Science Has Just Proved That No One Likes Overachievers
Everyone remembers that one kid from high school or college that seemed to not only know everything, but continually point that out, and then overshadow everyone else in the process. If a paper was supposed to be eight pages long, this kid turned in nine. If a project required three sources, this kid included five. Lord, how we hated that kid. While he or she might have been on the right track by going above and beyond expectations, science now has other news for them: No one cares.
Two researchers — behavioral scientist Ayelet Gneezy of the University of California, San Diego, and psychology professor Nicholas Epley, of the University of Chicago — wanted to see how overachievers are perceived by those that have to deal with them. Does exceeding expectations really make people like you more? Or, like in high school, want to punch you in the neck at the next party?
To figure this out, the duo asked several college students about a hypothetical scenario involving buying concert tickets. First, they were prodded to imagine using Ticketmaster or some other site to buy the tickets for Row 10. They were then asked to consider their feelings if presented with tickets either better, worse than, or the same as purchased. After the thought experiment, the participants were asked to log how satisfied they were, and if they'd use this fake company again to buy fake tickets for a fake concert.
Look, science is weird. We have no other explanation for this odd experiment. But however weird it was, the findings were interesting: While the people reacted harshly to getting worse tickets, they reacted no more positively (in fact, sometimes a bit negatively) when they got better tickets or the Row 10s they asked for.
The experiment showed that companies really have nothing to gain by giving away things or offering special bonuses. "Businesses may work hard to exceed their promises to customers or employees, but our research suggests that this hard work may not produce the desired consequences beyond those obtained by simply keeping promises," Epley told the Association for Psychological Science.
Not only that, but overachievers aren't doing themselves any good. “When companies, friends, or coworkers put forth the effort to keep a promise, their effort is likely to be rewarded,” the pair wrote in the recent issue of Social Psychological and Personality Science. "But when they expend extra effort in order to exceed those promises, their effort appears likely to be overlooked."
The lesson here is that those kids in school that we all hated, well, they might have better jobs than us and make more money than us, but dammit — we are better liked. And isn't that what life is all about?
[Image via Flickr - College Degrees 360]
