Becky Schaumberg

Rebecca Schaumberg (2024), When expressing pride makes people seem less competent, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 184 ().

Abstract: People often take great satisfaction in their professional and personal accomplishments. Previous research suggests that sharing these pride experiences enhances impressions of one’s competence. However, this past work has examined pride in contexts where others’ reactions were absent, unlike most workplaces and performance-oriented settings where diverse reactions to similar achievements occur. I argue that what pride signals about a person’s competence depends on how others respond to similar successes. Specifically, expressing pride in a performance signals lower competence when others do not share the same prideful reaction. Nine preregistered studies support this prediction. The results also showed that expressing pride in a performance indicates that the performance is close to one’s peak ability. This inference about someone’s performance potential helped explain why expressing pride can signal lower competence. Overall, this work shows that pride is not an unconditional indicator of competence but rather contingent on the emotional responses of others.

Zhiying Ren and Rebecca Schaumberg (2024), Disagreement Gets Mistaken for Bad Listening, Psychological Science. 10.1177/095679762412399

Abstract: It is important for people to feel listened to in professional and personal communications, and yet they can feel unheard even when others have listened well. We propose that this feeling may arise because speakers conflate agreement with listening quality. In 11 studies (N = 3,396 adults), we held constant or manipulated a listener’s objective listening behaviors, manipulating only after the conversation whether the listener agreed with the speaker. Across various topics, mediums (e.g., video, chat), and cues of objective listening quality, speakers consistently perceived disagreeing listeners as worse listeners. This effect persisted after controlling for other positive impressions of the listener (e.g., likability). This effect seemed to emerge because speakers believe their views are correct, leading them to infer that a disagreeing listener must not have been listening very well. Indeed, it may be prohibitively difficult for someone to simultaneously convey that they disagree and that they were listening.

Rebecca Schaumberg (2022), Shame broadcasts social norms: The positive social effects of shame on norm acquisition and normative behavior, Psychological Science, 33 (8), pp. 1257-1277.

Abstract: How does shame affect social cohesion? Prior work has drawn divergent conclusions to this question because shame can spur maladaptive behaviors for people who experience it. However, past work has overlooked the interindividual effects of shame—how one’s expression of shame affects people who witness it. We investigated these social-learning effects of shame and identified norm transmission as a reliable route by which shame facilitates social cohesion. Across five studies and two supplemental studies with U.S.-based adult participants (N = 3,726), we manipulated whether someone conveys shame, no specific emotion, or other discrete emotions regarding their behavior. We then assessed the effect of this emotional expression on participants’ norm inferences and norm-conforming behavior. We found that shame broadcasts particularly strong signals about social norms, and people adjust their behavior to align with these norms. We discuss how these findings challenge common conclusions about shame and generate insights about shame’s influence on social life.