Current project
Is it You, Me or the Environment?”
It's important to recognize the profound influence of perception on individuals' realities. The adage "Their perception is their reality" underscores this notion, highlighting the significant role that perception plays in shaping individuals' experiences and behaviors. However, the question arises: Is it solely an individual's perception that shapes their reality, or does the environment play a role in skewing these perceptions?
This leads us to consider the intricacies of emotional perception within various contexts. In any given context, individuals often rely on emotions to perceive and make sense of their surroundings (Hess & Hareli, 2015). However, distinguishing between the actual expression of emotion by an individual and the interpretation of that emotion within situational and personal contexts poses a significant challenge. While various arguments have been proposed for each pathway (Ekman & Friesen, 1976; Buck, 1984; Kirouac & Hess, 1999; Hess & Hareli, 2015), empirical research has yet to comprehensively investigate both claims, leaving a gap in our understanding of the interplay between objective expression and subjective interpretation of emotions with situational context.
Past projects
Is Teammate Success Inspirational or Destructive? Displays of Pride, Envy, & Performance
In collective sports such as swimming, athletes are constantly competing against their teammates, whether for starting position, status-related resources, or external awards. However, they must also be supportive of teammates to achieve team goals (e.g., winning a conference title) (Evans et al., 2012). In this context, the way a teammate displays pride after a victory (i.e., authentic, reflecting a genuine, positive emotion and success attributed to effort, vs. hubristic, a self-aggrandized feeling of pride and success attributed to ability; Dickens & Robins, 2020) can greatly impact the type of emotions felt by a defeated teammate (e.g., benign, reflecting efforts to improve oneself vs. malicious, reflecting efforts to demote the other; Lange & Crusius, 2015). These emotions, in turn, affect athletes' regulatory focus and social behaviors (Lange & Crusius, 2015; Landkammer et al., 2019), which can subsequently impact personal and team performance. Results indicated a significant negative indirect effect of hubristic displays of pride on team performance through malicious envy, b = -0.25, 95% BCa [-0.542, -0.056]. Additionally, hubristic pride was positively associated with avoidant goal setting, b= 0.10, 95% BCa CI [0.165, 0.218], antisocial behavior, b = 0.12, 95% BCa CI [0.048, 0.194], and negative compassion towards others, b = 0.075, 95% BCa CI [0.0005, 0.160].Ultimately, these initial findings suggest that seeing pride and envy as a social-functional unit can assist to better understand and control competitive relationships and provide potential mechanisms related to athletic performance.
Are Teammates Rivals or Role Models?
Drawing on the emotions as social information (EASI) model, the spontaneous displays of pride athletes exhibit after a victory provides crucial information to teammates (van Kleef, 2009). A teammate’s displays of pride signal the relevance of an achievement (i.e., personal success), thereby boosting their status (Tracey & Matsumoto, 2008); the revealed superiority thus triggers an emotional response (i.e., admiration, benign and malicious envy) in onlooking teammates (Lange et al., 2018; Lange & Crusius, 2015; van de Ven et al., 2011). In turn, these emotional responses have specific motivational action tendencies that influence the level of participation in corresponding behaviors, either benefiting or damaging individual and team athletic performance (Keltner & Haidt, 1999; van de Ven et al., 2015). We believe the findings will shed light on how perceptions of a teammate’s display of pride impact athletic performance through emotional responses and their corresponding cognitions and behaviors.
Current Memberships
