In explaining the prevalence of the overconfident belief that one is better than others, prior work has focused on the motive to maintain high self esteem, abetted by biases in attention, memory, and cognition. An additional possibility is that overconfidence enhances the person's social status. We tested this status enhancing account of overconfidence in six studies. Studies 1 through 3 found overconfidence leads to higher social status in both short and longer term groups, using naturalistic and experimental designs. Study 4 applied a Brunswikian (1956) lens analysis and found that overconfidence leads to a behavioral signature that makes the individual appear competent to others. Studies 5 and 6 measured and experimentally manipulated the desire for status and found that the status motive promotes overconfidence. Together, these studies suggest that people might so often believe they are better than others because it helps them achieve higher social status.Keywords: overconfidence, self perception, status, power, groups, person perception 3STATUS ENHANCEMENT ACCOUNT OF OVERCONFIDENCE A Status Enhancement Account of OverconfidenceThe pervasiveness of overconfidence is somewhat puzzling. Individuals not only tend to have positive self perceptions, they often believe they are more talented and competent than others, even when they are not (for reviews, see Alicke & Govorun, 2005; Dunning, Heath, & Suls, 2004). To mention just a few examples, individuals tend to overplace their occupational abilities (Haun, Zeringue, Leach, & Foley, 2000), social skills (Swann & Gill, 1997), and physical talents relative to those of others (Dunning, Meyerowitz, & Holzberg, 1989; for exceptions, see Kruger & Burrus, 2004;Moore & Small, 2007). The propensity for overconfidence is puzzling because being able to accurately place one's abilities relative to those of others is clearly useful (e.g., Alicke, 1985; Dunning et al., 2004;. Recognizing one's limitations would help people set more realistic goals (Ehrlinger & Dunning, 2003), avoid contests one will lose (Camerer & Lovallo, 1999), and select strategies that facilitate success (Neale & Bazerman, 1985), for example. So why would individuals form overly positive judgments of their abilities?Scholars have mostly offered two explanations. The first explanation posits a motivated bias: Individuals are driven to be confident because it provides them with psychological benefits (Dunning, Leuenberger, & Sherman, 1995; Kunda, 1987). For example, self confidence can improve self esteem (Alicke, 1985), mental health (Taylor & Brown, 1988), and task motivation and persistence (Pajares, 1996). The second explanation highlights the cognitive processes that may sometimes produce directional biases. People might simply be unable to accurately assess their own competence and arrive at biased self views from fairly mundane judgment processes. For example, biased self views can 4STATUS ENHANCEMENT ACCOUNT OF OVERCONFIDENCE arise simply because people are more likely to intend success ...

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As work organizations become increasingly gender diverse, existing theoretical models have failed to explain why such diversity can have a negative impact on idea generation. Using evidence from two group experiments, this paper tests theory on the effects of imposing a political correctness (PC) norm, one that sets clear expectations for how men and women should interact, on reducing interaction uncertainty and boosting creativity in mixed-sex groups. Our research shows that men and women both experience uncertainty when asked to generate ideas as members of a mixed-sex work group: men because they may fear offending the women in the group and women because they may fear having their ideas devalued or rejected. Most group creativity research begins with the assumption that creativity is unleashed by removing normative constraints, but our results show that the PC norm promotes rather than suppresses the free expression of ideas by reducing the uncertainty experienced by both sexes in mixed-sex work groups and signaling that the group is predictable enough to risk sharing more—and more-novel—ideas. Our results demonstrate that the PC norm, which is often maligned as a threat to free speech, may play an important role in promoting gender parity at work by allowing demographically heterogeneous work groups to more freely exchange creative ideas.

TitleGender differences in trust dynamics: Women trust more than men following a trust violation H I G H L I G H T S• We examine gender differences in how trust changes after transgressions.• We show that women trust more than men following a violation.• Women are less likely than men to lose trust in others following transgressions.• Women are more likely than men to regain trust after repeated transgressions.• Women's greater relational investment underlies these gender differences. Despite the importance of trust for efficient social and organizational functioning, transgressions that betray trust are common. We know little about the personal characteristics that affect the extent to which transgressions actually harm trust. In this research, we examine how gender moderates responses to trust violations. Across three studies, we demonstrate that following a violation, women are both less likely to lose trust and more likely to restore trust in a transgressor than men. Women care more about maintaining relationships than men, and this greater relational investment mediates the relationship between gender and trust dynamics. a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o