Performance in a task improves when subjects experience respect, rather than admiration, for those teaching them

Abstract

Introduction One experiences admiration and respect when acknowledging excellence in others. Admiration relates to the person’s superior abilities, whereas respect focuses on the person as a whole. Although previous studies suggest a link between admiration/respect and motivation, it is unclear as to whether these emotions enhance task performance. We investigated the relationship between admiration/respect and task performance. Method Forty-two Japanese participants completed an English exam, watched a video, and completed a second exam. In the video, an interviewer asked an English lecturer to provide tips for completing the exam. After the second exam, participants rated the amount of admiration and respect they had for the lecturer and interviewer. We examined whether experiencing admiration/respect enhanced exam scores. Results We found that experiencing admiration had no significant effect on exam scores. However, the participants who had stronger respect for the lecturer improved their score (p < 0.001) whereas the score of the other participants did not differ between exams (p = 0.504). Moreover, the analysis showed a positive correlation between score increment and the amount of awe, a subcategory of the Japanese concept of respect (p = 0.014). Conclusion The results suggest that respect (particularly awe), rather than admiration, is involved in performance improvement.

Experiencing respect elongates the orienting response: a pilot study

“…Previous studies have suggested that the emotion of awe, which is induced by a novel, vast and complex stimulus that cannot be explained by one's current way of view, directs one's attention to the stimuli [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Importantly, awe is one of the subcategories of respect for the Japanese [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Hence, in the present study, experiencing respect motivated participants to focus on the stimulus and extract information from it.…”

“…These results suggest that not familiarity but respect involved the declining HRs, which is the index of the orienting response. We adjusted the p-values in two correlation tests through Holm's method and one looks at the models carefully to learn from them [9]. Therefore, participants paid attention to their parents, teachers, and other affectively respected persons, and the orienting responses were prolonged.…”

“…Respect is an emotion that facilitates self-improvement. It is often experienced when one recognizes excellence in others [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Respect focuses on the whole of others based on their superior behaviors, skills, achievements, or virtues.…”

“…(back) and specere (to look at), indicating that respect is related to looking at others. Interestingly, when participants experienced respect for an excellent lecturer on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), their TOEIC scores increased, suggesting that experiencing respect motivates one to look carefully at the lecturer and obtain information [9]. We therefore hypothesized that respect would promote and elongate an orienting response of paying attention to the person.…”

“…Previous studies of respect and other related emotions have used common stimuli across participants [7][8][9][23][24][25][26][27]. However, considering that respecting someone is a subjective phenomenon [4], it is appropriate to use personalized stimuli, such as retrospectives of respected individuals.…”