We propose that (a) certain aspects of virtual reality (VR) training programs are seductive details, (b) these seductive details prompt trainee distraction and/or cognitive overload, and (c) pre‐training interventions can benefit learning from VR training programs by targeting these mechanisms. In Study 1, we apply a meta‐cognitive strategy pre‐training intervention, which targets distraction, and a habituation pre‐training intervention, which targets cognitive overload. Habituation had no effect, whereas meta‐cognitive strategies worsened learning. Qualitative results indicated the meta‐cognitive strategy intervention prompted trainees to become more cognitively engaged in the distracting seductive details of the VR training program. In Study 2, we tested an alternative pre‐training intervention, attentional advice, to reduce distraction and increase learning. The attentional advice pre‐training intervention was successful, as trainees demonstrated greater learning when provided attentional advice. Together, all proposals were supported. VR can contain seductive details that cause distraction, and attentional advice can improve learning by reducing distraction.

Incivility from customers is a common occurrence for employees working in service‐oriented organizations. Typically, such incivility engenders instigated mistreatment, both towards customers and colleagues. Not much is understood, however, about the mechanisms underlying the relations between customer incivility and instigated incivility. Answering recent calls from incivility scholars, the present research, drawing from Self‐Regulatory Resource Theory and Stressor‐Emotion models of workplace behaviour, explored cognitive (i.e., self‐regulatory resource depletion) and affective (i.e., negative affect) pathways that would explain relations between customer incivility and instigated incivility towards others. Through two multi‐wave studies with different time lags (N1 = 180, weekly lags; N2 = 192, within‐week lags) and different operationalizations of the instigated incivility construct (i.e., broad [unidimensional] and narrow [multidimensional]), we find consistent support for the mediating effects of the affective pathway. While our first study finds that customer incivility is linked to broad instigated incivility through negative affect, our second study finds that customer incivility is linked to, more specifically, gossip, exclusionary behaviour, and hostility through negative affect. In both studies, however, no support was found for the mediating effects of the cognitive pathway. Implications for both research and practice are discussed, and future research directions are offered.

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