Underestimating Others’ Desire for Constructive Feedback: In this study, only 2.6% of individuals provided feedback to survey administrators that the administrators had food or marker on their faces

“Just Letting You Know…”: Underestimating Others’ Desire for Constructive Feedback. Nicole Abi-Esber, Jennifer Abel, Juliana Schroeder, Francesca Gino. Harvard Business School, Working Paper 22-009. https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/22-009_f209da0a-61ff-4594-ac18-2e84d142159c.pdf

Abstract: People often avoid giving feedback to others even when it would help fix a problem immediately. Indeed, in a pilot field study (N=155), only 2.6% of individuals provided feedback to survey administrators that the administrators had food or marker on their faces. Five experiments (N=1,984) identify a possible reason for the lack of feedback: people underestimate how much others want to receive constructive feedback. We examine two reasons why people might underestimate others’ desire for feedback: considerations about their own experience (e.g., anticipating discomfort giving feedback or a harmed relationship with the receiver) and/or considerations about the receiver’s experience (e.g., anticipating discomfort receiving feedback or the feedback not being valuable). In Experiment 1, participants underestimated others’ desire for feedback across multiple situations. This underestimation persisted when participants recalled giving feedback (Experiment 2) and when participants gave live feedback to their relationship partners in the laboratory (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 tests two interventions to make feedback-givers more accurate: taking the receiver’s perspective (making feedback-givers consider the receiver’s experience more) or having someone else provide the feedback (making feedback-givers consider their own experience less). Both interventions led to more accurate estimates of receivers’ desire for feedback, but the perspective-taking intervention increased accuracy most. Finally, Experiment 5 showed that underestimating others’ desire for feedback was associated with giving less feedback in a public speaking contest and less improvement in the feedback-receiver’s performance. People’s tendency to underestimate others’ desire for feedback can lead them to withhold feedback that could be helpful.

Keywords: feedback; help; prosocial; relationships; misprediction

Protestant activities in China since 1870s contributed to long-run economic growth; the missionaries’ endeavors persisted in China through human capital channel

The long-term effects of protestant activities in China. Yuyu Chen, Hui Wang, Se Yan. Journal of Comparative Economics, January 13 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2021.12.002

Research highlights

• Protestant activities in China since 1870s contributed to long-run economic growth

• Missionaries conducted disaster relief to effectively convert local people

• Missionaries promoted Western education and health care in China since 1870s

• The missionaries’ endeavors persisted in China through human capital channel

Abstract: Combining China's county-level data on Protestant density before 1920 and socioeconomic indicators in 2000, we find persistent positive effects of historical missionary activities on contemporary growth. Using disaster frequency as an instrument for Protestant distribution, we find stronger IV results. We further find that although improvements in education and health care account for a sizable portion of the total effects, other channels such as transformed social values may also matter. Our findings acknowledge the pioneering effects of missionary work in China's modernization, and imply that China's recent growth may benefit from of human capital and social values acquired in history.

Keywords: Chinese economyProtestant activitiesEconomic GrowthEducation

Hating magic: Lower Openness to Experience & lower awe-proneness; higher dogmatism, intolerance of uncertainty, & personal need for structure; & higher socially aversive traits (lower Agreeableness, greater interpersonal dominance, & higher psychopathy)

Silvia, Paul, Gil Greengross, Maciej Karwowski, Rebekah Rodriguez-Boerwinkle, and Sara J. Crasson. 2020. “Who Hates Magic? Exploring the Loathing of Legerdemain.” PsyArXiv. September 14. doi:10.31234/osf.io/mzry6

Abstract: Magic is an ancient, universal, diverse, and wide-ranging domain of artistic performance. Despite its worldwide popularity, however, any working magician will tell you that some people really hate magic. They seem to see every illusion as a challenge to be solved and every performance as an insult to their intelligence. A distinctive feature of magic is that it seeks to create emotions through deception—practitioners create the illusion of the impossible, which can provoke intense curiosity and uncertainty, but will not explain the method—so disliking magic could stem from a few factors: (1) low propensity for curiosity, awe, and wonder; (2) high needs for certainty and cognitive structure, which make a person averse to uncertainty and to events that violate one’s mental models of the world; and (3) high needs for social status and dominance, which make a person averse to being manipulated. The present research explored people’s attitudes toward magic with a brief Loathing of Legerdemain (LOL) scale. In a multinational sample of 1599 adults, people who hated magic were marked by (1) lower Openness to Experience and lower awe-proneness; (2) higher dogmatism, intolerance of uncertainty, and personal need for structure; and (3) higher socially aversive traits, such as lower Agreeableness, greater interpersonal dominance, and higher psychopathy. We suggest that magic is an interesting case for researchers interested in audience and visitor studies and that the psychology of art would benefit from a richer understanding of negative audience attitudes more generally.

Camorra prisoners show a high degree of cooperativeness and a strong tendency to punish defectors, as well as a clear rejection of the imposition of external rules even at significant cost to themselves

Cooperation, punishment and organized crime: a lab-in-the-field experiment in southern Italy. Annamaria Neseae et al. European Economic Review, Volume 107, August 2018, Pages 86-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2018.05.004

Abstract: This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation which provides insights into the social preferences of organized criminals and how these differ from those of “ordinary” criminals on the one hand and from those of the non-criminal population in the same geographical area on the other. We develop experimental evidence on cooperation and response to sanctions by running prisoner's dilemma and third party punishment games on three different pools of subjects; students, ordinary criminals and Camorristi (Neapolitan ‘Mafiosi’). The latter two groups were recruited from within prisons. Camorra prisoners show a high degree of cooperativeness and a strong tendency to punish defectors, as well as a clear rejection of the imposition of external rules even at significant cost to themselves. The subsequent econometric analysis further enriches our understanding demonstrating inter alia that individuals’ locus of control and reciprocity are associated with quite different and opposing behaviours amongst different participant types; a strong sense of self-determination and reciprocity both imply a higher propensity to punish for Camorra inmates, but quite the opposite for ordinary criminals, further reinforcing the contrast between the behaviour of ordinary criminals and the strong internal mores of Camorra clans.

Keywords: Prisoner's dilemmaThird party punishment