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hello I'm Steve ghulami editorial
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director at knowledge a warden and today
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I'm speaking with Mary Schweitzer who is
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a pro is a professor of operations
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information and decisions at the warden
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school and with Jeremy Yip who is
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professor of management at Georgetown
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University thank you both for joining us
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today
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there's your dangerous and so today
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we're going to talk about your research
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on the impact of anger in the workplace
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and the title of your paper is losing
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your temper and your perspective anger
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reduces perspective-taking so let's
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start with just the title of the paper
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itself and specifically that term
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perspective-taking so Jeremy can you
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define that for us in this context yeah
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perspective-taking is a cognitive
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process that involves recognizing
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differences and making inferences about
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how others view a situation when people
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engage in perspective-taking they often
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form mental representations of a
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particular situation for themselves and
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for others that overlap enables people
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to be able to bridge differences between
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percent of perceptions interests and
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backgrounds perspective-taking
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is closely tied to conflict in that poor
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perspective-taking is often associated
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with conflict and in this paper we
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explore an emotion that's commonly
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associated with conflict anger and it's
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and examine whether anger may actually
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impair perspective-taking
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and potentially fuel conflict okay and
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in the paper you talk specifically about
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two different kinds of anger one is
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incidental anchor the other one's
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integral anchor Maurice could you help
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us figure out what the difference is
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between those two and and why that's
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important sure
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so there we explored two different kinds
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of anger in federal anger anger that
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might bleed over from one case into
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another so imagine you have an argument
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with your spouse and then you go into an
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important meeting at work those two
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cases could be completely unrelated but
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that anger might carry over and still
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influence the way you behave and act in
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that second situation so
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many of our studies we look at
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incidental anger anger that's just
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carrying over from one case into another
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it's a more conservative test that we're
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just looking at that pure emotion and
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what we consistently find is that the
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motions we have from one setting really
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do carry over to unrelated settings in
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contrast integral anger is anger that I
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feel toward that same person or about
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that same issue that bleeds over from
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one case to another and in that case it
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might be quite relevant so it could be
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that I'm upset with a co-worker and I'm
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dealing with that co-worker in a second
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case and that emotion that I'm feeling
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could be informative and relevant in how
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I'm dealing with that person and so here
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when we think about conflict settings
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what we're showing is that even
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incidental anger anger from an unrelated
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source can really impair
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perspective-taking
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and it's certainly the case that
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integral anger that is anger I feel
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about a particular situation or a person
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is going to influence how I deal with
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that same situation or person okay so
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let's get to the why then so to Jeremy
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why why does anger impact prospective
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taking in these cases yeah it was
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something that we thought very carefully
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and deeply about what might explain why
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anger diminishes perspective-taking and
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in our work we found that when people
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feel angry they experience elevated
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levels of arousal and that interferes
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with their ability to think carefully
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and deliberately which reduces
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perspective-taking we can look at
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emotions
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according to valence and magnitude and
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what we're finding here is that anger is
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a negative valence high arousal emotion
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can I just stop you for a second can you
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just define what valence means in this
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context okay yeah valence refers to
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whether it's positive or negative
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and in this case anger is a negative
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emotion that also
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tends to be higher in terms of energy or
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arousal and when people feel or
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experience greater arousal they tend to
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be more likely to rely on heuristics
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what's valuable about our work is that
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we were also able to shed some insight
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into the puzzle about how emotions
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influence cognition prior work has found
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that when people feel happy they tend to
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exhibit impaired perspective taking
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similarly when people are anxious they
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tend to struggle with perspective taking
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and here our work finds that when people
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feel angry they tend to struggle with
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their perspective taking and what ties
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this all together is the role of arousal
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Maurice yeah I just add to that that
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that that essentially we're finding is
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that when people feel angry they're
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collapsing in on themselves they become
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far more egocentric and other work
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Jeremy and I have done together we're
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finding that basically anger which is
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this high arousal that is my heart's
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beating fast it's as high Roselyn motion
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I'm high an alert we're focusing in on
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ourselves and we're more likely to think
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about our own interests and it gets in
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the way of trying to think about things
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from somebody else's perspective so as
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Jen was explaining before we're trying
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to disentangle what we know in our heads
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from how other people are seeing and
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experiencing things and it's really hard
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to make that mental leap to really put
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ourselves in somebody else's shoes that
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perspective-taking requires this
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cognitive effort and we're finding is
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that the emotions we feel this anger
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that we feel is impairing that process
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and in fact that leads to what you call
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spirals correct conflict spirals yeah
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exactly right so so and Jeremy eluded
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this before that is negotiations or
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conflicts or disputes you know imagine
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your neighbor's dog bit a member of your
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family you might be angry about that
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angers a common
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theme in many conflict situations and
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what we're finding is that anger
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hums perspective-taking exactly the kind
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of skill you might need to try to
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resolve a conflict so whether it's at
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work or at home if you're feeling anger
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within a conflict situation it might
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make it even harder to resolve that
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so imagine we're going to court and as
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we're going to court if I can't take the
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other side's perspective I might be sure
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that the judge is going to rule in my
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favor and so now I'm gonna be less
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likely to accept any overtures to try to
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settle before we go to court I'm gonna
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escalate this conflict so I'm curious to
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know how you would study an emotion like
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anger in a lab setting
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so Jeremy King explained maybe a couple
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of the experiments that you did sure so
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we conducted six experiments in the lab
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and we our basic approach to these
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experiments was that we would induce the
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emotion and we used many different ways
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to induce emotion so for example we
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induced emotion by providing people with
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negative feedback or we had them watch a
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video in which an injustice occurred or
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we had them recall a time that they felt
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most angry and write about it they then
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completed measures of perspective-taking
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and here's where we were able to
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introduce some new ways of assessing
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perspective-taking in particular we
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assess perspective-taking through a
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scheduling task we told participants
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that they were that they needed to write
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an email and arrange a meeting time with
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a very important client who was based in
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California which was three hours behind
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their current time zone
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Eastern Time we were we looked at
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whether they wrote their messages using
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meeting times that were in Eastern time
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or in Pacific time and for those who
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wrote in Eastern time that reflected
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egocentrism on the other hand if they
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wrote it in Pacific time that reflected
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prospective taking and what we found was
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that consistently
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participants who felt angry tended to
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refer in their own eaters or to their
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own egocentric time zone Eastern Time we
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also assess perspective-taking
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using other measures where we present
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either a number which is which from one
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vantage point can look like a sixteen or
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four from another vantage point 91 as
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well as we ask them questions about who
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would they side with in terms of an
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insurance case when when attributing
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blame so there's a number of different
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ways that we induce anger and a number
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of different ways we assess anger or I'm
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sorry assess perspective-taking so so
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Maurice what do we do then with that
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information so we know that anger
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reduces perspective-taking
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what can employees and managers do when
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anger arises what should they be doing
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so so so the first thing to recognize is
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that perspective-taking is always an
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effortful and challenging process if not
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something we do well naturally and in
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any strategic decision any collaborative
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decision we need to work at
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perspective-taking
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so the first thing I would say is to is
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to be mindful of how important and
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challenging perspective thinking is and
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the second thing informed by a work is
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to recognize that how we feel can
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influence our ability to take
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perspective and when we feel anger in
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particular as well as any other high
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arousal emotion we should recognize that
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our ability to think about other
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people's perspectives is diminished that
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we're more likely to think egocentric
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alee that our tendency to focus in on
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ourselves becomes exacerbated by the
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high arousal emotion of anger or other
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related emotions so so we've got to
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check our emotions be mindful of that
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and recognize that we're going to be
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more likely to adopt an egocentric
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perspective so then all right there any
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Jeremy are there any specific techniques
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that you
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our manager can can hughes when these
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situations arise in our research we
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examine both incidental and integral
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anger and we were able to gain insight
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on how people can manage incidental
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anger in relation to their perspective
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taking what we found was that when
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people are made aware about the source
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of their incidental anger and they're
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able to infer that their anger is
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irrelevant to their particular social
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situation they're able to block the
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effects of anger and exhibit more
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perspective-taking the important point
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here or the important point here is to
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cultivate an awareness of our emotions
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and the sources and pinpoint the sources
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of our emotions so that we can judge
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whether they're relevant or irrelevant
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to the social situation at hand based on
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your research do you think that this
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would is does this not work in the case
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of integral anger as well as for
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instance if I'm fighting with someone in
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the moment about something very specific
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nor we're getting into an argument it's
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getting kind of heated is it useful to
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say I'm getting angry or you seem to be
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getting angry about this is that helpful
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in that moment as well do you think
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because I can see how would work in the
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case of you know I've had a bad morning
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and it might be helpful for me to say
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look I'm reacting this way because I had
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a terrible morning and this happened but
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in the case of integral anger does it
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does it I can almost see a case where it
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might cause a spiral to go further if
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you recognize the fact that I'm getting
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really mad do you think that that's true
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I I think that it is so I think we have
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to be careful we think about integral
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anger the anger could be integral with
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the same person or it could be the same
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situation or both and when we now vent
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about those issues they could actually
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make us angrier
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so we have to be careful on the other
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hand in general the more we can be
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cognizant of our emotions the more aware
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we are of our emotions and ideally as
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Jim was saying what
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an internal anger so I know that I'm
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angry about what my boss said to me at
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work and now I come home and I recognize
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the source of my anger I'm less likely
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to have that bleed into my interactions
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at home even when the even when the
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sources are integral recognizing what's
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making me angry can help us deal with
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that anger and recognize explicitly that
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this emotion is likely to influence our
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cognition that is where our work
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contributes to this growing body of work
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that's linking how we feel to how we
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think so speaking of that growing body
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of work 10 years ago maybe you know
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someone might have come to work and they
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would have been told check your baggage
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at the door work is work you don't you
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don't bring your problems here you just
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focus on work now it seems like the
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pendulum is swinging the other way and
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we are more inclined to acknowledge the
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power of emotion at work how do you
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think that's going to reshape management
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practice I think managers need to be
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aware of their own emotions and how it
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can affect their behavior but they also
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want to be attune to the effects of the
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emotional effects of their communication
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so when they use incendiary words
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whether it is directed at people in
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within their own workplace or outside
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competitors there's an opportunity or
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there's a chance that that may elicit
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anger among their audience of workers
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and that can have significant effects
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and consequences for how individuals
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behave to one another as well as how
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they behave towards the leader
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I think realizing this connection or
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this link between emotion and cognition
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is very important for managers to pay
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attention to yeah I'll just add to that
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that I think emotion is really integral
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to getting our world
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done a lot of emotion conveys
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information so if you have an employee
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who's angry about something that helps
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guide attention to that issue and maybe
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they're upset because something isn't
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working well and we should be paying
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more attention to that issue or in the
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workplace the motions that we express
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can help us accomplish different kinds
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of tasks so sometimes anger can be very
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motivating
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we're upset about some injustice and
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we're now motivated to address it or it
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could be that the the use of positive
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emotions can help us either bond
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together or serve a client or help us be
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excited when we sell a product that the
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motions that we have are really part of
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us and rather than trying to check our
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emotions at the door and assume that
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we're unemotional throughout the full
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day to recognize that there's
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information here and there's use for the
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emotions that we feel so part of this
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also I mean it seems to me that this
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could be letting a genie out of a bottle
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too for some managers right so in other
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words if I'm gonna start validating or
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acknowledging emotion in the workplace
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we'll get to a point where all's we're
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talking about our feelings about things
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and the works actually not getting done
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like we're is there a balance that needs
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to be found within that yeah I'd say
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absolutely so so clearly we don't want
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unregulated emotions running wild and
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instead we need to be careful about how
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we regulate our emotions I think the
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first step is just recognizing that we
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do feel these emotions and if we can
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attribute where that emotions coming
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from I think those two key steps how do
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I feel and why do I feel that way that's
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going to take us a pretty long way the
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third sort of next up would be figure
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out hey how do I change my emotions so
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it could be that I'm feeling upset about
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an interaction I had with a co-worker or
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a colleague I have to make an important
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strategic decision
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I know that if I go for a walk or I go
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to the gym or I talked to my other
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friend down the hall I'm going to clear
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my head in a way that's gonna allow me
00:18:02
to think differently about this decision
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so I think it's it's that recognition to
00:18:08
recognize how we feel why we feel that
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way and how we can change how we feel
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that can really help us make much much
00:18:16
much better decisions and improve our
00:18:19
interactions at work it's so Jeremy what
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what kinds of questions this research
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raised about anger that maybe you would
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want to explore next we became
00:18:30
interested in exploring the role that
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anger may play within a team context so
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we currently have ongoing work that
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explores another topic of research that
00:18:47
were both that we've collaborated on
00:18:49
trash-talking and in particular we look
00:18:53
at trash-talking when leaders trash talk
00:18:57
is there a functional benefit to doing
00:19:00
so within groups and our evidence
00:19:04
suggests that when that in-group members
00:19:07
when in-group members witness a
00:19:10
trash-talking leader they actually that
00:19:13
trash-talking can build cohesion and
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identification with their organization
00:19:18
so it really depends on what these
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aggressive what this aggressive these
00:19:25
aggressive words this incendiary
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language what it's targeted at when it's
00:19:30
targeted at outside of a particular
00:19:33
organization or in-group it may actually
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have functional benefits and that anger
00:19:39
that is elicited may essentially serve
00:19:42
as a call to action to be able to have a
00:19:45
group of people coalesce around a
00:19:47
particular cause and pursue it okay
00:19:51
Maurice where do you think you would
00:19:52
take this research next well I think we
00:19:57
can think about a series of other
00:19:58
related emotions so we've done some
00:20:02
really
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work on anger and disgust and sadness
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and happiness to think about the sort of
00:20:09
broader set of emotions I think
00:20:11
understanding how we think about
00:20:13
emotions and recognize our own emotions
00:20:16
and the interplay of the emotions that
00:20:21
you're expressing and how that interacts
00:20:23
my thinking and cognition those are all
00:20:27
areas that were eager to explore and and
00:20:30
I think this trash-talking work is
00:20:32
particularly interesting when we don't
00:20:36
always behave in a civil way with each
00:20:38
other and it's easy to trigger emotions
00:20:41
and other people and sometimes you might
00:20:44
do it inadvertently in ways that cause
00:20:46
other people to act in ways that
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surprised us but in hindsight probably
00:20:51
shouldn't well thank you both very much
00:20:54
for joining us today it's a topic that I
00:20:55
think is you know it touches everyone so
00:20:58
I think it's a it's a great one to
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explore thanks very much thank you thank
00:21:01
you for more insight from knowledge at
00:21:05
Wharton please visit knowledge Wharton
00:21:08
UPenn edu
00:21:13
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