two fundamental dimensions of social perception - warmth and competence - are applied to judgments of non-social, inanimate objects (e.g., furniture, equipment). Moreover, this work identifies key visual elements that drive object perceptions along these two dimensions. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that objects with curved-shapes are associated with warmth, whereas angular-shapes are associated with competence. Study 3 showed that viewing a company logo with different contour shapes influenced competence versus warmth perceptions of that company. Finally, Studies 4 and 5 demonstrated that activating a mental focus on competence versus warmth through a manipulation of power led people to prefer angular versus curved shaped objects. Together, these findings identify basic visual determinants of warmth and competence associations, and demonstrate how an object's shape systematically affect perceptions and preferences. More broadly, this research supports the notion that the same forces drive social and non-social judgments.

Chemosignals of Stress Influence Social Judgments

Human body odors have important communicative functions regarding genetic identity, immune fitness and general health, but an expanding body of research suggests they can also communicate information about an individual’s emotional state. In the current study, we tested whether axillary odors obtained from women experiencing psychosocial stress could negatively influence personality judgments of warmth and competence made about other women depicted in video scenarios. 44 female donors provided three types of sweat samples: untreated exercise sweat, untreated stress sweat and treated stress sweat. After a ‘washout’ period, a commercial unscented anti-perspirant product was applied to the left axilla only to evaluate whether ‘blocking’ the stress signal would improve the social evaluations. A separate group of male and female evaluators (n = 120) rated the women in the videos while smelling one of the three types of sweat samples. Women in the video scenes were rated as being more stressed by both men and women when smelling the untreated vs. treated stress sweat. For men only, the women in the videos were rated as less confident, trustworthy and competent when smelling both the untreated stress and exercise sweat in contrast to the treated stress sweat. Women’s social judgments were unaffected by sniffing the pads. The results have implications for influencing multiple types of professional and personal social interactions and impression management and extend our understanding of the social communicative function of body odors.

Not all rejections are alike; competence and warmth as a fundamental distinction in social rejection

Social rejection can lead to a variety of emotions. Two studies show that specific emotional reactions to social rejection can be understood by relying on the fundamental distinction between competence and warmth. Rejection that is perceived to be due to incompetence leads to anger, whereas rejection that is perceived to be due to lack of warmth leads to sadness. Study 1 measures perceptions of competence and warmth judgments. Study 2 manipulates those perceptions. In both studies, rejection that was perceived to be the result of incompetence led primarily to anger, while rejection that was perceived to be the result of lack of warmth led primarily to sadness. These results show that the effects of rejection can be better understood if we take into account how rejection is perceived.

Looking hot or feeling hot: What determines the product experience of warmth?

Warmth is an important characteristic for clothes, home interior and some leisure related products. We used an experimental approach to determine the relative importance of material and colour for the product experience of warmth. We designed products (scarves and breakfast trays) using warm and cold stimuli (colours and materials) in four different combinations and asked respondents to evaluate the warmth and pleasantness of each product. The results demonstrated that both colour and material contribute equally to the judgments of warmth in both products. However, the pleasantness of a product could not be predicted on the basis of the pleasantness attributed to its colour and material. A follow-up interview study distinguished between the literal and figurative meanings of warmth. The literal meaning is related to physical warmth and comfort. The figurative meaning is associated with social interaction, intimacy and friendly atmosphere. The figurative meaning was mentioned more often in association with products than the literal meaning.

Premonitions of insight predict impending error.

Five experiments explored the dynamic metacognitions that accompany the problem- and anagramsolving processes. Subjects repeatedly rated how warm or close they were to solution. High feelings of before an answer indicated that the answer would be incorrect. Moderately low ratings characterized correct responses. The data suggest that the high ratings may result from a process wherein subjects convince themselves that an inelegant but plausible (wrong) answer is correct. No gradual rationalization process precedes the correct response to insight problems. The warmth-rating data also indicate that when the correct answer was given to the problems and anagrams used in this study, there was usually a subjectively catastrophic insight process. In this article, I investigate dynamic metacognitions that lead up to the production of correct or incorrect solutions in solving insight problems and anagrams. A technique is used in which subjects are asked to give judgments about how close they feel to the solution of problems—call ed feeling-of-wa rmth judgments—repeatedly during the course of problem solving. These judgments are called warmth judgments after the searching game in which one person hides an object and then directs others who do not know where the object is by telling them that

Menthol modulates oral sensations of warmth and cold

Aqueous solutions of menthol were found to affect oral thermal sensation in the following ways: (1) When menthol solutions were sipped and held in the mouth for 5 sec, solutions above oral temperature felt significantly warmer than deionized water of the same temperature (warmth enhancement). Menthol solutions below oral temperature felt cooler than water of the same temperature, but only slightly so (cold enhancement); (2) Pretreating the mouth with 0.02% menthol for 5 min strengthened cold enhancement but attenuated sensations of warmth (warmth attenuation); (3) Pretreating for 10 min produced continued cold enhancement while judgments of warmth returned to normal levels; (4) L-menthol cooled more effectively than d-menthol, but d-menthol attenuated warmth at least as much as l-menthol. Possible explanations for the intermodal differences are discussed, and suggestions are made for future research into menthol's unexpectedly complex perceptual effects.

Rating of therapeutic warmth and genuineness by untrained judges.

20 untrained raters rank-ordered typescripts of therapy segments representative of the Truax warmth and genuineness scales on the dimensions of acceptance-rejection and genuineness-falseness. Correlations between untrained raters' ranks and the Truax criteria for warmth were generally positive and moderately high, with an over-all positive r, whereas r with genuineness was generally low and negative, with an over-all low positive value. Vocal cues influenced untrained judges' ratings of genuineness more than those of warmth. Verbal style influenced raters' judgments of warmth more than those of genuineness. Comparisons were made with previous studies of naive judges' ratings of empathy. Implications for therapeutic practice were discussed.