Trash-talking: Competitive incivility motivates rivalry, performance, and unethical behavior

Jeremy A. Yip, Maurice E. Schweitzer and Samir Nurmohamed

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2018, vol. 144, issue C, 125-144

Abstract: Trash-talking increases the psychological stakes of competition and motivates targets to outperform their opponents. In Studies 1 and 2, participants in a competition who were targets of trash-talking outperformed participants who faced the same economic incentives, but were not targets of trash-talking. Perceptions of rivalry mediate the relationship between trash-talking and effort-based performance. In Study 3, we find that targets of trash-talking were particularly motivated to punish their opponents and see them lose. In Study 4, we identify a boundary condition, and show that trash-talking increases effort in competitive interactions, but incivility decreases effort in cooperative interactions. In Study 5, we find that targets of trash-talking were more likely to cheat in a competition than were participants who received neutral messages. In Study 6, we demonstrate that trash-talking harms performance when the performance task involves creativity. Taken together, our findings reveal that trash-talking is a common workplace behavior that can foster rivalry and motivate both constructive and destructive behavior.

Keywords: Incivility; Rivalry; Competition; Effort; Motivation; Cheating; Ethics; Creativity; Aggression; Communication; Conflict; Negotiation; Cooperation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:144:y:2018:i:c:p:125-144

DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2017.06.002

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