Organizational costs of compensating for mind-body dissonance through conspiracies and superstitions

Li Huang and Jennifer Whitson

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2020, vol. 156, issue C, 1-12

Abstract: Maintaining physical expressions that contradict one’s internal states creates stress and burnout. Surprisingly, little is known about whether such incongruence affects organizationally relevant cognitive consequences. We propose that mind-body dissonance (MBD), a control-diminishing experience wherein the mind and body undergo contradictory states, increases compensatory illusory pattern perception (IPP) and jeopardizes decisions and trusting behavior. Experiments 1 and 2 found that being induced to display bodily expressions that contradict one’s emotions in a mental-physical coordination or customer service context, increased IPP in the form of conspiratorial and superstitious thinking. Experiment 3 found that MBD reduced trusting behavior through feelings of lacking control and conspiratorial thinking in serial. Finally, examining the mechanism through a moderation design, Experiment 4 found that misattributing feelings of lacking control to an external stimulus eliminated MBD’s effect on a superstition-related managerial decision. We discuss the value of this motivational approach in understanding MBD’s organizational implications.

Keywords: Mind-body dissonance; Conspiracy; Superstition; Illusory pattern perception; Compensatory control; Trusting behavior; Decision-making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:156:y:2020:i:c:p:1-12

DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.09.006

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