behavioral adaptability; interpersonal behavior; interpersonal accuracy; social perception
Schmid Mast Marianne, Khademi Mahshid, Palese Tristan (2020), Power and social information processing, in
Current Opinion in Psychology, 33, 42-46.
Schlegel Katja, Palese Tristan, Mast Marianne Schmid, Rammsayer Thomas H., Hall Judith A., Murphy Nora A. (2019), A meta-analysis of the relationship between emotion recognition ability and intelligence, in
Cognition and Emotion, 1-23.
Murphy Nora A., Hall Judith A., Ruben Mollie A., Frauendorfer Denise, Schmid Mast Marianne, Johnson Kirsten E., Nguyen Laurent (2018), Predictive Validity of Thin-Slice Nonverbal Behavior from Social Interactions, in
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45(7), 983-993.
Schmid Mast Marianne, Hall Judith A. (2018), The Impact of Interpersonal Accuracy on Behavioral Outcomes, in
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(5), 309-314.
Hall Judith A., Back Mitja D., Nestler Steffen, Frauendorfer Denise, Schmid Mast Marianne, Ruben Mollie A. (2017), How Do Different Ways of Measuring Individual Differences in Zero‐Acquaintance Personality Judgment Accuracy Correlate With Each Other?, in
Journal of Personality, 86(2), 220-232.
PaleseTristan, Schmid MastMarianne, Interpersonal Accuracy and Interaction Outcomes: Why and How Reading Others Correctly Has Adaptive Advantages in Social Interactions, in Sternberg Robert, Kostić Aleksandra (ed.), Palgrave-Macmillan, London, n/a.
PaleseTristan, Schmid MastMarianne, What Can we Learn About Others’ Power From Their Emotional Expressions?, in Hess Ursula, Hareli Shlomo (ed.), Springer Nature, London, n/a.
Research on interpersonal accuracy (individual difference in the ability to correctly assess others’ states and traits) has so far only rarely addressed how this skill affects behavior in a social interaction and interaction outcomes. We investigate the link between interpersonal accuracy and how a person behaves verbally and nonverbally during a social interaction towards different interaction partners and whether this behavior influences the outcome of an interaction (e.g., how satisfied the interaction partner or how good a group performs). The here proposed research also links the field of interpersonal accuracy research to the field of leadership. In the leadership literature, the question of whether a leader’s ability to correctly assess the emotions of others (part of the emotional intelligence concept) affects the quality of his/her leadership (i.e., leader effectiveness) has produced very controversial results. Moreover, the focus on observing and coding actual (verbal and nonverbal) social interaction behavior is a contribution to both research fields. While interpersonal accuracy describes how we cognitively assess others, behavioral adaptability (individual difference in the ability to adapt one’s social interaction behavior to the peculiarities or different needs of each social interaction partner) describes interpersonal accuracy on a behavioral level. Behavioral adaptability is a new concept developed in our laboratory. In the here proposed research, we want to investigate the role and importance of this new concept for interaction outcomes and we also link it to interpersonal accuracy. Overall, we ask two main research questions: 1. Do leaders who are more interpersonally accurate show more behavioral adaptability? 2. Do high interpersonally accurate leaders have more positive interaction outcomes (better satisfaction of the subordinates, better performance of the groups they lead)? We propose 3 studies. Studies 1 and 2 contribute to answering research question 1 and Studies 2 and 3 contribute to responding to research question 2. In Study 1, we aim to replicate results found in a pilot study while at the same time expanding those results. We showed that for women leaders, interpersonal accuracy was positively related to more behavioral adaptability. In other words, women leaders who were good at assessing others’ emotional states also adapted their leadership behavior with respect to how different subordinates function best. In Study 2, we expand Study 1 to the field and test interpersonal accuracy and behavioral adaptability in real managers. Moreover, in Study 2, we will assess leadership effectiveness (satisfaction of the subordinates with the manager). In Study 3, we focus on the second research question and observe whether groups with a leader who is interpersonally accurate perform better than groups with a less interpersonally accurate leader.This research is important because it advances two different fields at the same time and builds a bridge between different research traditions. Interpersonal accuracy is a topic situated in person perception (social psychology) and it has played an important role in the excitement about the emotionally intelligent leader in the leadership literature. Although part of the emotional intelligence concept, accurate emotion recognition, is an aspect of interpersonal accuracy, the methods developed by interpersonal accuracy researchers are typically only rarely used by leadership researchers. The present proposal fills this gap. Moreover, the focus on the observation and coding of actual leader interpersonal behavior has the potential to make a meaningful impact on leadership training and development. If behavioral adaptability is related to better leadership effectiveness, then it might be useful not to train leaders with respect to a specific leadership style, but to train them so that they are able to use different leadership styles and to flexibly adapt their styles according to how each of their subordinates functions best.