A Behavioral Experiment of a Negative Feedback Condition

Abstract

In this study we conduct a behavioral experiment in which we manipulate two between-subject factors: the use of a strategy map and feedback type. We find evidence that participants in the negative feedback condition have higher perceived strategy ineffectiveness, lower ingratiation intention, and report being significantly more willing to give a negative performance review to the branch manager who provided feedback. Using pairwise correlations, we find a positive nonsignificant strategy map coefficient predicting motivation to over-report negative feedback. This finding suggests a weak strategy map effect could still help mitigate this bias at the margins or in settings where motivated reasoning is a stronger driver of the bias against negative feedback, but that weak mitigating effect is overwhelmed by participants' efforts to impress upper management.