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Home | Events Archive | The Value of Honest Information
Seminar

The Value of Honest Information


  • Location
    Online
  • Date and time

    September 23, 2021
    12:00 - 13:00

Abstract: I will present the design of a lab-experiment we are currently developing. The project is based on the observation that people care about maintaining a positive self-image. We investigate whether workers’ self-image concerns affect their supervisor’s subjective performance evaluation. We create a principal-agent setting where a principal is rewarded for agent’s performance in a real effort task. The principal evaluates the performance of the agent, e.g. on a five-point scale, after which the agent works again for the same principal. We manipulate the extent to which the task is ego relevant (i.e. important for the agent’s self-image) by informing participants that task performance is positively related to intelligence. We hypothesize that enhanced ego relevance makes the principal’s evaluation more lenient, as he may fear that a lower-than-expected evaluation triggers a negatively reciprocal reaction from the worker because his ego is threatened. We also investigate whether evaluations become more truthful when accurate information on ability is valuable for the agent. We expect that the agent will be more receptive to negative feedback when honest feedback is valuable. Intuitively, a low assessment still poses an ego threat, but it also shows that the supervisor cares about the worker’s material well-being, so that negative reactions to lower-than- expected evaluations are less likely.


In order to make this online seminar run as smooth as possible, we would like to inform you how we would like to organize questions/discussion.

If you have a question for the presenter during the seminar, then please make yourself known as follows:

1. Raise your virtual hands (in Zoom) if you want to say something.

2. You can also signal that by raising your real hand.

3. If the presenter and the host don’t see either of those signals, then please send Dirk a chat message.

4. If none of that works, then you should feel free to intervene.

Some information and suggestions:

• Upon joining the meeting, your microphone will be on mute. Please leave it like that and unmute it only if you want to ask a question.

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