Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Social scientists have spent decades studying how individuals achieve status within organizational groups — that is, how they gain respect, prominence, and influence in the eyes of others. We know, for example, that demographics matter: People of the historically dominant race and gender and a respected age (white men over 40 in the western corporate world) are typically afforded higher status than everyone else.

In this chapter, we explore the relationship between counterfactuals and meaning. To do so, we have organized our thoughts into three sections. First, we review previous research on the role of counterfactual mind-sets, or cognitive orientations, in establishing causal relationships. Second, we explore the implications of the deliberate construction of counterfactuals for the emergence of personal meaning. We claim that the psychosocial construction of autobiographical life stories are inexorably linked with counterfactual thought.

A core theme surrounding consumption is that people do not consume products and services based solely on their functionality and for utilitarian purposes (Belk et al. 1982). One’s home, car, clothes, and music often hold additional psychological value to the consumer. As elegantly detailed throughout the book, such consumption opportunities serve as a reflecting pool for the self and one’s identity (Chapter 8 and Chapter 9, this volume).

The current research examines whether direct and vicarious identification with a low-status group affects consumers' desire for objects associated with status. Experiment 1 found that individuals who belonged to and identified with a status social category associated with relatively lower status (Blacks) exhibited an enhanced desire for high-status products compared to Blacks who did not identify with their race or individuals who belonged to a social category associated with higher status (Whites).

In four studies employing multiple manipulations of psychological closeness, we found that feeling connected to another individual who engages in selfish or dishonest behavior leads people to behave more selfishly and less ethically themselves. In addition, psychologically connecting with a scoundrel led to greater moral disengagement.

Five studies explored whether power undermines the quality of relationships by creating instrumental attributions for generous acts. We predicted that this cynical view of others' intentions would impede responses that nurture healthy relationships. In the first three studies, the powerful were more likely to believe that the favors they received were offered for the favor-giver's instrumental purposes, thereby reducing power-holders' thankfulness, desire to reciprocate, and trust.

Two experiments examined the psychological and biological antecedents of hierarchical differentiation and the resulting consequences for productivity and conflict within small groups. In Experiment 1, which used a priming manipulation, hierarchically differentiated groups (i.e., groups comprising 1 high-power-primed, 1 low-power-primed, and 1 baseline individual) performed better on a procedurally interdependent task than did groups comprising exclusively either all high-power-primed or all low-power-primed individuals.

Despite the continuing, adverse impact of discrimination on the lives of racial and ethnic minorities, the denial of discrimination is commonplace. Four experiments investigated the efficacy of perspective taking as a strategy for combating discrimination denial. Participants who adopted a Black or Latino target's perspective in an initial context were subsequently more likely to explicitly acknowledge the persistence of intergroup discrimination than were non-perspective takers (Experiments 1–3) or participants who adopted a White target's perspective (Experiment 1).