We demonstrate that implicit beliefs influence trust. In an experiment, we induced one of two types of implicit beliefs: entity beliefs about negotiation ability (a belief that negotiation ability is fixed over time), and incremental beliefs about negotiation ability (a belief that negotiation...

Individuals who accuse others of unethical behavior can derive significant benefits. Compared to individuals who do not make accusations, accusers engender greater trust and are perceived to have higher ethical standards. We found this to be true even when the accuser had a conflict of interest...

In explaining the prevalence of the overconfident belief that one is better than others, prior work has focused on the motive to maintain high self‐esteem, abetted by biases in attention, memory, and cognition. An additional possibility is that overconfidence enhances the person’s social...

The status-enhancement theory of overconfidence proposes that overconfidence pervades self-judgment because it helps people attain higher social status. Prior work has found that highly confident individuals attained higher status regardless of whether their confidence was justified by actual...