Guilt proneness is a personality trait indicative of a predisposition to experience negative feel... more Guilt proneness is a personality trait indicative of a predisposition to experience negative feelings about personal wrongdoing, even when the wrongdoing is private. It is characterized by the anticipation of feeling bad about committing transgressions rather than by guilty feelings in a particular moment or generalized guilty feelings that occur without an eliciting event. Our research has revealed that guilt proneness is an important character trait because knowing a person’s level of guilt proneness helps us to predict the likelihood that person will behave unethically. Web-based studies of adults across the United States have shown that people who score high on measures of guilt proneness (compared to low scorers) make fewer unethical business decisions, commit fewer delinquent behaviors, and behave more honestly when making economic decisions. In the workplace, guilt-prone employees are less likely to engage in counterproductive behaviors that harm their organization.
Individuals often influence others’ relationships, for better or worse. We conceptualize social i... more Individuals often influence others’ relationships, for better or worse. We conceptualize social influence processes that impact others’ social networks as brokering, and advance a multifaceted model that explains how brokering behaviors can create, terminate, reinforce, and modify others’ network ties. To empirically study brokering, we introduce and validate the Brokering Orientations Scale (BOS), a multidimensional measure that captures individuals’ behavioral tendencies to act as intermediaries, conciliators, and dividers. Six studies (N=1,723) explored the psychometric properties of the BOS (Studies 1a-1c) and investigated the effects of distinct forms of brokering on brokers’ social capital (Studies 2-4). The intermediary, conciliatory and divisive brokering orientations related differently to extraversion, agreeableness, perspective-taking, moral identity and Machiavellianism, among other individual differences. The effects of brokering on social capital varied as a function o...
Journal of personality and social psychology, 2014
Five studies demonstrated that highly guilt-prone people may avoid forming interdependent partner... more Five studies demonstrated that highly guilt-prone people may avoid forming interdependent partnerships with others whom they perceive to be more competent than themselves, as benefitting a partner less than the partner benefits one's self could trigger feelings of guilt. Highly guilt-prone people who lacked expertise in a domain were less willing than were those low in guilt proneness who lacked expertise in that domain to create outcome-interdependent relationships with people who possessed domain-specific expertise. These highly guilt-prone people were more likely than others both to opt to be paid on their performance alone (Studies 1, 3, 4, and 5) and to opt to be paid on the basis of the average of their performance and that of others whose competence was more similar to their own (Studies 2 and 5). Guilt proneness did not predict people's willingness to form outcome-interdependent relationships with potential partners who lacked domain-specific expertise (Studies 4 and...
This research represents the first empirical investigation of the agreement bias in negotiation. ... more This research represents the first empirical investigation of the agreement bias in negotiation. The agreement bias is a negotiation trap characterized by settling for terms that are worse than one’s alternatives. Results from two experiments indicated that teams reduce the agreement bias by facilitating impasse in negotiations with a negative bargaining zone. Study 1 found that the addition of a single teammate was sufficient for generating discontinuity between teams and solos in their ability to avoid the agreement bias. Study 2 provided support for two proposed explanations for the agreement bias. Consistent with the faulty-judgment explanation, the role that required the most information processing benefited the most from the addition of a teammate. Consistent with the concern-with-being-liked explanation, solos were perceived as exhibiting more agreeable behavior than teams, and agreeable behavior was associated with a greater likelihood of agreement.
Guilt proneness is a personality trait indicative of a predisposition to experience negative feel... more Guilt proneness is a personality trait indicative of a predisposition to experience negative feelings about personal wrongdoing, even when the wrongdoing is private. It is characterized by the anticipation of feeling bad about committing transgressions rather than by guilty feelings in a particular moment or generalized guilty feelings that occur without an eliciting event. Our research has revealed that guilt proneness is an important character trait because knowing a person’s level of guilt proneness helps us to predict the likelihood that person will behave unethically. Web-based studies of adults across the United States have shown that people who score high on measures of guilt proneness (compared to low scorers) make fewer unethical business decisions, commit fewer delinquent behaviors, and behave more honestly when making economic decisions. In the workplace, guilt-prone employees are less likely to engage in counterproductive behaviors that harm their organization.
Individuals often influence others’ relationships, for better or worse. We conceptualize social i... more Individuals often influence others’ relationships, for better or worse. We conceptualize social influence processes that impact others’ social networks as brokering, and advance a multifaceted model that explains how brokering behaviors can create, terminate, reinforce, and modify others’ network ties. To empirically study brokering, we introduce and validate the Brokering Orientations Scale (BOS), a multidimensional measure that captures individuals’ behavioral tendencies to act as intermediaries, conciliators, and dividers. Six studies (N=1,723) explored the psychometric properties of the BOS (Studies 1a-1c) and investigated the effects of distinct forms of brokering on brokers’ social capital (Studies 2-4). The intermediary, conciliatory and divisive brokering orientations related differently to extraversion, agreeableness, perspective-taking, moral identity and Machiavellianism, among other individual differences. The effects of brokering on social capital varied as a function o...
Journal of personality and social psychology, 2014
Five studies demonstrated that highly guilt-prone people may avoid forming interdependent partner... more Five studies demonstrated that highly guilt-prone people may avoid forming interdependent partnerships with others whom they perceive to be more competent than themselves, as benefitting a partner less than the partner benefits one's self could trigger feelings of guilt. Highly guilt-prone people who lacked expertise in a domain were less willing than were those low in guilt proneness who lacked expertise in that domain to create outcome-interdependent relationships with people who possessed domain-specific expertise. These highly guilt-prone people were more likely than others both to opt to be paid on their performance alone (Studies 1, 3, 4, and 5) and to opt to be paid on the basis of the average of their performance and that of others whose competence was more similar to their own (Studies 2 and 5). Guilt proneness did not predict people's willingness to form outcome-interdependent relationships with potential partners who lacked domain-specific expertise (Studies 4 and...
This research represents the first empirical investigation of the agreement bias in negotiation. ... more This research represents the first empirical investigation of the agreement bias in negotiation. The agreement bias is a negotiation trap characterized by settling for terms that are worse than one’s alternatives. Results from two experiments indicated that teams reduce the agreement bias by facilitating impasse in negotiations with a negative bargaining zone. Study 1 found that the addition of a single teammate was sufficient for generating discontinuity between teams and solos in their ability to avoid the agreement bias. Study 2 provided support for two proposed explanations for the agreement bias. Consistent with the faulty-judgment explanation, the role that required the most information processing benefited the most from the addition of a teammate. Consistent with the concern-with-being-liked explanation, solos were perceived as exhibiting more agreeable behavior than teams, and agreeable behavior was associated with a greater likelihood of agreement.
Uploads
Papers by Taya R Cohen