by Adam Grant
especially when leaders aren’t receptive: Samuel T. Hunter and Lily Cushenbery, “Is Being a Jerk Necessary for Originality? Examining the Role of Disagreeableness in the Sharing and Utilization of Original Ideas,” Journal of Business and Psychology 30 (2015): 621–39.
foster more task conflict: Leslie A. DeChurch and Michelle A. Marks, “Maximizing the Benefits of Task Conflict: The Role of Conflict Management,” International Journal of Conflict Management 12 (2001): 4–22.
dissatisfaction promotes creativity only: Jing Zhou and Jennifer M. George, “When Job Dissatisfaction Leads to Creativity: Encouraging the Expression of Voice,” Academy of Management Journal 44 (2001): 682–96.
cultural misfits are: Amir Goldberg et al., “Fitting In or Standing Out? The Tradeoffs of Structural and Cultural Embeddedness,” American Sociological Review 81 (2016): 1190–222.
In building a team: Joeri Hofmans and Timothy A. Judge, “Hiring for Culture Fit Doesn’t Have to Undermine Diversity,” Harvard Business Review, September 18, 2019, hbr.org/2019/09/hiring-for-culture-fit-doesnt-have-to-undermine-diversity.
CEOs who indulge flattery: Sun Hyun Park, James D. Westphal, and Ithai Stern, “Set Up for a Fall: The Insidious Effects of Flattery and Opinion Conformity toward Corporate Leaders,” Administrative Science Quarterly 56 (2011): 257–302.
when employees received tough feedback: Francesca Gino, “Research: We Drop People Who Give Us Critical Feedback,” Harvard Business Review, September 16, 2016, hbr.org/2016/09/research-we-drop-people-who-give-us-critical-feedback.
“murder boards” to stir up: William Safire, “On Language: Murder Board at the Skunk Works,” New York Times, October 11, 1987, www.nytimes.com/1987/10/11/magazine/on-language-murder-board-at-the-skunk-works.html.
At X, Google’s “moonshot factory”: Derek Thompson, “Google X and the Science of Radical Creativity,” The Atlantic, November 2017, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/11/x-google-moonshot-factory/540648.
“The most essential gift”: The Cambridge Companion to Hemingway, ed. Scott Donaldson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
How well we take criticism: David Yeager et al., “Breaking the Cycle of Mistrust: Wise Interventions to Provide Critical Feedback across the Racial Divide,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143 (2014): 804–24.
people who lack power or status: Elizabeth W. Morrison, “Employee Voice Behavior: Integration and Directions for Future Research,” Academy of Management Annals 5 (2011): 373–412; Charlan Jeanne Nemeth, In Defense of Troublemakers: The Power of Dissent in Life and Business (New York: Basic Books, 2018).
Agreeable people were significantly more: Jennifer A. Chatman and Sigal G. Barsade, “Personality, Organizational Culture, and Cooperation: Evidence from a Business Simulation,” Administrative Science Quarterly 40 (1995): 423–43.
A major problem with task conflict: De Wit, Greer, and Jehn, “The Paradox of Intragroup Conflict.”
framing a dispute as a debate: Ming-Hong Tsai and Corinne Bendersky, “The Pursuit of Information Sharing: Expressing Task Conflicts as Debates vs. Disagreements Increases Perceived Receptivity to Dissenting Opinions in Groups,” Organization Science 27 (2016): 141–56.
why they favor particular policies: Philip M. Fernbach et al., “Political Extremism Is Supported by an Illusion of Understanding,” Psychological Science 24 (2013): 939–46.
illusion of explanatory depth: Leonid Rozenblit and Frank Keil, “The Misunderstood Limits of Folk Science: An Illusion of Explanatory Depth,” Cognitive Science 26 (2002): 521–62.
surprised by how much they struggle: Matthew Fisher and Frank Keil, “The Curse of Expertise: When More Knowledge Leads to Miscalibrated Explanatory Insight,” Cognitive Science 40 (2016): 1251–69.
how little they actually know: Dan R. Johnson, Meredith P. Murphy, and Riley M. Messer, “Reflecting on Explanatory Ability: A Mechanism for Detecting Gaps in Causal Knowledge,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 145 (2016): 573–88.
Chapter 5. Dances with Foes
“Exhausting someone in argument”: Tim Kreider, We Learn Nothing: Essays (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012).
introduced to Harish: Personal interview with Harish Natarajan, May 23, 2019; “Live Debate: IBM Project Debater,” IntelligenceSquared Debates, YouTube, February 11, 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3u-1yttrVw.
evidence that early access to education: Nicholas Kristof, “Too Small to Fail,” New York Times, June 2, 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/opinion/building-childrens-brains.html.
It’s more like a dance: George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).
what expert negotiators do differently: Neil Rackham, “The Behavior of Successful Negotiators,” in Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases, ed. Roy Lewicki, Bruce Barry, and David Saunders (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980/2007).
having even one negotiator who brings: Femke S. Ten Velden, Bianca Beersma, and Carsten K. W. De Dreu, “It Takes One to Tango: The Effects of Dyads’ Epistemic Motivation Composition in Negotiations,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36 (2010): 1454–66.
We can demonstrate openness: Maria Popova, “How to Criticize with Kindness: Philosopher Daniel Dennett on the Four Steps to Arguing Intelligently,” BrainPickings, March 28, 2014, www.brainpickings.org/2014/03/28/daniel-dennett-rapoport-rules-criticism.
When we concede that someone else: Fabrizio Butera, Nicolas Sommet, and Céline Darnon, “Sociocognitive Conflict Regulation: How to Make Sense of Diverging Ideas,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 28 (2019): 145–51.
Her official name is Project Debater: IBM Research Editorial Staff, “Think 2019 Kicks Off with Live Debate between Man and Machine,” IBM Research Blog, February 12, 2019, www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019/02/ai-debate-recap-think-2019; Paul Teich, “IBM Project Debater Speaks to the Future of AI,” The Next Platform, March 27, 2019, www.nextplatform.com/2019/03/27/ibm-project-debater-speaks-to-the-future-of-ai; Dieter Bohn, “What It’s Like to Watch an IBM AI Successfully Debate Humans,” The Verge, June 18, 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/6/18/17477686/ibm-project-debater-ai.
the steel man: Conor Friedersdorf, “The Highest Form of Disagreement,” The Atlantic, June 26, 2017, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-highest-form-of-disagreement/531597.
people tend to see quantity: Kate A. Ranganath, Barbara A. Spellman, and Jennifer A. Joy-Gaba, “Cognitive ‘Category-Based Induction’ Research and Social ‘Persuasion’ Research Are Each about What Makes Arguments Believable: A Tale of Two Literatures,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 5 (2010): 115–22.
the quality of reasons matters: Richard E. Petty and Duane T. Wegener, “The Elaboration Likelihood Model: Current Status and Controversies,” in Dual-Process Theories in Social Psychology, ed. Shelly Chaiken and Yaacov Trope (New York: Guilford, 1999).
piling on justifications: John Biondo and A. P. MacDonald Jr., “Internal-External Locus of Control and Response to Influence Attempts,” Journal of Personality 39 (1971): 407–19.
convince thousands of resistant alumni: Daniel C. Feiler, Leigh P. Tost, and Adam M. Grant, “Mixed Reasons, Missed Givings: The Costs of Blending Egoistic and Altruistic Reasons in Donation Requests,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 48 (2012): 1322–28.
are you planning to attend?: Rachel (Penny) Breuhaus, “Get in the Game: Comparing the Effects of Self-Persuasion and Direct Influence in Motivating Attendance at UNC Men’s Basketball Games” (honors thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009).
the person most likely to persuade you: Elliot Aronson, “The Power of Self-Persuasion,” American Psychologist 54 (1999): 875–84.
paying them more: David G. Allen, Phillip C. Bryant, and James M. Vardaman, “Retaining Talent: Replacing Misconceptions with Evidence-Based Strategies,” Academy of Management P
erspectives 24 (2017): 48–64.
hierarchy of disagreement: Paul Graham, “How to Disagree,” PaulGraham.com, March 2008, www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html.
Beethoven and Mozart: Aaron Kozbelt, “Longitudinal Hit Ratios of Classical Composers: Reconciling ‘Darwinian’ and Expertise Acquisition Perspectives on Lifespan Creativity,” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 2 (2008): 221–35; Adam Grant, “The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers,” TED Talk, February 2016, www.ted.com/talks/adam_grant_the_surprising_habits_of_original_thinkers.
If we hold an: See Michael Natkin, “Strong Opinions Loosely Held Might Be the Worst Idea in Tech,” The Glowforge Blog, May 1, 2019, blog.glowforge.com/strong-opinions-loosely-held-might-be-the-worst-idea-in-tech.
in courtrooms, expert witnesses: Robert J. Cramer, Stanley L. Brodsky, and Jamie DeCoster, “Expert Witness Confidence and Juror Personality: Their Impact on Credibility and Persuasion in the Courtroom,” Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law 37 (2009) 63–74; Harvey London, Dennis McSeveney, and Richard Tropper, “Confidence, Overconfidence and Persuasion,” Human Relations 24 (1971): 359–69.
woman named Michele Hansen: Personal interview with Michele Hansen, February 23, 2018; “The Problem with All-Stars,” WorkLife with Adam Grant, March 14, 2018.
two-sided messages were more convincing: Mike Allen, “Meta-analysis Comparing the Persuasiveness of One-Sided and Two-Sided Messages,” Western Journal of Speech Communication 55 (1991): 390–404.
“I work too hard, I care too much”: The Office, season 3, episode 23, “Beach Games,” May 10, 2007, NBC.
“My name is George”: Seinfeld, season 5, episode 22, “The Opposite,” May 19, 1994, NBC.
candidates who acknowledge legitimate weaknesses: Ovul Sezer, Francesca Gino, and Michael I. Norton, “Humblebragging: A Distinct—and Ineffective—Self-Presentation Strategy,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 114 (2018): 52–74.
Chapter 6. Bad Blood on the Diamond
“I hated the Yankees with all my heart, even to the point”: Doris Kearns Goodwin, MLB Pro Blog, doriskearnsgoodwin.mlblogs.com.
Daryl Davis arrived: Personal communications with Daryl Davis, April 10, 2020; Daryl Davis, “What Do You Do When Someone Just Doesn’t Like You?,” TEDxCharlottesville, November 2017, www.ted.com/talks/daryl_davis_what_do_you_do_when_someone_just_doesn_t_like_you; Dwane Brown, “How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members to Give Up Their Robes,” NPR, August 20, 2017, www.npr.org/transcripts/544861933; Craig Phillips, “Reformed Racists: Is There Life after Hate for Former White Supremacists?,” PBS, February 9, 2017, www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/reformed-racists-white-supremacists-life-after-hate; The Joe Rogan Experience, #1419, January 30, 2020; Jeffrey Fleishman, “A Black Man’s Quixotic Quest to Quell the Racism of the KKK, One Robe at a Time,” Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2016, www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-film-accidental-courtesy-20161205-story.html.
most popular T-shirts: Amos Barshad, “Yankees Suck! Yankees Suck!” Grantland, September 1, 2015, http://grantland.com/features/yankees-suck-t-shirts-boston-red-sox.
When asked how much money: Steven A. Lehr, Meghan L. Ferreira, and Mahzarin R. Banaji, “When Outgroup Negativity Trumps Ingroup Positivity: Fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees Place Greater Value on Rival Losses Than Own-Team Gains,” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 22 (2017): 26–42.
when Red Sox fans see the Yankees fail: Mina Cikara and Susan T. Fiske, “Their Pain, Our Pleasure: Stereotype Content and Schadenfreude,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1299 (2013): 52–59.
well beyond Boston: Eduardo Gonzalez, “Most Hated Baseball Team on Twitter?,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 2019, www.latimes.com/sports/mlb/la-sp-most-hated-mlb-teams-twitter-yankees-cubs-dodgers-20190701-story.html.
families self-segregated: Hannah Schwär, “Puma and Adidas’ Rivalry Has Divided a Small German Town for 70 Years—Here’s What It Looks Like Now,” Business Insider Deutschland, October 1, 2018; Ellen Emmerentze Jervell, “Where Puma and Adidas Were Like Hatfields and McCoys,” Wall Street Journal, December 30, 2014, www.wsj.com/articles/where-adidas-and-pumas-were-like-hatfields-and-mccoys-1419894858; Allan Hall, “Adidas and Puma Bury the Hatchet after 60 Years of Brothers’ Feud after Football Match,” Daily Telegraph, September 22, 2009, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6216728/Adidas-and-Puma-bury-the-hatchet-after-60-years-of-brothers-feud-after-football-match.html.
we disidentify with our adversaries: Kimberly D. Elsbach and C. B. Bhattacharya, “Defining Who You Are by What You’re Not: Organizational Disidentification and the National Rifle Association,” Organization Science 12 (2001): 393–413.
if they were willing to lie: Gavin J. Kilduff et al., “Whatever It Takes to Win: Rivalry Increases Unethical Behavior,” Academy of Management Journal 59 (2016): 1508–34.
even when the boundaries between them are trivial: Michael Diehl, “The Minimal Group Paradigm: Theoretical Explanations and Empirical Findings,” European Review of Social Psychology 1 (1990): 263–92.
a seemingly innocuous question: is a hot dog a sandwich?: Dave Hauser (@DavidJHauser), December 5, 2019, twitter.com/DavidJHauser/status/1202610237934592000.
Identifying with a group: Philip Furley, “What Modern Sports Competitions Can Tell Us about Human Nature,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 14 (2019): 138–55.
after their team won a football game: Robert B. Cialdini et al., “Basking in Reflected Glory: Three (Football) Field Studies,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34 (1976): 366–75.
Rivalries are most likely to develop: Gavin J. Kilduff, Hillary Anger Elfenbein, and Barry M. Staw, “The Psychology of Rivalry: A Relationally Dependent Analysis of Competition,” Academy of Management Journal 53 (2010): 943–69.
The two teams also have more fans: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, “They Hook You When You’re Young,” New York Times, April 19, 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/opinion/sunday/they-hook-you-when-youre-young.html; J. Clement, “Major League Baseball Teams with the Most Facebook Fans as of June 2020,” Statista, June 16, 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/235719/facebook-fans-of-major-league-baseball-teams.
subject of extensive debate: John K. Ashton, Robert Simon Hudson, and Bill Gerrard, “Do National Soccer Results Really Impact on the Stock Market?,” Applied Economics 43 (2011): 3709–17; Guy Kaplanski and Haim Levy, “Exploitable Predictable Irrationality: The FIFA World Cup Effect on the U.S. Stock Market,” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 45 (2010): 535–53; Jerome Geyer-Klingeberg et al., “Do Stock Markets React to Soccer Games? A Meta-regression Analysis,” Applied Economics 50 (2018): 2171–89.
when their favorite soccer team loses: Panagiotis Gkorezis et al., “Linking Football Team Performance to Fans’ Work Engagement and Job Performance: Test of a Spillover Model,” Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 89 (2016): 791–812.
pairs of reality goggles: George A. Kelly, The Psychology of Personal Constructs, vol. 1, A Theory of Personality (New York: Norton, 1955).
phenomenon is called group polarization: Daniel J. Isenberg, “Group Polarization: A Critical Review and Meta-analysis,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50 (1986): 1141–51.
Juries with authoritarian beliefs: Robert M. Bray and Audrey M. Noble, “Authoritarianism and Decision in Mock Juries: Evidence of Jury Bias and Group Polarization,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 36 (1978): 1424–30.
Corporate boards are more likely: Cass R. Sunstein and Reid Hastie, Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2014).
Polarization is reinforced: Liran Goldman and Michael A. Hogg, “Going to Extremes for One’s Group: The Role of Prototypicality and Group Acceptance,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 46 (2016): 544–53; Michael A. Hogg, John C. Turner, and Barbara
Davidson, “Polarized Norms and Social Frames of Reference: A Test of the Self-Categorization Theory of Group Polarization,” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 11 (1990): 77–100.
when teams try to downplay: Johannes Berendt and Sebastian Uhrich, “Rivalry and Fan Aggression: Why Acknowledging Conflict Reduces Tension between Rival Fans and Downplaying Makes Things Worse,” European Sport Management Quarterly 18 (2018): 517–40.
Upon returning from space: Peter Suedfeld, Katya Legkaia, and Jelena Brcic, “Changes in the Hierarchy of Value References Associated with Flying in Space,” Journal of Personality 78 (2010): 1411–36.
“From out there on the moon”: “Edgar Mitchell’s Strange Voyage,” People, April 8, 1974, people.com/archive/edgar-mitchells-strange-voyage-vol-1-no-6.
“On Earth, astronauts look to the stars”: Personal interview with Jeff Ashby, January 12, 2018; “How to Trust People You Don’t Like,” WorkLife with Adam Grant, March 28, 2018.
Manchester United soccer fans: Mark Levine et al., “Identity and Emergency Intervention: How Social Group Membership and Inclusiveness of Group Boundaries Shape Helping Behavior,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 31 (2005): 443–53.
Kelman set out to challenge: Herbert C. Kelman, “Group Processes in the Resolution of International Conflicts: Experiences from the Israeli-Palestinian Case,” American Psychologist 52 (1997): 212–20.
we asked UNC students to help: Alison R. Fragale, Karren Knowlton, and Adam M. Grant, “Feeling for Your Foes: Empathy Can Reverse the In-Group Helping Preference” (working paper, 2020).
establishes her as different: Myron Rothbart and Oliver P. John, “Social Categorization and Behavioral Episodes: A Cognitive Analysis of the Effects of Intergroup Contact,” Journal of Social Issues 41 (1985): 81–104.
“Without sports, this wouldn’t be disgusting”: ESPN College Football, www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/18106107.