The prospect of being evaluated by others is oftentimes psychologically crippling. At the core of feeling evaluated is perceiving other minds capable of possessing (judgmental) thoughts and feelings. While research on mind perception in evaluative situations oftentimes examines positive aspects (e.g., increased prosocial behavior), this dissertation looks into how mind perception could actually exacerbate the negative emotional responses to evaluation and ultimately influence behavior. In Chapter 1, we review the literature on mind perception generally, discuss the applications of mind perception for everyday social functioning, and call attention to the idea that mind perception should not be viewed in strictly positive (or negative) terms. In Chapter 2, we describe a set of predictions of the affective and behavioral responses to evaluation, arguing that evaluative contexts prompt people to attribute more mind, which in turn instills greater negative affect and poorer performance. In Chapter 3, we propose a novel method of mitigating the negative consequences of evaluation, specifically, attributing less mind to potential evaluators. We investigate these questions with nine experiments, and discuss the implications for a variety of domains, from how people approach everyday social situations to landing one’s dream job.

Creator

• Schweitzer, Shane

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-wfgy-f380

Subject

• Management
• Social psychology

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• etdadmin_upload_831464
• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:15637

Date created

• 2021-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright