Academic | Self-presentation Deviation: How Interpersonal Misunderstanding Affects Judgment and Decision

On May 17th, 2018, the 116th Academic Lecture of “Marketing Vision” sponsored by the Research Team of “Chinese Marketing Innovation” was held in Business School. Associate Professor Dai Xianchi from CUHK Business School (tenured) was the keynote speaker, and his theme was “Self-presentation Deviation: How Interpersonal Misunderstandings Affect Judgment and Decision”. And Professor Wang Haizhong, the academic leader of Research Team of “Chinese Marketing Innovation”, presided over the lecture.

 The picture was academic report of Associate Professor Dai Xianchi from CUHK Business School 

Taking two studies as example, the keynote speaker explained and proved the self-presentation deviation: (1) Recruitment-application deviation; (2) Paradox of the number of friends. In recruitment-application relationship, should we focus on “diligent” or “smart”? In the first study of “recruitment-application deviation”, after series of experimental studies, Associate Professor Dai Xianchi found that when comparing work attitude with talent, recruiters paid more attention to the work attitude of applicants, while applicants always emphasized their talents. Such result didn’t change with the nature of industry, professional experience and other demographic factors. He also found that the different goals of recruiters and applicants led to such deviation. 

When making friends, is it better to have more friends or less friends? Through the study of “paradox of the number of friends”, Associate Professor Dai Xianchi found that when looking for the friends for the purpose of friendship, the people who looked for friends believed that he would be more attractive with more friends, but the receiving side thought that the other side would be more attractive with less friends. Since the looking-for side and the receiving side focused on the different meanings behind the number of friends, such interpersonal deviation occurred. If they focused on the same meaning, this deviation would disappear.

These two studies showed that in the process of social interaction (such as apply for a job and make friends), the self-presentation deviation caused by interpersonal misunderstanding would affect the efficiency and result of the whole process, and it was of great theoretical and practical significance to systematically study these deviations and their causes. At the same time, Teacher Dai also studied the formation of topics, submission and review of international journal papers, and so on, and he had a heated discussion with the present teachers and students, he especially offered good advice to the present teachers and students in the aspect of how to find and refine research topics in life and paper writing, which inspired the academic interest and enthusiasm of the graduate students.

Associate Professor Dai Xianchi is the tenured associate professor of the Department of Market, CUHK Business School. He graduates from INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau, France as a doctor, and he works in the Decision-making Research Center of Chicago Booth Business School before joining the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is mainly interested in: behavioral decision-making, risk and decision-making theory, consumer behavior and behavioral economics. His studies has been published in the international top journals in the field of Marketing, Management, and Psychology, etc, including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, etc. His studies has ever won the only Best Paper Award (biennial) of the European Decision-making Society (the only Asian winner in history), the Best Paper Award of the American Society for Decision-making and Analysis, the Best Paper Award at the Annual Conference on American Marketing, the Young Researcher Award of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Best Paper Award at the Annual Conference on Marketing Science in China, etc.

This lecture is sponsored by the Research Team of “Chinese Marketing Innovation”, Sun Yat-sen University. This team faces the forefront of international theories, closely follows the needs of national strategy, and forms the following stable research directions: brand management, consuming behavior, marketing strategy, and service marketing, etc; and the team’s research results has been published in the famous academic journals at home and abroad, such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Information System Research, Journal of Service Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Management World, and Journal of Management Sciences in China, etc.