The Consequences of Inaccurate Group Meta-Perception

Abstract

How we believe others perceive us – meta-perception – plays a critical role in how we make reputationally impactful decisions. For social group members, meta-perceptive concerns arise not only at the individual level but at the level of the groups of which they are members. Judgments of how others perceive one’s group – group meta-perception – are an essential aspect of group members’ considerations surrounding group-level behaviors. Nonetheless, the possibility of inaccuracy and bias in group meta-perception represents a challenge to group leaders and members hoping to foster and maintain cooperative group relationships and a positive group reputation. Utilizing experimental, survey, and field data, I explore the (in)accuracy of group meta-perception and its consequences for group members and group-level outcomes. In Chapter 1 I find a robust negativity bias in group meta-perception amongst Democrats and Republicans. I demonstrate that inaccuracy is associated with negative out-group motive attributions and that a simple informational intervention reduces these negative motive attributions. In Chapter 2 I develop a theory of organizational moral prospection by synthesizing scholarship across moral psychology and corporate social (ir)responsibility to understanding how leaders in for-profit organizations fail to predict moral backlash toward organizational decisions. In Chapter 3 I utilize field surveys to assess (in)accuracy and bias in group meta-perception amongst for-profit organizational managers facing decisions in the domain of corporate social responsibility.