Wendy Andrews

Deepfake technology has become both increasingly effective at creating realistic audio and video images and increasingly accessible. I will present results from two studies that shed light on potential uses of charisma signaling by deepfakes. In the first study (N = 1064 online participant), we assessed to what extent people perceive deepfakes that engage in charismatic signaling as charismatic and to what extent they are convinced by their message. In the second study (N = 77 trainees, N = 308 online raters), We developed an online charisma training in which we incorporated personalized, charisma-enhanced deepfakes (i.e., manipulated videos depicting trainees engaging in charisma signaling) and assessed whether 1) we could teach trainees to effectively use Charismatic Leadership Tactics (CLTs) in a fully online training, 2) viewing charisma-enhanced deepfakes of themselves in the training enhanced trainee learning, and 3) narcissism and intelligence moderated these effects.

Vasiliki Kentrou

Collaborative partnerships are often formed following a first encounter. In a professional setting, for example, unacquainted individuals may collaborate to complete a project, develop a product, or solve a problem. Using target- and relationship-specific effects from the Social Relations Model (SRM), we examined whether first-encounter perceptions of extraversion, honesty-humility, and competence are related to partner preferences for collaborative tasks and whether the roles of honesty-humility and competence in shaping partner preferences vary as a function of task type. Previously unacquainted participants (N = 297, 55 groups, 55.9% female) engaged in dyadic interactions and provided round-robin ratings of personality, competence, and partner preferences for either a trust-based or competence-based task. Individuals who were consensually viewed as extraverted and/or competent were preferred as partners, regardless of task type. Individuals who were uniquely viewed as honest-humble, extraverted, and/or competent were uniquely preferred as partners. Task type moderated the positive relation between relationship-specific honesty-humility and competence on the one hand and partner preference on the other, albeit not in the hypothesized directions. Findings underscore the relevance of relationship-specific extraversion, competence, and honesty-humility in shaping collaborative partner preferences in first encounters. Notably, the importance of these relationship-specific trait perceptions may vary depending on task type.

Loes Abrahams

In this talk, I will present findings from four studies based on an experience sampling study involving (student) teachers, their supervisors, and their students. Using both self- and observer-reports, I will discuss how personality traits, states, and situational experiences interact to shape performance evaluations. Beyond traits and states, I will highlight the role of within-person personality variability—the extent to which personality fluctuates over time—and how it is perceived differently by self and others. Additionally, I will discuss how daily sleep quality, duration, and vitality influence teachers’ performance from both self- and observer perspectives. To conclude, I will briefly share a recent experience sampling study I am currently working on related to working parents returning to work after maternity leave.

Mary Hausfeld

Charismatic leadership remains a focal point in discussions on effective leadership across various domains, from politics to sports. Grounded in signaling theory, charisma functions as a values-based, symbolic, and emotionally charged leader signal that conveys competence and intelligence, thereby motivating followers. While research has established the importance of charismatic signaling, critical gaps remain regarding its boundary conditions—specifically, how factors such as leader gender, formal authority, and industry context influence its effectiveness. This study tests three theoretical boundary conditions of charismatic leadership as a signal. First, followers interpret charismatic signals in conjunction with leader gender (a cue), affecting perceptions of competence and authenticity. Second, formal authority may either bolster or undermine charismatic women leaders by influencing stereotype activation. Third, industry context shapes the reception of charismatic leadership, with gendered industries affecting signal credibility. Through a series of pre-registered experiments (n = 3,013; k = 16), we analyze these conditions to refine signaling theory’s application to leadership. Meta-analytic findings contribute to theoretical advancements in leadership research and inform evidence-based training practices. By identifying when and for whom charisma is most effective, this study enhances our understanding of leadership dynamics and the role of signaling in shaping leader-follower interactions.

Julia Sonnevend

Politics is a site of performance, and contemporary politicians often perform the role of a regular person—perhaps someone we would like to have a beer with. They win elections not because of the elevated rhetorical performances we often associate with charisma (“ask not what your country can do for you”), but because of something more ordinary and relatable. This everyday magic spell that many politicians cast using mass and social media is what I call “charm.” This talk will explore charm (and the related “charm offensive”) as a keyword of contemporary global politics. Successful political leaders deploy this form of personal magnetism—which relies on proximity to political tribes and manifests across a variety of media platforms—to appear authentic and accessible in their quest for power. I consider how charm (or the lack of it) is wielded as a political tool, and the ways charm is weaponized to shape the international image of a country. I argue that charm will shape the future of politics worldwide, as political values will be increasingly embodied by mediated personalities. These figures will rise and fall, often fading into irrelevance; but if we do not understand charm’s political power, we cannot grasp diplomacy and politics in the 21st century. 

Jon Gruda

This study explores how organizational culture influences the prevalence of managerial behaviors associated with the Dark Triad (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy). Based on 15,000+ ratings of 3000+ Glassdoor job reviews, we analyze how performance-focused and diversity-focused cultures shape these behaviors. We find that performance-oriented cultures amplify controlling, manipulative, and competitive behaviors in managers. And while diversity-focused cultures somewhat mitigate such behaviors, this effect is limited and dependent on the performance orientation of the organization. These results challenge the notion that diversity and inclusion initiatives alone can counteract toxic managerial behaviors, underscoring the critical role of performance focus in organizational culture. 

Sarah Boukarras

Emotions and moods are not solely private experiences; they are often shared and transmitted among individuals during social interactions. In organizational settings, emotional contagion plays a significant role, influencing both productivity and well-being. In particular, the emotions expressed by leaders can spread to their followers, shaping the group’s emotional tone and affecting collective efficacy. In this talk, I will share preliminary findings from a research project that explores the transmission of emotions from managers to employees and vice versa. Using pre-recorded videos and methodologies from interpersonal neuroscience—such as physiological contagion—we investigate how emotions propagate within workplace environments. Additionally, I will discuss the potential of leveraging social and interpersonal neuroscience techniques to advance research in organizational contexts. 

Aneta Lisowska

In this talk, we’ll dive into the development of AI tools that support decision-making for clinicians and patients, based on my experiences in both industry and academia. From medical imaging and wearable technologies to coaching systems, I’ll share how these tools tackle challenges like automating routine tasks and personalizing behaviour change interventions. We’ll explore how they might influence key decisions—like diagnosis, treatment, and adherence. Finally, I’ll invite you to join me in exploring the next research steps, focusing on how we can work together to make AI a true partner in healthcare to improve patient outcomes.

Susan Niessen

We present four experimental studies aimed at investigating the effect of transparency on perceptions of mechanical hiring procedures. It is well established that combining information mechanically (via a pre-defined decision-rule) results in better hiring decisions than holistic combination. Nevertheless, mechanical combination is perceived negatively and rarely used in practice.  Inspired by research conducted on AI-based hiring tools, we investigated the effect of various operationalizations of transparency in mechanical procedures on the perceptions of two important stakeholder groups: decision-makers and applicants. For each group, we used between- and a within subject’s design. Moreover, we explored the relative importance of several perception constructs in relation to trust and use intentions, and supplemented quantitative analyses with thematic analysis of open-ended responses. In the between-subjects studies, we mostly found near-zero differences. However, the open-ended responses indicated a strong emphasis on ‘filler information’. Within-subjects replications conducted to solve this issue did show the expected positive effects of transparency on perceptions, but mostly with small effect sizes. However, both groups indicated a strong preference for transparent algorithms over holistic judgment when asked to choose. Moreover, the open question responses indicated that both groups generally perceived algorithms positively regarding fairness, but negatively or mixed in terms of validity. 

Marvin Neumann

Law graduates in the Netherlands who want to become a judge in court have to complete a four-year training after their studies. Since there are often more applicants than positions, the council for the judiciary (Raad voor de rechtspraak) has the aim to select applicants who are most likely to complete the training successfully and are thus eligible to become a judge. This constitutes a high-stakes selection decision, and applicants, the council, and society have an interest in optimising these decisions. The council tasked me and colleagues to evaluate the selection procedure for judges in training. The main aim was to investigate whether a whole range of selection instruments such as cognitive ability tests, personality questionnaires, interviews, and games can predict the performance of judges in training. Furthermore, the aim was to investigate how selection decisions are made, and how these can be improved. To achieve these aims, I analysed data from the selection procedure, interviewed 19 stakeholders, and surveyed previous candidates how they perceived the selection procedure. In this talk, I will present these results, focusing on the results of the validation study (N ‎ =  169) that I have conducted. I will also review the process of working together with various stakeholders such as hiring managers, assessment consultants, the client organisation, and the diverging perspectives between science and practice that arose. Implications for the science-practice gap and solutions how to narrow it will be discussed.

Amber Brizar

Managers play a pivotal role in fostering a healthy workplace culture and supporting employees experiencing mental health problems. However, many managers lack the confidence, skills, and knowledge needed to effectively address these issues. In this presentation, I will introduce a novel World Health Organization (WHO) intervention designed to equip managers with practical tools and strategies to address and prevent mental health problems in the workplace. Additionally, I will share findings from an online cross-sectional study conducted to validate and refine outcome measures for an upcoming randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the intervention's effectiveness in Dutch small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).

Marloes van Engen

Inclusive leadership is increasingly recognized as a cornerstone for fostering well-being, equity, and collaboration within teams and organizations. Yet, understanding and embodying inclusive leadership requires not only an understanding of its principles but also the ability to navigate its inherent complexities as well as awareness of the boundary conditions for inclusive leadership. In this talk, I will explore the foundations of inclusive leadership, providing a comprehensive overview of its defining characteristics and the concrete behaviors that underpin it. Furthermore, I will address the underlying paradoxes of inclusive leadership—such as balancing the need for fair and consistent decision-making with the flexibility required to adapt to diverse perspectives—offering a nuanced analysis of the challenge leaders face in navigating these tensions.

Sofya Isaakyan

Prior voice research highlights the leader-like nature of voice behavior and shows that those who speak up with change-oriented ideas, concerns, and opinions enjoy enhanced status and emerge as leaders in their groups—especially when voicing individuals are men. Acknowledging that perceptions of leadership are not only external, but also internal, we ask whether voicing individuals are more likely to see themselves as leaders—that is, whether voice behavior positively affects their leader identity. This is especially important from a gender perspective, because building a strong leader identity is a challenging and critical developmental task for women. Drawing on the behavioral perspective of identity construction, we propose that voice behavior enhances leader identity, and that such benefits are particularly pronounced for women whose voice is endorsed. Furthermore, we propose that over time, leader identity has positive downstream effects on how others evaluate the leadership effectiveness of voicing individuals. Findings from two studies—a field study using a within-person repeated measures design and a pre-registered experiment—support our conceptual model. Our results delineate unique intrapersonal benefits of voice for women and provide novel insights into how individuals and organizations can maximize the benefits of voice for leadership development.

Annika Frach

Working hard is perceived as a valued behavior. However, working hard may develop into workaholism, which is a syndrome that is associated with many negative mental and physical problems that are known to undermine performance and well-being in the workplace. The topic has stimulated many publications on its prevalence, personality predictors, and cultural invariance. Unfortunately, concomitant with the number of publications, the number of workaholism measures has increased dramatically, limiting between-study comparison. Therefore, this study aims to provide a much-needed update and proposal on the conceptualization and operationalization of workaholism. For the operationalization of workaholism, we systematically searched for all published workaholism measures and their items. We processed identified items using an R-coded algorithm to select a representative item subset that considered semantics and item quality. In a cross-sectional online study, we administered the selected items to a sample of 461 participants. We used a second algorithm to select items with good convergent and discriminant validity. A factor analysis on this subset yielded a three-factor solution consisting of Work-Life Tension, Work Overinvestment, and  Work Overdependency. Lastly, we used a greedy search algorithm, semantic overlap, and item correlations to select the five least tautological items for each factor. Together, the five items from each factor form a new Core Workaholism Scale. In the discussion, we reflect on the data-driven objective approach, how our three dimensions connect to previous theories, and how to use the Core Workaholism Scale in organizational and clinical research.

Emma Gerittsen & Djurre Holtrop

Destructive leadership behaviors have serious consequences for both organizations and employees, yet their emergence remains largely understudied. Current research predominantly focuses on the employee’s perspective, offering a limited view of how destructive leadership behaviors arise. To develop a more comprehensive understanding, it is crucial to also consider the leader’s perspective. Given the scarcity of research from this viewpoint, we employed a qualitative approach to explore how leaders retrospectively make sense of their destructive leadership behaviors. We conducted 25 semi-structured interviews with leaders from diverse hierarchical levels and industries in the Netherlands. Using the Gioia methodology, we developed a theoretical model explaining destructive leadership behaviors based on the leader’s viewpoint. Our findings reveal that leaders often navigate conflicting demands from organizational, team, employee, and personal interests, and frequently rationalize their destructive actions as necessary responses to these pressures. Furthermore, specific factors within leaders’ subjective realities—such as work stressors, value-based discrepancies, and perceived performance deficiencies—contribute to enabling these behaviors. Compared to the employee-focused view, our study provides unique insights into how leaders reflect on their own shortcomings and misperceptions that partially explain their engagement in destructive behaviors. By integrating the leader’s perspective, our study shifts the focus from static, trait-based explanations to a more dynamic understanding of how destructive leadership behaviors emerge, offering new insights for both research and practice.

Bo Wang

Communicating commitment to specific organizational cultures (e.g., integrity or ethical culture) to job applicants is a common marketing strategy for organizations seeking to attract talent. However, previous research suggests that organizations may strategically misrepresent their stated organizational culture. Notably, there is a negative relation between advertised and actual ethical culture—organizations that claim a commitment to an ethical culture are more likely to operate unethically in practice. In this study, we explore an overlooked negative consequence of such an inconsistency between stated and actual ethical culture on organizational attractiveness. We conducted a vignette-based experiment using a 2x3 between-subject design. The first factor was manipulated by Vignette 1, which simulated a company’s overview in a recruitment advertisement. This advertisement presented the company as committed to either both ethical and customer-oriented cultures (Ethical Advertisement condition) or solely a customer-oriented culture (Non-Ethical Advertisement condition). The second factor was manipulated by Vignette 2, which simulated employees or managers reviews of the company, describing its culture as either ethical (Ethical Review condition), unethical (Unethical Review condition), or efficiency-oriented without mention of ethics (Non-ethical Review condition) culture. Six hundred participants were recruited to complete the HEXACO personality inventory and then rate the company on perceived moral hypocrisy, behavioral hypocrisy, and organizational attractiveness after reading Vignettes 1 and 2. Compared to all other conditions, the company in the Ethical Advertisement-Unethical Review condition was rated higher on both moral hypocrisy and behavioral hypocrisy, which were in turn associated with lower organizational attractiveness. Despite strong theories and solid empirical evidence suggesting that people high in HEXACO honesty-humility have a preference for ethically sound organizations, we did not find this personality trait to moderate the relations between perceptions of moral hypocrisy or behavioral hypocrisy and organizational attractiveness. We welcome any insights that may help explain these surprising findings.

Florence Bernays

Charismatic leaders have been depicted as heroic figures who are “endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities” (Weber, 1968; 241) because they leave people mesmerized by signaling charisma (House & Shamir, 1993). While existing research paints an overly positive picture of charisma, we highlight a potential dark side of taking people under the spell. In six randomized experiments with more than 600 participants in which we manipulated charisma, we found evidence that charisma disrupts memory in such a way that people become susceptible to recalling information that was never presented but is consistent with the speaker's message, leading to the creation of memories. In addition, we find that although people exposed to charisma have faulty memories, they are more convinced that their memories are actually true. Finally, we show that the more convinced people were that their false memories were true, the more likely they were to support the speaker's political campaign and the more money they were willing to spend to meet the speaker. Our findings reveal a dark side of charisma that may explain why people choose to follow those leaders blindly.

Leonie Raijmakers

The rapid growth and diversification of research and data in online environments over recent decades has revealed the limitations of the current publishing system in meeting the needs of modern research. In response, DeSci Labs has developed open-source software that enables researchers to share manuscripts, data, code, and other outputs as versionable research objects with persistent identifiers on a decentralized peer-to-peer network accessible to all. This system leverages advanced web3 infrastructures, including the newly upgraded Publish by DeSci Labs, built on the CODEX framework.

DeSci Publish simplifies and incentivizes the adoption of best open science practices while offering enhanced features for effective knowledge sharing, both now and in the future. Notable innovations include a streamlined upload process that consolidates different research components and generates a link for journal submissions, incorporating related data and code. Additionally, a machine learning feature estimates an article's novelty and potential impact. Leonie will guide you through these features, from the basics to the groundbreaking ML-based tool introduced in September.

Ard Barends

Research demonstrates that more than half of job applicants are asked whether they have a criminal record at some point during the selection process, and the use of criminal background checks is ever growing. Given the many restrictions they face on the jo market, this suggests ample and convincing proof that people with a criminal pas make poor employees. However, a synthesis of the relevant empirical research on this topic is lacking. Therefore, the current systematic literature review attempts to give an overview of research investigating whether people with criminal records differ from those without such criminal records in their on-the-job behaviors, such as task performance, counterproductive work behavior, and turnover. The relatively scarce literature on the topic seems to suggest that a criminal history is positively related to counterproductive work behavior, unrelated to task performance, and negatively related to turnover. The results of this systematic literature review allow for a critical reflection on the current steep rise in criminal record checks, as well as policy initiates like Ban-the-Box, in order to increase successful employment outcomes for both employer and employee. Above all, they manifest the need for more research that allows for an accurate view of how employees with a criminal record behave on the job.

Sasha Cook

Organizations spend large sums every year on the health of their employees, often informed by theories and insights from occupational health psychology. However, given that one-third of the population of working age has at least one chronic health condition, the question arises whether the existing efforts in research and practice pay enough attention to health diversity it the current workforce.

In this talk, I will present insights from my research on employees with various chronic health conditions to highlight relevant existing problems in the work experience of people with impaired health status, identify open questions regarding the generalizability of existing theories and intervention approaches for occupational health and burnout, and discuss possible avenues for research aiming at a more inclusive approach to healthy working.

Jian Shi

Hybrid work, especially in the split-week model, has become the “new normal” of working arrangements since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering its dramatic increase and use, it is important to understand how it impacts employees’ psychological experiences and work outcomes. While many studies have focused on the benefits, the present research identifies important barriers to remote and hybrid work. In particular, employees on remote working days will feel the loss of identification and isolation within the team, compared to in-office days. These feelings, in turn, lead employees to engage less in and withdraw more from their work and decrease their effort to help others and generate creative ideas for their work. In addition, we examine whether identity leadership buffers the negative impact of daily remote work on employees’ psychological and behavioral outcomes. To test the hypotheses, we conducted a daily diary study among 112 hybrid workers in the U.K. to sample their daily remote work experiences over five consecutive workdays. Results largely supported our predictions. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, thereby promoting a more flexible and dynamic hybrid work.

Lara Engelbert

Charismatic leaders are exceptionally effective in increasing the performance of individual workers. We propose that charismatic leaders do so by increasing workers’ attentional focus. Using two cognitive paradigms (Study 1, Rapid Serial Visual Presentation task, N = 123; Study 2, Flanker task, N = 938), we tested our attentional focus hypothesis in two online samples. In Study 1, the charismatic leader manipulation had no significant effect on reaction times. In Study 2, we addressed some major limitations of Study 1 and tested our hypotheses in a larger online sample. Participants instructed by a charismatic vs. neutral leader worked significantly faster, indicating greater focus on the task. In both studies, leader charisma did not affect response accuracy, which was generally high in both leader conditions. Reacting faster in the charismatic condition did not come at the expense of less accurate responses. Our studies provide the first evidence for the effect of charismatic leaders on workers’ attentional focus.

Sophie Hudspith

Cross-gender interactions among colleagues are often filled with ambiguity, especially since the #MeToo movement. One factor contributing to confusion is the presence of behaviours that could equally be interpreted as friendly or sexual. There are individual differences in the level of sexual intent that is perceived from these behaviours, with research from dating contexts suggesting that men tend to be more likely to overperceive sexual intent. Sexual overperception has also been shown to lead to adverse outcomes, such as sexual harassment, making it important to understand this phenomenon within a work context. Due to the lack of a workplace measure, a series of studies were employed to develop a valid self-report measure of sexual intent perceptions among colleagues, using the act-frequency approach. In future research, we will adopt this scale to examine how and under which circumstances individuals are likely to perceive sexual interest in the behaviours of their colleagues, as well as what the implications are for doing so.

Building upon trait activation theory and the HEXACO model of personality, we investigated how HEXACO traits, particularly Honesty-Humility, manifest in (a) daily-life situations via a retrospective diary study, (b) emotional communications to others' (mis)fortunes via a vignette survey study, and (c) cheating behavior in an experimental mind game.

Ranran Li is a PhD student in the Organizational Psychology Department at the VU Amsterdam.

On the basis of gender, voters stereotype political candidates in terms of personality traits and areas of policy competencies. Women are perceived by voters as higher in communal traits (e.g., warmth) and lower in agentic traits (e.g. assertiveness) and as less competent to handle policy areas like national security, and the economy but more competent in areas like education and healthcare. The bulk of this work takes place in the U.S. context or a select few other Western countries. In this paper, we first provide a cross-cultural take on the existence and content of political gender stereotypes based on an original dataset spanning 20 democracies from all inhabited continents in the world. Second, we also utilize this dataset to address whether these stereotypes predict support for male and female political candidates and which stereotype constitutes the stronger predictor. Third, we test if trait and policy competence stereotypes exert stronger effects in countries with lower representation of women in politics. Results show that women uniformly have an advantage in communal traits (i.e., warmth and morality). When agency traits are broken into the sub-dimensions of competence and assertiveness, we find that men are generally advantaged on assertiveness traits, but women have an edge in competence-related traits. With respect to predictive power of support for women/men candidates, no stereotype emerges as the stronger predictor. Rather all stereotypes are substantially and significantly related to preferences for candidate gender. Finally, we find that stereotypes about traits (i.e., assertiveness and competence) and issues (national security) historically “owned” by men are significantly stronger predictors of gendered candidate preferences in countries with low representation of women in politics. This could suggest, that countering exactly these stereotypes is the most influential strategy for improving women’s political representation. Practical and theoretical implications of the results are discussed.

Dr Lasse Laustsen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Aarhus in Denmark.

Cao Shen is a PhD student in the Organizational Psychology Department at VU Amsterdam.

Our aim was to investigate the social perception of employees who tend to work excessively. We considered that exhibiting busyness and working extra hours might be a tactic used by employees to display specific motivations and abilities. We assumed that such behavior is like how people display their resources through conspicuous consumption or how a peacock displays its tail. In a set of three vignette studies (total N = 383), we tested how the information about the level of work investments of three actors: standard = 38-40 hours per week as in contract vs. medium = 8-10 extra hours per week vs. high = 18-20 extra work hours per week influenced the perception of competence, warmth, morality,  and work ethic. Then, we examined the willingness to cooperate with the actors and how much they deserved to be paid per hour. In the Prolific samples from the United States, we controlled for socio-economic status and conscientiousness. Our findings reveal interesting patterns, for instance, a high-work-investment actor was perceived as more moral than a medium-work-investment actor, but the latter was evaluated as more competent. In our presentation, we want to present more findings, discuss our research plans, and initiate a discussion related to our research problem.

Dr. Jacek Buczny is an Assistant Professor in the Work and Organizational Psychology Department at the VU Amsterdam.

Although more valid predictions are made when information is combined algorithmically (mechanical prediction) than in the decision-maker’s mind (holistic prediction), decision makers rarely use algorithms in practice. One main reason is that decision-makers’ autonomy is restricted when algorithms are used to combine information. Unfortunately, affording decision makers greater autonomy in information combination decreases predictive validity compared to consistent algorithm use, creating an “autonomy-validity dilemma”. We hypothesized that two hybrid approaches to decision making - clinical and mechanical synthesis - should retain decision-makers’ autonomy while increasing predictive validity compared to pure holistic prediction. In clinical synthesis the decision maker can adjust an algorithms prediction, holistically. In mechanical synthesis the decision maker forms a holistic prediction that is weighted and subsequently combined with all other available information, algorithmically. In Study 1 (N = 261), mechanical and clinical synthesis resulted in higher predictive validity than holistic prediction, but user perceptions on these procedures were mixed. In Study 2 (N = 610), mechanical and clinical synthesis again resulted in much higher predictive validity than holistic prediction, and these procedures were perceived much more positively than the strict use of a prescribed algorithm. We recommend decision makers use mechanical synthesis for the most optimal balance of autonomy and predictive validity within decision making.

Jacob Matić is a PhD Candidate in the Work and Organizational Psychology Department at the VU Amsterdam.

On what basis do people select others as friends and collaborative partners? What causes one to prioritize collaboration with certain potential partners over others? If we could design ideal collaboration partners, what characteristics would we give them and why would those characteristics emerge as more important than others? These questions follow logically from the observation that people are selective in whom they associate with and do not equally accept all others as partners in collaborative ventures like friendships, coalitions, or alliances (collectively known as “partnerships”). Given that particular groups and relationships involve different tasks and require different behaviours from individuals, the personality traits associated with successful and mutually beneficial outcomes in a given task should be especially important when selecting partners for that task. In this study, which is part of the existing PACO dataset, previously-unacquainted participants were given a description of the cooperative task that they would have to perform in a series of dyads with other participants, and were asked to select partner(s) with whom they would like to perform this task. Half of participants performed a task that involved sharing monetary rewards and thus required traits such as trustworthiness, fairness, and sincerity in order to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome (trust-based task), while the remaining half performed a task that involved solving an intelligence test problem and thus required traits such as intelligence, competence, and skillfulness (competence-based task). Every participant then rated the perceived personality of each one of their interaction partners in a round-robin manner. We examined which personality traits are linked with partner selection in the two types of cooperative decision tasks, using effects derived from the Social Relations Model (SRM).

Vasiliki Kentrou is a PhD Candidate in the Work and Organizational Psychology Department at the VU Amsterdam.

In addition to the better known Replication Crisis, the behavioral sciences are suffering a Validity Crisis, in which many even replicable findings are accompanied by false conclusions. The Validity Crisis is easy to spot: the scientific literature is full of claims that directly contradict other claims. Adversarial collaborations, which call on disputants to codevelop tests of competing hypotheses, are an efficient method of improving our science’s capacity for self-correction and of promoting intellectual competition that exposes false claims. I’ll explain the benefits of adversarial collaborations for both science and scientists and advise on how to do them successfully.

Cory Clark is a Visiting Faculty Scholar in the Wharton School and the Executive Director of the Adversarial Collaboration Project at University of Pennsylvania, where she helps enemy scientists work together to resolve their ongoing empirical disputes. She received her PhD from University of California, Irvine in Social and Personality Psychology and Quantitative Methods in 2014. These days, she is interested in the politicization of science and other institutions, the cultural effects of the rise of women in institutions and leadership positions, and how human psychology can both facilitate and impede scientific progress.