Don’t tell me about my moral failures but motivate me to improve: Increasing effectiveness of outgroup criticism by criticizing one’s competence

Abstract

Criticizing people on their prior moral failures often causes them to react defensively, especially when this is done by an outgroup. In the current research, we tested whether people become more receptive to such outgroup criticism when it refers to (failures of) their competence, rather than their morality. We conducted two studies, using a 2: Critic's group-membership (receiving criticism from an ingroup vs. outgroup) × 2: Dimension (competence vs. morality as focal concern addressed with the criticism) mixed design. Findings showed that, regardless of source, participants made fewer negative attributions, were more motivated to improve, and more often indicated they changed their behavior after they had been criticized on their competence, instead of on their morality. Thus, criticizing past behavior for failing to show competence instead of morality might be a way to reduce defensive responses and to stimulate behavior change, even for outgroup critics.