Criticism with care is more persuasive

Date:
July 10, 2023
Source:
University of Zurich
Summary:
When unethical behavior is criticized, demands are often met with
defensiveness and denial. How can we overcome this reaction? New
research demonstrates that criticism is more persuasive when it
is expressed with concern for the welfare of those being criticized.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
In pursuit of a more ethical world, people in business and society speak
out to criticize groups for wrongdoing and call for them to change their harmful ways: Activists demand justice for victims in their campaigns, employees might call attention to unfair practices at work, journalists
put a spotlight on harm in society, and business leaders speak out on
political topics.

New research by Lauren Howe, an Assistant Professor from the Department
of Business Administration at the University of Zurich, identifies a
way that criticism across these scenarios can be made more effective. A
series of experiments involving more than 1,400 participants shows that criticized groups are more likely to take a criticism to heart when the messenger not only criticizes the groups, but also shows concern for
the issues that the criticized groups themselves face.

When criticism indicates a lack of concern When criticizing groups,
messengers often address the group by criticizing the group for causing
harm to another group and imploring them to change their ways. "What
messengers may not realize is that when a person accuses a group of
harm like this, right away, members of the group may believe that
the messenger views their group as immoral and does not care about
their outcomes," Howe explains. "We find in our research that when
messages include dual concernby expressing concern for the group that is criticized while still accusing the group of causing harm, it reduces
this problematic inference, and thus dual concern messages are more
effective at encouraging members of a group to agree with the criticism
of their own group." The effects of dual concern messages In one of the experiments, Liberals or Conservatives in the United States agreed 6.6%
more with a CEO criticizing their political group in a news article if
the CEO additionally acknowledged that the political group also faced
harm such as being mocked and ignored by others. Participants were also
7.1% more willing to shop at the CEO's company than when criticism was
issued without care.

The research also tested the idea in campaigns: participants read
a poster advocating to stop prejudice against a group with whom they
personally disagreed -- whether Liberals or Conservatives, Christians or atheists, or the elderly or millennials. The poster led participants to
agree 8.6% more strongly that their disfavored group faces unfair and
specific prejudices when the poster conveyed that the advocates also
were concerned about the prejudices that many other groups faced.

Criticizers may care more than people think In one study, 87.3% of
Liberals who said that Conservatives are harming America still agreed
that "Conservatives, like anyone, deserve a voice, and their concerns
should be heard. We should care for Conservatives." But interestingly, Conservatives estimated that only 40.8% of critical Liberals would
agree that Conservatives are worthy of concern. Likewise, 83.9% of Conservatives who were critical of Liberals agreed that Liberals deserve
a voice and should be heard, yet Liberals estimated that only 35.3%
of Conservatives would express concern for Liberals. This means that
people in both political parties underestimated the concern of their ideological opponents by half.

Learning to criticize with care What the research shows, Howe summarizes,
is that criticism works better when it is done with care. She suggests:
"When messengers point out harm or wrongdoing, they might consider: What challenges does the group that they are accusing of harm face?" Messengers
may want to acknowledge these challenges, if appropriate, to signal to
their audience that they are not dismissed as immoral. As messengers
raise their voices to criticize one group for harming another group in
the service of social change, their arguments are more persuasive when
they emphasize concern for the criticized.

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========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Lauren C. Howe, Steven Shepherd, Nathan B. Warren, Kathryn
R. Mercurio,
Troy H. Campbell. Expressing Dual Concern in Criticism for
Wrongdoing: The Persuasive Power of Criticizing with Care. Journal
of Business Ethics, 2023; DOI: 10.1007/s10551-023-05475-0 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230710113832.htm

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