Knowledge that Transforms

Research on escalation behavior has proposed that choice of an initial course of action, responsibility for decision outcomes, and negative decision consequences are necessary conditions for the escalation effect to occur. This proposition was tested in a sample of 257 undergraduates. Results show that although responsibility and negative decision consequences contribute to the escalation effect, they are not necessary conditions for escalation to occur. Escalation is also observed when a choice is overruled, and there are positive consequences for the implemented course of action. The escalation bias is greatest when the consequences are inconsistent with participants' expectations. These results are consistent with a self-justification explanation.

Response bias continues to be the most frequently cited criticism of personality testing for personnel selection. The authors meta-analyzed the social desirability literature, examining whether social desirability functions as a predictor for a variety of criteria, as a suppressor, or as a mediator. Social desirability scales were found not to predict school success, task performance, counterproductive behaviors, and job performance. Correlations with the Big Five personality dimensions, cognitive ability, and years of education are presented along with empirical evidence that (a) social desirability is not as pervasive a problem as has been anticipated by industrial-organizational psychologists, (b) social desirability is in fact related to real individual differences in emotional stability and conscientiousness, and (c) social desirability does not function as a predictor, as a practically useful suppressor, or as a mediator variable for the criterion of job performance. Removing the effects of social desirability from the Big Five dimensions of personality leaves the criterion-related validity of personality constructs for predicting job performance intact.

Prior research suggests that individuals estimate higher product values in the presence of credit cues. In this study, researchers examined whether the presence ofa particular credit cue would occasion higher tips (on a percentage basis) in a restaurant setting. In 2 experiments, the presence or absence of a credit cue was manipulated by presenting the dinner tab on a tip tray that either contained a major credit card emblem or was blank. In Experiment 1, diners tipped an average of 4.29% more in the presence of credit cues. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with a different restaurant and insignia. The data are interpreted within a social learning theoretical framework, and the implications for further studies of consumer influence and credit cues are considered.

Participants in a laboratory experiment (N = 79) role-played managers mediating a dispute between 2 peers. Building on previous research ( e.g., P.J. Carnevale & D. E. Conlon, 1988) and theory (e.g., D. G. Pruitt, 1981), a 2 X 3 factorial design varied time pressure on the mediators (high vs. low time pressure) and trust exhibited between 2 preprogrammed disputants ( high trust vs. low trust vs. a no-message control group). Participants could choose from messages exhibiting P. J. Carnevale's (1986) Strategic Choice Model of Conflict Mediation (inaction, pressing, compensating, or integrating), as well as rapport-building messages from K. Kressel's (1972) reflexive strategy. Results suggested that high time pressure increased the mediators' use of pressing messages and decreased the use of inaction messages. Participants also sent more reflexive messages when trust was low. Results are discussed in terms of mediation and conflict management theory.