Psychologists have figured out why your controlling boss makes you second-guess yourself at work
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Psychologists have figured out why your controlling boss makes you second-guess yourself at work

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Psychologists have figured out why your controlling boss makes you second-guess yourself at work

By Shalene Gupta

Whom we work for may impact how we react to fake news. In a new paper published in Scientific Reports, researchers studied 501 employees in Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the United States who identified their boss in one of three ways:

  • Paternalistic (allows for disagreement with their opinion as long as the rules are followed)
  • Authoritarian (does not allow for disagreement with their opinion)
  • Autonomous (encourages people who disagree with them to express themselves fully)

The participants were then given a selection of politically neutral headlines and asked to rate their accuracy as well as how much they’d openly agree with their boss on each headline if their boss sent them the story. The researchers found that employees with authoritarian bosses were more likely to believe in fake news than employees with paternalistic leaders, while employees with autonomous leaders were least likely to believe in fake news.

“If our reasoning is correct that the more leaders exert power over their subordinates, the more those subordinates agree with fake news even when they know it is untrue, then this social influence will likely create pluralistic ignorance?of other’s skepticism. . . . People may know that what the leader is saying is wrong but think that they are the only one who thinks this way,” the researchers wrote.

They went on to suggest that power dynamics play a bigger role than previously thought when it comes to agreeing with misinformation. The study was led by researchers at Ohio State University.


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Rachel Watstein

Enabling differential growth through AI, knowledge management, machine learning, technology, learning and development, research, past experiences, and creating cultures focused on collaboration.

1 年

Why with a headline of "Psychologists have figured out why your controlling boss makes you second-guess yourself at work" does the article focus on fake news and "politically neutral headlines"? If the article is about second-guessing my opinion on political news, that is very different than second-guessing yourself at work? Perhaps the wrong story is appearing under the heading. If not, I don't understand the connection between the headline and the article content.

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jeffery berg

Masters of Science Student in Marriage and Family Therapy program University of Massachusetts Global - California

1 年

Power and position of authority shows in situations like this but having confidence in yourself and your work will shine thru always.

回复
Rudy McCormick

Marketing Consultant | Positive Energy Generator | Team Transformer

1 年

Power dynamics can really mess with our minds, huh? Good thing we have studies to prove what we already knew!"

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