What We’re Watching in Business Psychology

This month we’re looking at flattery and ingratiation, pervasive tools of influence in the workplace. Across the next few pages, we’ll show why insincere compliments and sucking up are effective—and risky. With Customers, Any Compliment Will Do… In a simple but striking experiment, students who were identified as would-be clothing shoppers received an overtly flattering flyer from a fictitious store—“We’re contacting you because you’re fashionable and stylish”—along with a request to visit the store. Researchers Elaine Chan and Jaideep Sengupta of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology found that the tactic was surprisingly effective: The “shoppers” developed positive implicit attitudes—otherwise known as gut feelings—toward the store. It didn’t matter that the flattery was impersonal and that there was a clear ulterior motive. The shoppers were charmed anyway, and acted on those gut feelings by choosing a coupon from the store that had flattered them over a coupon from a similar store. The study indicates that even flagrant flattery can sway customers. “It’s a testament to how insidiously flattery affects people,” Sengupta tells us. The research has clear implications for business—even when customers “discount” their positive attitudes in the face of contradictory evidence, the unconscious feelings are remarkably difficult to erase. …With the Boss, It Had Better Be Good… But what about in the workplace? Should you default to flattery with your boss? We all want our supervisor’s good opinion of us to withstand negative information, but there’s a twist when it comes to manager–employee interactions. Research by Darren Treadway, of the University at Buffalo, and others shows that in such situations, empty flattery doesn’t work—in fact, it backfires. Successful flattery takes skill. …the Hazards of Sucking Up… When dished out in personal interactions, ham-handed flattery generates a negative response, Treadway’s research reveals. If a supervisor perceives a subordinate’s flattery as a ploy to get ahead, she’ll tend to rate the employee lower on job performance (in this study, supervisors rated employees on cooperative workplace behavior). But when she’s fooled into thinking the sentiments are sincere, the supervisor rates the complimenter higher, Treadway tells us. So you’re taking a chance when you flatter the boss. You could improve your performance rating, but if you’re inept, your stock will fall. When you flatter the boss, be aware that there are serious risks to being busted. We asked Treadway how his findings square with Chan and Sengupta’s results about the effects of insincere flattery. Perhaps, he says, there’s something inherently different about a high-stakes, personal interaction—when a real relationship exists between the parties, the perceived sincerity behind the flattery may be more important. …Making an Impression… Flattery is just one form of “impression management.” A broader and more common type is ingratiation, which Amos Drory and Nurit Zaidman of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel, define as showing respect, smiling, and expressing agreement, even when you’re not feeling it. Displaying initiative and dedication is a form of impression management, too. Drory and Zaidman find that employees’ use of these tactics varies greatly, depending on the type of organization. In rigid, hierarchical workplaces such as the military where subordinates are highly dependent on superiors’ goodwill, ingratiation is more prevalent and tends to be aimed upward. Hierarchical Organizations In more-flexible, egalitarian organizations—such as R&D groups—workers use impression management to a lesser extent and focus it equally on peers and superiors. Their tactic of choice: showing commitment and dedication rather than flattery. Egalitarian Organizations …It’s All About Self-Enhancement Why are people so susceptible to flattery and ingratiation? We suppose there’s nothing wrong with being impressed by employees who display dedication, like the egalitarian-firm supervisors in the Drory-Zaidman study. But what about well-crafted but insincere compliments from subordinates? Or flagrant flattery, such as was peddled in the retail-store flyer—why do these misleading tactics turn people’s heads so easily? Jaideep Sengupta pauses on the other end of the phone from his office in Hong Kong when we ask him that. “We have a huge need for self-enhancement,” he tells us. In other words, we have a craving for anything that makes us feel good about ourselves. We’ll go to great lengths to get positive feedback, and we’ll hold on to the feeling even when we suspect we’re being played. Not a very flattering picture. We have a craving for anything that makes us feel good about ourselves. “But it’s not a bad thing that we want self-enhancement,” Sengupta says. “It makes us reach out to other people. It makes us human.”

What We’re Watching in Business Psychology

With Customers, Any Compliment Will Do…

Partner Center