When Expressing Pride Makes People Seem Less Competent

Authors:

Abstract: People often take great satisfaction in both their professional and personal accomplishments. Previous research finds that sharing these pride experiences with others boosts impressions of one’s competence, this work demonstrates the opposite effect can readily occur. This paper contends that pride is not an unconditional indicator of competence. Rather, it is contingent on the emotional responses of others. Specifically, when others do not express pride in a performance, conveying one's pride in the performance can backfire, leading one to be seen as less competent rather than more competent. The results of five preregistered studies supported this prediction. The results further showed that expressing pride in a performance signaled that the performance was closer to one’s performance potential, and that this inference helped to explain why expressing pride harmed judgments of one’s competence when others reacted without pride to the same performance. Overall, this work shows that what expressing pride communicates to others isn't based solely on one's emotions but on how others respond to similar successes. This nuanced perspective challenges the assumption that expressing pride signals that one is capable and status-worthy universally, making an essential contribution to the study of emotions at work.

Track: COMM

Keywords: emotions, impression management, social perception