Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Perceptions of High Integrity Can Persist After Deception: How Implicit Beliefs Moderate Trust Erosion

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Scholars have assumed that trust is fragile: difficult to build and easily broken. We demonstrate, however, that in some cases trust is surprisingly robust—even when harmful deception is revealed, some individuals maintain high levels of trust in the deceiver. In this paper, we describe how implicit theories moderate the harmful effects of revealed deception on a key component of trust: perceptions of integrity. In a negotiation context, we show that people who hold incremental theories (beliefs that negotiating abilities are malleable) reduce perceptions of their counterpart’s integrity after they learn that they were deceived, whereas people who hold entity theories (beliefs that negotiators’ characteristics and abilities are fixed) maintain their first impressions after learning that they were deceived. Implicit theories influenced how targets interpreted evidence of deception. Individuals with incremental theories encoded revealed deception as an ethical violation; individuals with entity theories did not. These findings highlight the importance of implicit beliefs in understanding how trust changes over time.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We note that though participants had never negotiated with one another prior to this exercise, it is possible that initial impressions may have developed from previous interactions.

  2. Buyers’ theories were not significantly related to any of the dependent measures, and we focus on sellers’ theories in the remaining analyses and discussion.

  3. We thank an anonymous reviewer for noting the importance of establishing the durability of the implicit theory manipulation over time.

References

  • Anderson, C., & Shirako, A. (2008). Are individuals’ reputations related to their history of behavior? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 320–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barry, B. (1999). The tactical use of emotion in negotiation. In R. Bies, R. Lewicki, & B. Sheppard (Eds.), Research on negotiation in organizations (Vol. 7). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bazerman, M. H. (2006). Judgment in managerial decision making. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergen, R. (1992). Beliefs about intelligence and achievement-related behaviors. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

  • Bottom, W. P., Gibson, K., Daniels, S. E., & Murnighan, J. K. (2002). When talk is not cheap: Substantive penance and expressions of intent in rebuilding cooperation. Organization Science, 13(5), 497–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyle, R., & Bonacich, P. (1970). The development of trust and mistrust in mixed-motive games. Sociometry, 33, 123–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. K. (1999). Trust expectations, information sharing, climate of trust and negotiation effectiveness and efficiency. Group and Organization Management, 24, 217–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiu, C., Hong, Y., & Dweck, C. S. (1997). Lay dispositionism and implicit theories of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 19–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dirks, K., & Ferrin, D. (2001). The role of trust in organizational settings. Organization Science, 12, 450–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dweck, C. S. (1996). Implicit theories as organizers of goals and behavior. In P. M. Gollwitzer & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dweck, C. S., Hong, Y., & Chiu, C. (1993). Implicit theories: Individual differences in the likelihood and meaning of dispositional inference. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 644–656.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dweck, C. S., Chiu, C., & Hong, Y. (1995). Implicit theories and their role in judgments and reactions: A world from two perspectives. Psychological Inquiry, 6, 267–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., & O’Sullivan, M. (1991). Who can catch a liar? American Psychologist, 46, 913–920.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elangovan, A. R., & Shapiro, D. L. (1998). Betrayal of trust in organizations. The Academy of Management Review, 23, 547–566.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elangovan, A. R., Auer-Rizzi, W., & Szabo, E. (2007). Why don’t I trust you now? An attributional approach to erosion of trust. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22, 4–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fukuyama, F. (1996). Trust: The social virtues and the creation of prosperity. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gervey, B. M., Chiu, C., Hong, Y., & Dweck, C. S. (1999). Differential use of person information in decisions about guilt versus innocence: The role of implicit theories. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 17–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haselhuhn, M. P., Schweitzer, M. E., & Wood, A. (2010). How implicit beliefs influence trust recovery. Psychological Science, 21, 645–648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heslin, P. A., Latham, G. P., & VandeWalle, D. (2005). The effect of implicit person theory on performance appraisals. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 842–856.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heslin, P. A., VandeWalle, D., & Latham, G. P. (2006). Keen to help? Managers’ implicit person theories and their subsequent employee coaching. Personnel Psychology, 59, 871–902.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong, Y., Chiu, C., Dweck, C. S., & Sacks, R. (1997). Implicit theories and evaluative processes in person cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33, 296–323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karp, R., Gold, D., & Tan, M. (2006). Bullard houses (dispute resolution exercise). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Harvard Law School, Program on Negotiation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, P. H., Ferrin, D. L., Cooper, C. D., & Dirks, K. T. (2004). Removing the shadow of suspicion: The effects of apology versus denial for repairing competence-versus integrity-based trust violations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 104–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kimmel, M. J., Pruitt, D. G., Magenau, J. M., Konar-Goldband, E., & Carnevale, P. J. (1980). Effects of trust, aspiration, and gender on negotiation tactics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 9–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, R. M. (1996). Divergent realities and convergent disappointments in the hierarchic relation: Trust and the intuitive auditor at work. In R. M. Kramer & T. R. Tyler (Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of theory and research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kray, L. J., & Haselhuhn, M. P. (2007). Implicit negotiation beliefs and performance: Longitudinal and experimental evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 49–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kray, L. J., & Haselhuhn, M. P. (2012). Male pragmatism in negotiators’ ethical reasoning. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 1124–1131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kray, L. J., Locke, C. C. & Haselhuhn, M. P. (2009). In the words of Larry summers: Gender stereotypes and implicit beliefs in negotiations. In A. A. Stanton, M. Day & I. Welpe (Eds.), Neuroeconomics and the firm. Northampton, MA: Elgar.

  • Kunda, Z. (1990). The case for motivated reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 480–498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lax, D., & Sebenius, J. (1986). The manager as negotiator: Bargaining for cooperation and competitive gain. New York, NY: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, E. E., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2015). Prosocial lies: When deception breeds trust. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 126, 88–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levy, S. R., Stroessner, S. J., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Stereotype formation and endorsement: The role of implicit theories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1421–1436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewicki, R. J. (1983). Lying and deception: A behavioral model. In M. H. Bazerman & R. J. Lewicki (Eds.), Negotiating in organizations. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewicki, R. J. (2006). Trust, trust development and trust repair. In M. Deutsch, P. T. Coleman, & E. C. Marcus (Eds.), The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewicki, R. J., & Bunker, B. B. (1996). Developing and maintaining trust in work relationships. In R. M. Kramer & T. R. Tyler (Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of theory and research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lount, R. B., Zhong, C. B., Sivanathan, N., & Murnighan, J. K. (2008). Getting off on the wrong foot: The timing of a breach and the restoration of trust. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(12), 1601–1612.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maddux, W. W., Mullen, E., & Galinsky, A. D. (2008). Chameleons bake bigger pies and take bigger pieces: Strategic behavioral mimicry facilitates negotiation outcomes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 461–468.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, R. C., & Davis, J. H. (1999). The effect of the performance appraisal system on trust for management: A field quasi-experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 123–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20, 709–734.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, K. M., & Carnevale, P. J. (1997). A nasty but effective negotiation strategy: Misrepresentation of a common-value issue. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 504–515.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plaks, J. E., Grant, H., & Dweck, C. S. (2005). Violations of implicit theories and the sense of prediction and control: Implications for motivated person perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 245–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plaks, J. E., Stroessner, S. J., Dweck, C. S., & Sherman, J. W. (2001). Person theories and attention allocation: Preferences for stereotypic versus counterstereotypic information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 876–893.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 79–891.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, S. L. (1996). Trust and the breach of the psychological contract. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 574–599.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoorman, F. D., Mayer, R. C., & Davis, J. H. (2007). An integrative model of organizational trust: Past, present, and future. Academy of Management Review, 32, 344–354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schweitzer, M. (2001). Deception in negotiations. In S. Hoch & H. Kunreuther (Eds.), Wharton on Making Decisions (pp. 187–200). New York, NY: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schweitzer, M. E., & Croson, R. T. (1999). Curtailing deception: The impact of direct questions on lies and omissions. The International Journal of Conflict Management, 10, 225–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schweitzer, M. E., Hershey, J., & Bradlow, E. (2006). Promises and lies: Restoring violated trust. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 101, 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tamir, M., John, O. P., Srivastava, S., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Implicit theories of emotion: Affective and social outcomes across a major life transition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 731–744.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, L. L. (1991). Information exchange in negotiation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 161–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, E. M., Haselhuhn, M. P., & Kray, L. J. (2012). Improving the future by considering the past: The impact of upward counterfactual reflection and implicit beliefs on negotiation performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 403–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Riverside, 900 University Ave., 234 Anderson Hall, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Michael P. Haselhuhn

  2. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Maurice E. Schweitzer

  3. University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Laura J. Kray

  4. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Jessica A. Kennedy

Authors
  1. Michael P. Haselhuhn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Maurice E. Schweitzer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Laura J. Kray
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jessica A. Kennedy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael P. Haselhuhn.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Haselhuhn, M.P., Schweitzer, M.E., Kray, L.J. et al. Perceptions of High Integrity Can Persist After Deception: How Implicit Beliefs Moderate Trust Erosion. J Bus Ethics 145, 215–225 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3649-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3649-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation