Over 40years of research on the effects of goal setting has demonstrated that high goals can increase performance by motivating people, directing their attention to a target, and increasing their persistence (Locke & Latham, 2002). However, recent research has introduced a dark side of goal...

Purpose The authors used signaling theory to explain negative perceptions of individuals on the autism spectrum (IotAS) in the job interview and explored whether parasocial contact could improve perceptions. Design/methodology/approach Participants were randomly assigned across six experimental...

Two experiments showed that participants use the achievements of others as reference points with which to compare their wealth. In turn, being better or worse than referent others exerted influence on participants’ tendency to interpret ambiguous scenarios in a self favorable way. Experiment 1...