Our Followers Are Lions,Theirs Are Sheep: How Social Identity Shapes Theories About Followership and Social Influence

Two studies examine how self‐categorization theory can be used to refine our understanding of people's implicit theories about followership and social influence. Results from Study 1 show that perceivers regard followers of a group they themselves identify strongly with (rather than not at all) to be more representative of the prototype of effective followers (displaying enthusiasm, industry, good citizenship) and to be less representative of the antiprototype of effective followers (displaying conformity, incompetence, and insubordination). Results are replicated in a second experiment in which we compare the views of those self‐categorizing as either Republican or Democrat responding to followers of the Republican and Democratic Party. Results of Study 2 replicate those of Study 1 and also reveal qualitative differences in the preferred influence strategy for dealing with followers. Specifically, respondents seek to engage in persuasion when trying to change the behavior of ingroup followers, while resorting to coercion when trying to change the behavior of outgroup followers. Our results are the first to provide evidence that perceivers' theories about what followers are like and how they are influenced most effectively are structured by perceivers' identification (and dis‐identification) with the particular groups that leaders are championing.     

AINSWORTH'S STRANGE SITUATION PROCEDURE: THE ORIGIN OF AN INSTRUMENT

The American‐Canadian psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1913–1999) developed the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to measure mother‐child attachment and attachment theorists have used it ever since. When Ainsworth published the first results of the SSP in 1969, it seemed a completely novel and unique instrument. However, in this paper we will show that the SSP had many precursors and that the road to such an instrument was long and winding. Our analysis of hitherto little‐known studies on children in strange situations allowed us to compare these earlier attempts with the SSP. We argue that it was the combination of Ainsworth's working experience with William Blatz and John Bowlby, her own research in Uganda and Baltimore, and the strong connection of the SSP with attachment theory, that made the SSP differ enough from the other strange situation studies to become one of the most widely used instruments in developmental psychology today.     

Executive Attention: An Alternative Perspective on General Mental Ability,Performance, and Subgroup Differences

The validity‐adverse impact tradeoff associated with the relationships among general mental ability (GMA), ethnicity, and employee performance represents one of the most pressing concerns in organizational staffing. We conducted 4 studies with 273 bank employees and 197 university students designed to assess the extent to which executive attention (EA) and GMA predict simulation performance and supervisory ratings of performance. We also assess the extent to which measures of EA and GMA are associated with subgroup differences. Results indicate that, like GMA, EA positively predicts managerial simulation and supervisory ratings of performance. In addition, although reaching statistical significance in only 1 of our 4 studies, EA was generally associated with smaller subgroup differences than GMA, and meta‐analysis across our samples supports this reduced subgroup difference. Moreover, advantages of EA tend to increase as studies move from the laboratory with undergraduate students to a concurrent validation organizational setting with employees. We discuss implications for a theory‐based view of cognitive ability in employee selection and implications for managerial practice.     

Back to “the Future”: Evidence of a Bifactor Solution for Scores on the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale

Despite its widespread use, disagreement remains regarding the structure of the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFCS). In particular there is disagreement regarding whether the scale assesses future orientation as a unidimensional or multidimensional (immediate and future) construct. Using 2 samples of high school students in the United Kingdom, 4 models were tested. The totality of results including item loadings, goodness-of-fit indexes, and reliability estimates all supported the bifactor model, suggesting that the 2 hypothesized factors are better understood as grouping or method factors rather than as representative of latent constructs. Accordingly this study supports the unidimensionality of the CFCS and the scoring of all 12 items to produce a global future orientation score. Researchers intending to use the CFCS, and those with existing data, are encouraged to examine a bifactor solution for the scale.     

Authoritarian Disbeliefs in Diversity

Ethnic diversity poses a threat to authoritarians, as it indicates non-conformism to group norms and poses a threat to group conformity. According to authoritarian dynamic theory, threats elicit authoritarian reactions in people with authoritarian predispositions. In the present article we tested a mediation model derived from authoritarian dynamic theory in a sample of 171 students. As expected, authoritarian predisposition negatively predicted diversity beliefs. This effect was fully mediated by an authoritarian manifestation, that is, authoritarian aggression. The two other components of right-wing authoritarianism, authoritarian submission and conventionalism, did not mediate the effect. Results confirm contemporary research on authoritarianism and the differentiation of authoritarian predispositions and its manifestations.     

The Perceived Leadership Communication Questionnaire (PLCQ): Development and Validation

The Perceived Leadership Communication Questionnaire (PLCQ) is a short, reliable, and valid instrument for measuring leadership communication from both perspectives of the leader and the follower. Drawing on a communication-based approach to leadership and following a theoretical framework of interpersonal communication processes in organizations, this article describes the development and validation of a one-dimensional 6-item scale in four studies (total N = 604). Results from Study 1 and 2 provide evidence for the internal consistency and factorial validity of the PLCQ's self-rating version (PLCQ-SR)—a version for measuring how leaders perceive their own communication with their followers. Results from Study 3 and 4 show internal consistency, construct validity, and criterion validity of the PLCQ's other-rating version (PLCQ-OR)—a version for measuring how followers perceive the communication of their leaders. Cronbach's α had an average of.80 over the four studies. All confirmatory factor analyses yielded good to excellent model fit indices. Convergent validity was established by average positive correlations of.69 with subdimensions of transformational leadership and leader–member exchange scales. Furthermore, nonsignificant correlations with socially desirable responding indicated discriminant validity. Last, criterion validity was supported by a moderately positive correlation with job satisfaction (r =.31).     

When immigrant groups “misbehave”: The influence of perceived deviant behavior on increased threat and discriminatory intentions and the moderating role of right‐wing authoritarianism

In two studies, we tested the relationship between non‐immigrant individuals' perceptions of deviant behavior carried out by Muslims and foreigners and discriminatory intentions towards these outgroups. Based on a longitudinal and a representative cross‐sectional sample, we showed that two different types of perceived deviant behavior (Study 1, Muslims' unwillingness to integrate; and Study 2, foreigners' hostility towards the non‐immigrant majority group) are related to increased intergroup threat, which in turn is related to increased intentions to show passive discrimination (i.e., avoidance) towards these outgroups. In line with theorizing about an increased sensitivity for threat in authoritarian individuals, the relationship between perceptions of deviant behavior and threat was especially strong among high authoritarian individuals. Theoretical and practical implications of our results are discussed.     

The Wished‐For Always Wins Until the Winner Was Inevitable All Along: Motivated Reasoning and Belief Bias Regulate Emotion During Elections

How do biases affect political information processing? A variant of the Wason selection task, which tests for confirmation bias, was used to characterize how the dynamics of the recent U.S. presidential election affected how people reasoned about political information. Participants were asked to evaluate pundit‐style conditional claims like “The incumbent always wins in a year when unemployment drops” either immediately before or immediately after the 2012 presidential election. A three‐way interaction between ideology, predicted winner (whether the proposition predicted that Obama or Romney would win), and the time of test indicated complex effects of bias on reasoning. Before the election, there was partial evidence of motivated reasoning—liberals performed especially well at looking for falsifying information when the pundit's claim predicted Romney would win. After the election, once the outcome was known, there was evidence of a belief bias—people sought to falsify claims that were inconsistent with the real‐world outcome rather than their ideology. These results suggest that people seek to implicitly regulate emotion when reasoning about political predictions. Before elections, people like to think their preferred candidate will win. After elections, people like to think the winner was inevitable all along.