Projecting lower competence to maintain moral warmth in the avoidance of prosocial requests

• Main Authors: LIU, Peggy J., LIN, Stephanie C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Prosocial; Self-evaluation; Modesty; Skill; Competence; Warmth; Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods; Marketing
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/5403; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/6402/viewcontent/Liu_et_al_2017_Journal_of_Consumer_Psychology__1_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

When faced with prosocial requests, consumers face a difficult decision between taking on the request’s burden or appearing unwarm (unkind, uncaring). We propose that the desire to refuse such requests while protecting a morally warm image leads consumers to under-represent their competence. Althoug...