Task Outcomes Research Articles

Socio Emotional Learning Within Prison Walls: The Effects of GRIP Program (Guiding Rage into Power) as Perceived by Participant and Non Participant Incarcerated Persons

ABSTRACTLong‐term imprisonment often results in negative psychological and behavioural effects that hinder effective reintegration into society, exacerbating antisocial behaviour and increasing recidivism rates. In response to a Supreme Court mandate, California, the state with the second‐largest prison population in the United States, embarked on a significant prison downsizing initiative. Designed to help violent offenders develop emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and understanding of victim impact, Guiding Rage into Power (GRIP) is an example of a rehabilitation program expanding within California's state prison system in part because it has generated promising results. Building on previous investigations of the same program, this study evaluates the effectiveness of GRIP in altering incarcerated men's self‐perceptions and observed behaviours, with a focus on trust and self‐control. Employing a mixed‐methods approach, including a qualitative photo elicitation task and psychological scales, data were collected from GRIP and non‐GRIP participants in two California prisons. GRIP participants demonstrated a profound commitment to self‐awareness and transformation, as evidenced by their narratives and photo choices. Differential levels of trust between the two groups also predicted distinct outcomes in the photo elicitation task. While this study has limitations, it underscores GRIP's potential to challenge entrenched identities and foster positive internal changes, paving the way for future research to assess broader program impacts. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

Effects of second language learning conditions along the implicit/explicit continuum: an extension of Ishikawa (2019)

This study investigated the effects of learning the morphological rules of a second language under various learning conditions along the implicit/explicit continuum. It compared outcomes between learners under the attentional (required to attend to targets) and intentional (required to search for rules) conditions and under the incidental and explicit conditions immediately after exposure and after 1 week. The study also assessed the nature of acquired knowledge using subjective measures of awareness during the testing phases and post-experimental verbal reports. The results demonstrated similar learning effects across the four groups of learners immediately after the learning phase, whereas only intentional learners outperformed incidental learners after one week. The participants developed conscious and unconscious knowledge irrespective of being attentive or intentional during the learning phase. The outcomes of oral production tasks illustrated that knowledge acquired through exposure did not manifest as productive knowledge. The study discussed the results in terms of learning conditions along the continuum of implicitness and explicitness.

Backward Design in Pre-Service Teacher Education to Enhance Curriculum Knowledge

This action research aimed to enhance the curriculum knowledge of 37 pre-service teachers in early-childhood education through backward design (BD) as an innovative framework. Participants enrolled in an online curriculum development course focusing on curriculum elements and underwent BD-based instruction for five weeks. Multiple data collection tools were employed, including pre- and post-achievement tests and curriculum literacy scales, digital learning journals, performance tasks, course observations, and interviews. The results showed a significant improvement in the curriculum knowledge of the pre-service teachers. This was evidenced by a notable increase in curriculum literacy scores, a moderate improvement in achievement test scores, and positive performance task outcomes. These findings highlight the effectiveness of BD-based instruction in enhancing the curriculum knowledge of pre-service teachers. This study provides valuable insights for teacher educators to effectively tailor their instructional approaches. Further research is needed to validate these results and advance instructional practices in pre-service teacher education.

PENGARUH KOMPETENSI, GAYA KEPEMIMPINAN, DAN PELATIHAN TERHADAP KINERJA GURU DI SMPN 1 JEMBER JAWA TIMUR

The quality of a school is reflected in teacher performance, which significantly impacts overall education quality. Teacher performance is the outcome of tasks performed based on skills, experience, commitment, and time management. Assessing this performance is crucial for identifying obstacles and rectifying errors to achieve learning goals. At SMPN 1 Jember, teacher performance is commendable, meeting 80% of the school target, yet teachers often struggle with administrative duties, which can detract from classroom focus. This study aims to determine whether competence, leadership style, and training individually and collectively influence teacher performance at SMPN 1 Jember. Using multiple linear regression with SPSS 29 software, the research employs a saturated sampling method, involving all 48 teachers at SMPN 1 Jember. Findings indicate that competence and leadership style positively and significantly impact teacher performance, while training has a negative yet significant effect. Collectively, competence, leadership style, and training positively and significantly influence teacher performance at SMPN 1 Jember. Keywords: Teacher Performance; Competence; Leadership Style; Training

Functional outcome of mirror therapy versus task oriented training on hand function in children with unilateral cerebral palsy

Background. Unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP) is a kind of spastic cerebral palsy which is characterized by atypical posture of upper limb, poor eye-hand coordination, and reduced hand skills. These symptoms can restrict a child’s ability to engage in life activities. Purpose. To compare the effectiveness of mirror therapy as well as task-oriented training on hand functions improvement among UCP children. Methods. Sixty children suffering from UCP were randomly allocated into three equal groups. A schemed physical therapy protocol was utilized to the control, mirror therapy (MT), and task-oriented training (TOT) groups. The protocols of mirror therapy and task-oriented training were administered to MT and TOT groups respectively. Assessments of upper extremity skills, hand dexterity, wrist extension range of motion, along with overall grip strength were conducted at baseline and after intervention using the Quality of Upper Extremity Skills Test (QUEST), Box and Block Test (BBT), universal goniometer, as well as pneumatic squeeze handheld dynamometer respectively. Throughout a total of twelve consecutive weeks, the intervention session was held three days a week. Results. The change amount in all measured hand outcomes were significantly improved following the intervention in all three groups, with the TOT group showing a larger significant effect. Conclusion. Task-oriented training had superior impact than mirror therapy in enhancing hand functions among children having UCP.

Observing nociceptive detection thresholds and evoked potentials in diabetic patients with and without painful neuropathy

Aim: Diabetic polyneuropathy is the most described complication in patients with diabetes mellitus. A significant percentage of these patients experience disabling neuropathic pain (painful diabetic polyneuropathy). Small nerve fibers are primarily responsible for peripheral nociception, but objectively assessing its function is challenging. The primary objective of this study was to explore the task execution and outcomes of intra-epidermal electrical stimulation technique that combines nociceptive detection thresholds (NDT) and evoked potentials (EPs) in patients with diabetes. We compared the results of diabetic patients, both with and without painful diabetic polyneuropathy, with those of healthy controls to explore potential clinically relevant information. Methods: The NDT-EP method was applied to 38 patients with diabetes (18 with and 20 without chronic painful neuropathy) and 38 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Individual mean NDTs, psychometric slopes, EP amplitudes, and the effect of the stimuli on EP amplitudes were analyzed and compared between groups using linear regression. Results: The findings revealed significantly lower detection rates, higher NDTs, and lower psychometric slopes in patients with painful diabetic polyneuropathy than in healthy controls. Both patient groups significantly exhibited lower mean EP amplitudes than healthy controls, which were not linked to pulse amplitudes but influenced by stimulus detection. Conclusions: This study showed altered NDT-EP outcomes in patients with painful diabetic polyneuropathy. Whereas the task execution, NDTs, and psychometric slopes may provide valuable insights into small fiber dysfunction, pulse amplitudes seemed not differently encoded in neurophysiological responses to intra-epidermal electrical stimulation near the detection threshold compared to controls. Future studies should investigate whether the altered NDT-EP outcomes could quantify small fiber dysfunction in patients with diabetes mellitus. We recommend further exploration of NDT-EP measures in other patient groups with nociceptive dysfunction.

Influence of punishments associated with task outcomes in physical and mental efforts performed by semi-elite soccer players during training tasks

ABSTRACT Punishing application associated with the task outcomes is a familiar strategy used by soccer coaches during training, but it has been mainly remained in the research background. To date, no previous studies have addressed the effects of punishments on soccer players’ physical and mental efforts during on-field training sessions. Voluntarily, 40 semi-elite male soccer players from two Spanish teams of the same club participated in the study (M age = 22.90 yrs, SD = 5.60 yrs), performing two training sessions with the same tasks, but different in the use or non-use of punishments associated with the task outcomes. Physical load was registered using Polar Team and Ratio of Perceived Exertion. Mental load was estimated by the NASA-Task Load Index and mental fatigue was collected using a Visual Analogue Scale. A portable eye tracker was used to seek the effects of punishment manipulation on ocular metrics. After training, players achieved higher values of peak and mean heart rate, peak and mean speed, distance/minute, and number of sprints at the session with punishments, compared to the session without them. The punishments also influenced participants’ eye movement metrics because changes were found in pupil diameter, latency and velocity of saccades, and number of saccades and blinks when compared to the two training sessions. However, no differences were found between sessions for subjective mental load and fatigue variables. These findings have practical implications to the design of soccer training tasks because this emotional constraint influenced the physical load and objective mental load of the soccer players, but not their subjective measures of mental load and fatigue.

Effects of blinded and nonblinded sequential human redundancy on inspection effort and inspection outcome in low prevalence visual search

Human redundancy is often used in safety–critical domains to help protect against errors. For example, mammograms are read by two radiologists, or the dose of a drug is calculated by two physicians who perform the task redundantly one after the other. However, the expected reliability gain may be compromised by social loafing (SL), i.e., a reduction of individual effort caused by the team setting. In two laboratory studies, we therefore investigated whether different forms of human redundancy cause SL and impact task outcome. In each experiment, about 20 participants inspected images alone for rare targets, while 40 participants worked in teams of two, either performing the first or second inspection. We measured effort using inspection time and inspection area, and measured task outcome using the number of detected targets and false alarms. While there was no transfer of target marks in experiment 1 (blinded redundancy), the second inspectors in experiment 2 saw marks set during the first inspection (nonblinded redundancy). In experiment 1, data revealed no indications of SL but increased time, area covered, detections and false alarms for team-based relative to solo performance. In experiment 2, teams clearly adapted their inspection intensity. The second inspectors searched the images significantly shorter than the first inspectors. While detected targets did not differ between the two redundant groups, the second inspectors were found to produce significantly fewer false alarms than the first inspectors. However, the advantage of detected targets and area coverage still favored the teams. Thus, the principle of redundancy was effective in both forms of sequential redundancy, even if it led to different behaviors and perceptions at the individual level.

Diffusion of Responsibility for Actions With Advice

ABSTRACTDiffusion of responsibility is typically defined as the effect by which people feel less responsible for outcomes of their actions when they act as a member of a group than when they act individually. The research reported here extends the concept of diffusion of responsibility to contexts in which the actor has received advice. Responsibility when using advice and when acting contrary to advice are compared to each other, as well as to responsibility when acting alone or as part of a group. To provide a more complete picture, this research consolidates disparate concepts from previous work on diffusion of responsibility, including felt, judged, and anticipated responsibility assessments; distributive and case‐based models of responsibility; and positive and negative outcomes. Across three experiments, using advice conveyed less responsibility than either acting alone or acting contrary to advice, with greater use of advice further reducing responsibility. The magnitude of diffusion was influenced by the task outcome valence in ways consistent with self‐serving bias when acting alone and other‐serving bias when using advice. Diffusion was greater with distributive than case‐based responsibility models. The results were generally consistent across felt, judged, and anticipated responsibility, as well as with choice and judgment tasks. Implications and future research possibilities are discussed.

Prediction of inlet gas volume fraction of rotary vane pump under variable operational conditions with 1DCNN-TL model utilizing vibration signals

The Rotary vane pump (RVP) exhibits promising potential in the lubricating oil system of aircraft engines. The entrainment of air into the lubricating oil flowing through the pump affects the suction and discharge flow rates of the RVP. Therefore, understanding the inlet gas volume fraction (IGVF) of the RVP is crucial to assess its capability to deliver sufficient lubricating oil for ensuring the safe operation of aircraft engines. This study presents a one-dimensional convolutional neural networks (1DCNN)-based transfer learning (TL) (1DCNN-TL) prediction model to predict IGVF for the RVP using experimental data from gas-liquid two-phase flow in the RVP. The model is pre-trained using the vibration signals under a specific differential pressure between the pump inlet and outlet to enable predictions of the IGVF under varying differential pressures. The 1DCNN serves as pre-trained model for analyzing the outcomes of different transfer tasks. The effect of different frozen layer numbers on training time and prediction accuracy of the neural network is explored. Subsequently, the influence of varied source domain data on prediction accuracy is investigated, revealing that for optimal TL results, stable condition data at 200 kPa should be preferred as the source domain. Then the 1DCNN-TL prediction model of IGVF of RVP under variable operational conditions is determined. The results indicate varying iteration convergence rates of the pre-trained model under a differential pressure of 200 kPa across different transfer tasks, with a final goodness of fit exceeding 0.958 after fine-tuning the model. The model demonstrates the high prediction accuracy and applicability, which can contribute to improving the reliability and safety of aircraft engines.

Reality Cheque: Different Methods of Eliciting Fear-Related Beliefs Reveal Multiple Representations of Threat

Influential models of fears and phobias suggest that irrational threat beliefs underpin excessive fear. Yet, many fearful individuals recognize their fear is not justified. Drawing on memory competition/multiple representations theory, we developed a novel, fear-relevant procedure, which reveals conflicting representations of threat. In three experiments (Experiment 1, N = 49, Experiment 2, N = 47, Experiment 3, N = 75), fearful and non-fearful participants not only provided Probability Ratings for fear-related outcomes in a fear-relevant exposure task, but placed Bets, with payoffs depending on what happened in reality. Fearful participants displayed much higher Probability Ratings than Low fear participants. However, Bets revealed far less consistent group differences, even when proximal to threat (Experiments 1 and 2), and differences between High and Low fear participants’ Bets disappeared when they could not be anchored to previous Probability Ratings (Experiment 3). A Neutral Betting task also showed that general betting strategies were comparable between groups. We suggest that these findings may reflect the multi-representational nature of belief, in which both adaptive and maladaptive representations of a feared object may exist in parallel, with personal and contextual factors determining which form of representation is retrieved or expressed. This perspective can provide insights into the complex interplay of adaptive and maladaptive beliefs that is a central focus of currently dominant therapies.

Network state changes in sensory thalamus represent learned outcomes

Thalamic brain areas play an important role in adaptive behaviors. Nevertheless, the population dynamics of thalamic relays during learning across sensory modalities remain unknown. Using a cross-modal sensory reward-associative learning paradigm combined with deep brain two-photon calcium imaging of large populations of auditory thalamus (medial geniculate body, MGB) neurons in male mice, we identified that MGB neurons are biased towards reward predictors independent of modality. Additionally, functional classes of MGB neurons aligned with distinct task periods and behavioral outcomes, both dependent and independent of sensory modality. During non-sensory delay periods, MGB ensembles developed coherent neuronal representation as well as distinct co-activity network states reflecting predicted task outcome. These results demonstrate flexible cross-modal ensemble coding in auditory thalamus during adaptive learning and highlight its importance in brain-wide cross-modal computations during complex behavior.

Public Health Monitoring System In COVID-19 Conditions Using Machine Learning-Based Sentimental Analysis

Twitter is a significant forum for individuals to discuss and disseminate health-related data. The system offers substantial data for immediate monitoring of contagious diseases (such as COVID-19), relieving disease-prevention organizations from the laborious tasks associated with Personal Health Measures (PHM). PHM identification is a crucial technique for staying informed about the status of an epidemic. It aims to determine an individual's health by analyzing web text data. This research investigates the process of identifying PHM related to COVID-19 using data from Twitter. The research has constructed a COVID-19 PHM dataset with tweets labeled with four distinct categories of health disorders connected to COVID-19: self-mention (SM), other-mention (OM), awareness, and non-healthcare (NHC). The research achieved favorable outcomes in the PHM identification task. The categorizing results enable prompt health tracking and oversight for digital epidemiology. The study assesses the impact of the attention strategy and training methodology on the predictive capabilities.

P38: The Night’s Story. The impact of blindness on the lexical richness of the work of Jorge Luis Borges

Introduction and Objectives: Vision plays an important role in theories of cognitive development and language acquisition. Studies on acquired blindness have shown a negative impact on the outcome of semantic and phonological fluency tasks in those who suffer from it. The Objectives of our work was to evaluate the potential effect of visual deficit on the lexical richness (quantity of different words or lexical units) of the work of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (JLB).Material and Methods: Verses and prose texts by JLB (complete works of stories and poetry) were analyzed. The total number of words used was counted, and within them, the number of unique words (numbered words without counting their repetitions) was quantified using the Unique Word calculator tool from Planet Calc®. The results obtained after the period in which his blindness prevented him from reading texts were compared with the data obtained from his previous literary production. Statistical results were obtained using SPSS software. Means, standard deviations, and the result of a t-test were calculated.Results: Data from 3 books of stories and 3 poetry books written between the years 1923 and 1949 (a period in which he still retained his reading ability) were collected, as well as data from 3 books of stories and 10 poetry books from his post-blindness period (starting from 1955). A total of 93446 and 59749 total words were obtained from the pre and post-blindness periods, respectively, with a total of 39887 and 24610 unique words from the mentioned periods. A percentage of unique words over total words was calculated for both periods, and a T-test for related measures was conducted. Although a lower percentage was observed in both the narratives between the pre-blindness stage (M = 45.09%; SD = 6.8%) and post-blindness stage (M = 40.92%; SD = 4.7%), as well as in the poems pre-blindness stage (40.92% SD 4%) and post-blindness stage (32.57% SD 4.5%), this difference was not statisticallysignificant(narrativesp = 0.155;poems p = 0.106).Conclusions: The analysis of the comparison between pre-and post-blindness stages of lexical richness in JLB’s writing does not align with the fluency deficit reported in the literature. The continuity of his active intellectual life may have influenced his lexical performance through compensatory mechanisms.

Ketone monoester attenuates oxygen desaturation during weighted ruck exercise under acute hypoxic exposure but does not impact cognitive performance.

Acute ingestion of exogenous ketone supplements in the form of a (R)-3-hydroxybutyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate (R-BD R-βHB) ketone monoester (KME) can attenuate declines in oxygen availability during hypoxic exposure and might impact cognitive performance at rest and in response to moderate-intensity exercise. In a single-blind randomized crossover design, 16 males performed assessments of cognitive performance before and during hypoxic exposure with moderate exercise [2×20min weighted ruck (∼22kg) at 3.2km/h at 10% incline] in a normobaric altitude chamber (4572m, 11.8% O2). The R-BD R-βHB KME (573mg/kg) or a calorie- and taste-matched placebo (∼50g maltodextrin) were co-ingested with 40g of dextrose before exposure to hypoxia. The R-βHB concentrations were rapidly elevated and sustained (>3mM; P<0.001) by KME. The decline in oxygen saturation during hypoxic exposure was attenuated in KME conditions by 2.4%-4.2% (P<0.05) compared with placebo. Outcomes of cognitive performance tasks, in the form of the Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA) code substitution task, the Stroop color and word task, and a shooting simulation, did not differ between trials before and during hypoxic exposure. These data suggest that the acute exogenous ketosis induced by KME ingestion can attenuate declining blood oxygen saturation during acute hypoxic exposure both at rest and during moderate-intensity exercise, but this did not translate into differences in cognitive performance before or after exercise in the conditions investigated.

A high-quality self-supervised image denoising method based on SDDW-GAN and CHRNet

Image denoising remains a classic and crucial issue in the field of image processing, significantly impacting the outcomes of subsequent image processing tasks. For instance, the denoising network depends on “noise-clean” image pairs to train network effectively. However, it is often hampered by issues such as useful information loss, low training efficiency, and poor blind denoising. To address these challenges, this study proposes a novel image denoising network that integrates the complementary strengths of model-based and learning-based approaches, specifically leveraging the capabilities of both SDDW-GAN and CHRNet. Firstly, SDDW-GAN is designed to estimate the noise distribution on the input noisy images, and a fast-smoothing noisy block sampling algorithm is proposed to extract the noise blocks in noisy images in SDDW-GAN. Secondly, a network with dual generators and dual discriminators based on W-GAN is designed to estimate the noise distribution on the input noisy images and generate noise sample pairs with the same noise distribution, which solves the problem of relying on “noise-clean” image pairs. Thirdly, CHRNet is designed to compute the mapping relationship between the double-noise samples and the single-noise samples. In order to further improve the denoising effect, the dual-channel residual attention module is proposed for fusion learning of global and local features. Experimental results show that the proposed method has a better denoising effect in complex environments and outperforms existing denoising methods. Specifically, in comparison with the stand-alone denoising methods BM3D, DnCNN, Noise2Noise, and Blind2Unblind, the proposed method improves the average peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) by 0.23 dB to 0.78 dB on two benchmarking datasets crossing different noise levels. Its denoising effect is also greater than other competitive stand-alone and combination methods. The proposed method can also extend to low-light image enhancement, deblurring, and super-resolution.

Is Visual Reliance Increased in Athletes After ACL Injury? A Scoping Review.

Individuals with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury often exhibit visual cognitive deficits during tasks that require neuromuscular control. In this paper, we present evidence of increased visual reliance after ACL injury during a range of clinically applicable cognitive-motor tasks. This information is essential to strengthen the scientific rationale for therapeutic interventions that target maladaptive neuroplasticity and may translate to improved return-to-sport (RTS) outcomes following ACL injury. The objectives of this study are (1) to determine if visual reliance is present during common rehabilitation-based assessments after ACL deficiency (ACL-D) or ACL reconstruction (ACL-R), (2) to describe how visual reliance is assessed during such tasks, and (3) to provide information to help clinicians and patients understand the clinical relevance of cognitive load in the assessment and intervention of visual reliance. Scoping review. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and PEDro databases. Only primary studies published in English were included without time limitations. Qualitative analysis of the included studies was performed. We synthesized the results of 23 studies. A total of 7 studies (31%) included patients with ACL-D, 15 studies (65%) included patients with ACL-R, and 1 study (4%) included patients with ACL-D and ACL-R. Evaluation of tasks, task evaluation setting, visual conditions, outcome measures, and presence of increased visual reliance were identified. Most studies investigating patients with ACL-D, contrary to those with ACL-R, exhibited worse postural stability during eyes-closed conditions than uninjured controls. Complete visual obstruction (i.e., eyes closed or blindfolded) was the most frequently reported method to disrupt vision (52%). The addition of a visual-cognitive challenge resulted in significantly worse postural stability in patients with ACL-R compared with controls. Visual reliance was most commonly assessed during single leg stance with complete visual obstruction. The majority of studies on patients with ACL-D indicate that they exhibit poorer postural stability in eyes-closed conditions when compared with uninjured controls, which suggests increased visual reliance. There is less evidence of visual reliance in patients who have undergone ACL-R compared with those with ACL-D. Adding a visual-cognitive load was found to be more effective in inducing postural stability deficits in individuals who have undergone ACL-R. IV. The protocol was a priori registered on Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/p4j95/ ).

Performance-Based Pay and Limited Information Access. An Agent-Based Model of the Hidden Action Problem

Abstract Models involving human decision-makers often include idealized assumptions, such as rationality, perfect foresight, and access to relevant information. These assumptions usually assure the models’ internal validity but, at the same time, might limit the models’ power to explain empirical phenomena. This paper addresses the well-known model of the hidden action problem, which proposes an optimal performance-based sharing rule for situations in which a principal assigns a task to an agent and the task outcome is shared between the two parties. The principal cannot observe the action taken by the agent to carry out this task. We introduce an agent-based version of this problem in which we relax some of the idealized assumptions. In the proposed model, the principal and the agent only have limited information access and are endowed with the ability to gain, store and retrieve information from their (finite) memory. We follow an evolutionary approach and analyze how the principal’s and the agent’s decisions affect their respective utilities, the sharing rule, and task performance over time. The results suggest that the optimal (or a close-to-optimal) sharing rule does not necessarily emerge in all cases. The results indicate that the principal’s utility is relatively robust to variations in memory. On the contrary, the agent’s utility is significantly affected by limitations in the principal’s memory, whereas the agent’s memory appears to only have a minor effect.

Institutional quarantine and dishonest behavior

Quarantine has been implemented worldwide to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Although recent literature has outlined the mental and psychological costs of quarantine, its ethical costs are not fully understood. In two online experiments conducted during an institutional quarantine event (481 participants), we find that institutional quarantine leads to more dishonest behavior, including lying about the outcome of a random-draw task and overreporting one’s performance in a real-effort task to gain financial benefits. By directly manipulating individuals’ perceived psychological ownership, we provide suggestive evidence that psychological ownership may be one mechanism underlying the relationship between institutional quarantine and dishonest behavior. A complementary experiment (226 participants) suggests that anxiety and frustration may also serve as explanatory factors for this effect. We then discuss the implications of our findings, which may inspire approaches to mitigate the negative effects of institutional quarantine on honesty.

The leadership fallacy: How misattribution of leadership leads to a blaming game

Assigning responsibility for a project’s success or failure is key to organizational performance, yet attribution fallacies often interfere. Our experimental study (N=339) shows team members mistakenly attribute too much influence to their leaders on task outcomes. Despite task outcomes being randomly determined by easy or hard difficulty rather than leadership, leaders received undue credit or blame. Leaders assessed their teams more negatively in difficult tasks, except for female leaders, who were more lenient in assessing both conditions than men. Leaders' self-assessments did not differ between experimental conditions, confirming their self-motivated evaluation; moreover completing an easy task boosted their confidence for harder challenges. Our study shows that attributional errors manifest differently in the evaluation of leaders and followers and demonstrates that success in simpler tasks can increase leaders' confidence, potentially leading to riskier behaviors.