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I'd like to introduce Maurice Schweitzer
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and he is a professor here at Wharton of
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operations information and
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decision-making and his co-author of
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This research paper uh Jeremy Yip and he
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is a research scholar here at Wharton
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and they're going to talk about a very
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intriguing I think paper uh that they've
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just completed and it's called mad and
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misleading incidental
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anger uh promotes deception which is is
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not something you read about in a
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research paper every day matter of fact
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you'll tell us how this is the first
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time this particular topic has been
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looked at uh but it is intriguing and
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it's about how emotions influence
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ethical Behavior Uh or the potential
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influence of anger on deception and you
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look at the workplace in particular
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which uh which is especially relevant to
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our viewers so please um one of you
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describe in in brief terms the overview
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of that
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research sure I'm happy to um so our
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work establishes this link between
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feeling angry and deceiving others
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deception is a common behavior that
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occurs in organizations and poses a
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significant Challenge in a variety of
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interpersonal interactions for example
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in job interviews candidates May provide
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misleading statements in order to create
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a positive impression or in negotiations
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negotiators will Lo about their bottom
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line in order to claim more value and so
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what we investigated here was whether
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incidental anger anger that's triggered
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by an unrelated situation can promote
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the use of deception and what we found
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was that people who feel angry are more
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likely to lie to others we also find
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that empathy mediates this relationship
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between feeling angry and deceiving
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others such that when people are angry
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they' become less concerned about how
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their actions impact others and this
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disinhibits them to engage in
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self-serving
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deception so one of the interesting
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ideas that I think I picked up uh
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reading the study was that it's not as
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if someone did something to you and
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you're mad at them and now you you have
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an incentive to to be deceptive about
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something it's it's some other free
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floating Anger from over here that gets
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transferred to another situation is is
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that right
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yeah so that's a really important point
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so what we study is what's called
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incidental anger so anger that's
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triggered by some unrelated event so you
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might have had an argument with your
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spouse and then you have a meeting at
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work or you might have had a
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disagreement with one partner and then
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you end up meeting with a different
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partner if the situation is completely
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unrelated that anger should not
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influence our Behavior but we find that
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it actually does so what turns out to be
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important is that here this this anger
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bleeds into this unrelated situation and
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we become more likely to engage in
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deception just because we were angry
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before and that anger still influences
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and guides our
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Behavior why does it lead to deception
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and not just you know being hostile or
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or well maybe you're also hostile but
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what is it that about anger that leads
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to that behavior what's interesting is
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that we found is that the anger as
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Jeremy was explaining before disinhibits
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us we become less empathetic so we care
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less about other people in general and
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we're now more free or liberated to
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pursue our self-interest so it's really
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a self-interested behavior and across
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our studies we find that when people
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feel anger they're really less concern
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con ered about other people and they're
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not interested in retaliation or just
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randomly harming other people it's
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really just a diminished concern for
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others and the pursuit of self-interest
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now just gets carried away and it's no
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longer checked by our empathy for others
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that's how we usually operate we're
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feeling angry we just care less about
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others and what we find is that now
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anger becomes much
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the the deception becomes much more
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likely to occur so being angry makes you
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more egocentric in a way and less
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sensitive absolutely that's okay well
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that's interesting
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um what were the key takeaways from the
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study Jeremy in your view or at least
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the the main ones in our investigation
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we focused on self-serving deception
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these are lies that Advantage the liar
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at the expense of a
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Target when people are telling self-
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serving lies they're often engaging in
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this calculus between what are the costs
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and benefits for themselves but also
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what are the costs and benefits for
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others what we find is that anger
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influences these calculations where
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angry people are become more focused on
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themselves or the benefits to themselves
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and they discount the harm that they may
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cause others and that leads them to
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engage in deception so our key findings
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are that when you feel angry even when
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it's triggered by an unrelated situation
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you're more likely to lie we also find
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as Maurice mentioned that angry people
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are less empathetic and that uh
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disinhibits them to engage in
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self-interested Behavior such as
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lying and then we also found that the
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influence of anger on Deception is
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unique to anger and not to just any
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negative emotion so we contrasted the
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influence of anger with the influence of
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sadness on Deception
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and we actually found that only angry
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anger predicted deceptive Behavior it's
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interesting because when I think of
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deception um maybe this is just my
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impression it it's it seems more like a
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little devious it's like something you
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you pre-calculate and you know have
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thought about as opposed to like an
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immediate reaction but but anger is
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emotion that I could see would make
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someone just act more quickly without
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thinking and so so it's like a little
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disconnect there for me how does how
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does that work how did that come out um
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in your research because I know you did
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four studies actually to to come up with
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your conclusions is that right yeah yeah
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that's right so so we did a series of
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studies and in all these s we find the
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same pattern this anger is triggered by
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an unrelated event you get very negative
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feedback or you watch something that's
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very disturbing uh across several
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different inductions we find that this
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anger that's triggered that triggered
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immediately then does bleed into this
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somewhat more strategic behavior that is
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it changes our calculus and the key idea
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as jermy was explaining we just become
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less empathetic we care less about
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others and we're more focused on our
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self-interest and that narrowed focus is
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what guides us to to exhibit this
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self-interested Behavior which in our
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case was deception it's ethical but it's
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also advancing our self-interest at the
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expense of others that's what we found
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so it's easy to see how that would apply
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in so many areas of life and politics
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and World relations and everything else
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but in the workplace in the HR office
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what what are the implications and and
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is there anything that people can do
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about this I mean is this just an
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interesting observation but what do we
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do with the
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observation well we urge leaders
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managers and employees to recognize that
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in our angry moment moments we may lose
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our moral
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compass we suggest that managers pay
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close attention to monitoring their
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employees when they notice that they're
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angry because their angry employees are
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more likely to
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cheat so so check the stationary closet
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if there you have someone angry on the
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floor for missing pens and that sort of
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thing uh but that's that's I mean I'm
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joking of course but that's that's sort
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of the idea is that that there's a
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propensity now
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in someone who's angry to to do
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something that isn't going to be good
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for the organization well I think yeah I
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think as Jeremy's pointing out it's
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important for us to recognize it's true
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for us that is our own moral compass
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becomes less clearly pointed North when
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we feel angry and it's true for others
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that is other people are going to behave
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more strategically more self in a more
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self-interested way and in a less
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ethical way when they're feeling angry
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and again it could be some unrelated
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trigger that has made them feel that way
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but you're suggesting that there's a
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there's a benefit to developing
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organizationally some kind of a
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self-awareness in people that will
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benefit the organization is that right
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maybe you could elaborate on that idea a
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little bit right so I think the goal is
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to make people themselves aware
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employees themselves aware of their
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inclinations when they are feeling angry
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it um deceptions conceptualizes a
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cognitive process and what we're showing
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here is how emotions can have a profound
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influence on that process uh but we also
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want to urge leaders and managers to
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recognize this behavior in their
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employees and perhaps intervene in that
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there's other related research that's
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shown that when people become aware that
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their emotions are incidental or
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irrelevant that that can also diminish
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the effects of that emotion on behavior
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and I know I guess maybe we touch on
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this but this is different than a
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retribution where someone actually does
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something to you and you have a specific
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reason to be angry at that person and
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might seek to have some kind of
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Retribution but what what in the study
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in all of your research in this area
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what surprised you what surprises came
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out of it that you didn't
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expect I think one big surprise was when
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we looked at the so we contrasted how
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people angry people with neutral people
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when there was an incentive that was
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present and when there was an incentive
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that was absent and what we found was
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that we were able to disentangle the
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motive to harm others from the motive to
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pursue the self-interest so when people
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are angry they're not being punitive and
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harming anyone around them instead what
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we're finding is that when people are
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angry that anger curtails empathy
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and that leads to more self-interested
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behavior in this case self- serving lies
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that's interesting
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um what sets This research apart from
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other research in these areas well I
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think I think one key idea here is this
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this link is Jimmy was explaining
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between emotion and cognition so how we
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feel even if it's unrelated to the
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current situation influences how we
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think and how we Act
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and in this case we're linking anger
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with deceptive unethical Behavior so
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this is the first work to do that we
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often feel angry in the workplace we
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often feel angry when we're in a
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conflict with somebody else and our work
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is the first to demonstrate that when we
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feel an anger it could actually lead us
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to engage in underhanded and more
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self-interested behavior in ways that we
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might not normally condone and certainly
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as an organization we should be highly
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aware of so I kind of suggest that
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conflict resolution interventions and
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courses uh would benefit an organization
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in a couple ways not just that you have
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less conflict and maybe more cooperation
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but also you could ctail some of the
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deception that might come out of the
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conflict yeah acceptive Behavior right
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absolutely so that is we should
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recognize the the feelings that we have
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the that others have are going to guide
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their behavior in predictable ways and
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we should be sensitive to that J
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mentioned Rec recognizing emotions might
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help diminish their effects but we
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should also be sort of broadly aware of
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how we're feeling is likely to influence
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how we think and behave and in some
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cases it we might be able to curtail
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unethical Behavior by by muting that
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that that that
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anger so before I ask you what you'll be
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looking at next if you're going to look
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if you're going to pursue this further
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uh let me just ask is there anything I
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haven't asked that would be of major
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importance in this study that we haven't
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covered that you can think of or did we
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do such a great job
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that that's a great question we actually
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think about that
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one I think one of the questions that
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you asked was really important that is
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it's not that when we're feeling angry
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we want to retaliate against other
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people
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or that we want to pay it forward that
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somebody was angry you know angry at me
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or somebody blocked my goal and I want
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to go take it out on somebody else
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that's not what we observed what we
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found was that people just became much
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more self-interested
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self-serving and became less constrained
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by concern for others in advancing their
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own goals and I think that's one of the
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things that I think was most surprising
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about this work so if that's the way
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things work around here then I'm going
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to look out for number one is that is
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that kind of it that's right okay so in
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terms of what you might look at next
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then what what are the possibilities
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well these findings have informed uh
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some of our current work where we're
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investigating the relationship between
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anger and perspective taking and what
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we're beginning to find that's
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consistent with some of the work that
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we've just discussed is that when people
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feel angry they become more egocentric
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perspective taking is a different type
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of cognitive process where people adopt
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another person's Viewpoint in a
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situation and we are learning that
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people who feel angry tend to view a
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situation an to anchor on their own
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Viewpoint and not adjust to or
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accommodate other people's
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viewpoints all right well thank you both
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for coming in thank you
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that
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[Music]
