Stephen M Garcia
Biographic Data
| ID | 3793319 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stephen M Garcia |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stephen M |
| FAMILY NAME | Garcia |
| SIGNATURE | GARCÍA S M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4632-787X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 54 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
From insecurity to inspiration
Who is particularly likely to compare abilities and opinions with their romantic partner, and why? We conducted two studies examining these questions. In Study 1, we examined predictors of ability-based partner comparisons in three samples (N1 = 276, N2 = 279, N3 = 288). Younger people, those with lower self-esteem, and those in shorter and less satisfying relationships were more inclined to compare abilities with their romantic partners. In Stud…
Standard-Based Entitlement
The decision to disclose employee compensation has implications for workplace ethics, motivation, and performance. Pay transparency reduces pay disparity, fostering fairness, and ethical equity. Conversely, pay secrecy can maintain disparity but may drive increased effort. This study proposes a theoretical framework—standard-based entitlement—that explains the non-linear effects of pay disclosure. Our theory predicts that people’s compensation re…
N-equality
We examine the equality preferences of resource allocators, finding that a ubiquitous situational factor-the mere number of recipients (N)-shapes the trade-offs these allocators make between their equality concerns and other considerations. Specifically, our studies offer evidence for an N-Equality effect: Third-party allocators become less concerned about inequality as the number of recipients increases. A pilot study illustrates the N-Equality …
The Oxford Handbook of the Psychology of Competition
This volume reviews and organizes the literature on the psychology of competition and brings together leading researchers studying competition across the field of psychology. The volume begins by addressing the question, “What is the Psychology of Competition?” and distinguishes the psychological perspective from that of other disciplines, such as economics or business. The volume then presents a range of psychological approaches to the study of …
Gender and competitive performance
We examine whether gender gaps in competitive performance are moderated by the size of the competition. We hypothesize that women underperform in large, relative to small, competitions and that smaller competitions close gender performance gaps by enhancing women's performance. Study 1 demonstrates this effect using behavioral data from real marathon competitions. Study 2 experimentally replicates the effect with real behavior. Study 3 provides f…
Identifiability impedes efficiency maximization
This research explores the hypothesis that third‐party decision makers will be less likely to switch from a suboptimal default payoff to a more efficient alternative one when payoff receipts have been identified than when they have not, even when identification conveys no relevant information. While Studies 1 and 2 establish this identifiability effect by manipulating identifiability with real names (“S. Jones” / “R. Smith”) in realistic decision…
The Status Signals Paradox
Making friends is critical to well-being. We also live in a society where the display of status is ubiquitous and billions of dollars are spent on high-status consumer goods. In the present analysis, we introduce the Status Signals Paradox: When making new friends, people tend to think that displaying high-status markers of themselves (e.g., a BMW, a Tag Heuer watch) will make them more attractive to others than neutral markers (e.g., a Honda, a …
Frogs, Ponds, and Culture
Would you rather be the big frog in a small pond or the small frog in a big pond? In three studies, we demonstrate that the entry preference depends on culture. Study 1 found a higher big pond preference for East Asian, versus European American, students. Studies 2A and 2B replicated this big pond preference in behavioral intent across educational and organizational settings for Chinese, as compared to United States, working adults. Study 3 demon…
The Psychology of Competition
Social comparison—the tendency to self-evaluate by comparing ourselves to others—is an important source of competitive behavior. We propose a new model that distinguishes between individual and situational factors that increase social comparison and thus lead to a range of competitive attitudes and behavior. Individual factors are those that vary from person to person: the relevance of the performance dimension, the similarity of rivals, and thei…
The Presenter's Paradox
This analysis introduces the Presenter's Paradox. Robust findings in impression formation demonstrate that perceivers' judgments show a weighted averaging pattern, which results in less favorable evaluations when mildly favorable information is added to highly favorable information. Across seven studies, we show that presenters do not anticipate this averaging pattern on the part of evaluators and instead design presentations that include all of …
Being Unpredictable
Psychological research has devoted much attention to how people judge and predict others. However, a full understanding of social perception necessitates incorporating the responses of the targets, who may have little interest in being predicted. The authors argue that whether people want to be predicted depends on the interpersonal context—in particular, competitive or cooperative ones. Study 1 used a unique behavioral measure and showed that co…
Social Categories and Group Preference Disputes
Six studies explored the hypothesis that third parties are averse to resolving preference disputes with winner-take-all solutions when disputing factions belong to different social categories (e.g. gender, nationality, firms, etc.) versus the same social category. Studies 1—3 showed that third parties' aversion to winner-take-all solutions, even when they are based on the unbiased toss of a coin, is greater when the disputed preferences correlate…
Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity
Despite the importance of doing so, people do not always correctly estimate the distribution of opinions within their group. One important mechanism underlying such misjudgments is people's tendency to infer that a familiar opinion is a prevalent one, even when its familiarity derives solely from the repeated expression of 1 group member. Six experiments demonstrate this effect and show that it holds even when perceivers are consciously aware tha…
People accounting
Profit maximization versus disadvantageous inequality
Choice behavior researchers (e.g., Bazerman, Loewenstein, & White, 1992) have found that individuals tend to choose a more lucrative but disadvantageously unequal payoff (e.g., self—$600/other—$800) over a less profitable but equal one (e.g., self—$500/other—$500); greater profit trumps interpersonal social comparison concerns in the choice setting. We suggest, however, that self-categorization (e.g., Hogg, 2000) can shift interpersonal social co…
Crowded minds
Five studies merged the priming methodology with the bystander apathy literature and demonstrate how merely priming a social context at Time 1 leads to less helping behavior on a subsequent, completely unrelated task at Time 2. In Study 1, participants who imagined being with a group at Time 1 pledged significantly fewer dollars on a charity-giving measure at Time 2 than did those who imagined being alone with one other person. Studies 2-5 build …
Crowded minds
Five studies merged the priming methodology with the bystander apathy literature and demonstrate how merely priming a social context at Time 1 leads to less helping behavior on a subsequent, completely unrelated task at Time 2. In Study 1, participants who imagined being with a group at Time 1 pledged significantly fewer dollars on a charity-giving measure at Time 2 than did those who imagined being alone with one other person. Studies 2-5 build …
Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity
Despite the importance of doing so, people do not always correctly estimate the distribution of opinions within their group. One important mechanism underlying such misjudgments is people's tendency to infer that a familiar opinion is a prevalent one, even when its familiarity derives solely from the repeated expression of 1 group member. Six experiments demonstrate this effect and show that it holds even when perceivers are consciously aware tha…
Profit maximization versus disadvantageous inequality
Choice behavior researchers (e.g., Bazerman, Loewenstein, & White, 1992) have found that individuals tend to choose a more lucrative but disadvantageously unequal payoff (e.g., self—$600/other—$800) over a less profitable but equal one (e.g., self—$500/other—$500); greater profit trumps interpersonal social comparison concerns in the choice setting. We suggest, however, that self-categorization (e.g., Hogg, 2000) can shift interpersonal social co…
The Presenter's Paradox
This analysis introduces the Presenter's Paradox. Robust findings in impression formation demonstrate that perceivers' judgments show a weighted averaging pattern, which results in less favorable evaluations when mildly favorable information is added to highly favorable information. Across seven studies, we show that presenters do not anticipate this averaging pattern on the part of evaluators and instead design presentations that include all of …
Crowded minds
Five studies merged the priming methodology with the bystander apathy literature and demonstrate how merely priming a social context at Time 1 leads to less helping behavior on a subsequent, completely unrelated task at Time 2. In Study 1, participants who imagined being with a group at Time 1 pledged significantly fewer dollars on a charity-giving measure at Time 2 than did those who imagined being alone with one other person. Studies 2-5 build …
Profit maximization versus disadvantageous inequality
Choice behavior researchers (e.g., Bazerman, Loewenstein, & White, 1992) have found that individuals tend to choose a more lucrative but disadvantageously unequal payoff (e.g., self—$600/other—$800) over a less profitable but equal one (e.g., self—$500/other—$500); greater profit trumps interpersonal social comparison concerns in the choice setting. We suggest, however, that self-categorization (e.g., Hogg, 2000) can shift interpersonal social co…
People accounting
Social Categories and Group Preference Disputes
Six studies explored the hypothesis that third parties are averse to resolving preference disputes with winner-take-all solutions when disputing factions belong to different social categories (e.g. gender, nationality, firms, etc.) versus the same social category. Studies 1—3 showed that third parties' aversion to winner-take-all solutions, even when they are based on the unbiased toss of a coin, is greater when the disputed preferences correlate…
Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity
Despite the importance of doing so, people do not always correctly estimate the distribution of opinions within their group. One important mechanism underlying such misjudgments is people's tendency to infer that a familiar opinion is a prevalent one, even when its familiarity derives solely from the repeated expression of 1 group member. Six experiments demonstrate this effect and show that it holds even when perceivers are consciously aware tha…
Being Unpredictable
Psychological research has devoted much attention to how people judge and predict others. However, a full understanding of social perception necessitates incorporating the responses of the targets, who may have little interest in being predicted. The authors argue that whether people want to be predicted depends on the interpersonal context—in particular, competitive or cooperative ones. Study 1 used a unique behavioral measure and showed that co…
The Presenter's Paradox
This analysis introduces the Presenter's Paradox. Robust findings in impression formation demonstrate that perceivers' judgments show a weighted averaging pattern, which results in less favorable evaluations when mildly favorable information is added to highly favorable information. Across seven studies, we show that presenters do not anticipate this averaging pattern on the part of evaluators and instead design presentations that include all of …
The Psychology of Competition
Social comparison—the tendency to self-evaluate by comparing ourselves to others—is an important source of competitive behavior. We propose a new model that distinguishes between individual and situational factors that increase social comparison and thus lead to a range of competitive attitudes and behavior. Individual factors are those that vary from person to person: the relevance of the performance dimension, the similarity of rivals, and thei…
Frogs, Ponds, and Culture
Would you rather be the big frog in a small pond or the small frog in a big pond? In three studies, we demonstrate that the entry preference depends on culture. Study 1 found a higher big pond preference for East Asian, versus European American, students. Studies 2A and 2B replicated this big pond preference in behavioral intent across educational and organizational settings for Chinese, as compared to United States, working adults. Study 3 demon…
The Status Signals Paradox
Making friends is critical to well-being. We also live in a society where the display of status is ubiquitous and billions of dollars are spent on high-status consumer goods. In the present analysis, we introduce the Status Signals Paradox: When making new friends, people tend to think that displaying high-status markers of themselves (e.g., a BMW, a Tag Heuer watch) will make them more attractive to others than neutral markers (e.g., a Honda, a …
Gender and competitive performance
We examine whether gender gaps in competitive performance are moderated by the size of the competition. We hypothesize that women underperform in large, relative to small, competitions and that smaller competitions close gender performance gaps by enhancing women's performance. Study 1 demonstrates this effect using behavioral data from real marathon competitions. Study 2 experimentally replicates the effect with real behavior. Study 3 provides f…
Identifiability impedes efficiency maximization
This research explores the hypothesis that third‐party decision makers will be less likely to switch from a suboptimal default payoff to a more efficient alternative one when payoff receipts have been identified than when they have not, even when identification conveys no relevant information. While Studies 1 and 2 establish this identifiability effect by manipulating identifiability with real names (“S. Jones” / “R. Smith”) in realistic decision…
The Oxford Handbook of the Psychology of Competition
This volume reviews and organizes the literature on the psychology of competition and brings together leading researchers studying competition across the field of psychology. The volume begins by addressing the question, “What is the Psychology of Competition?” and distinguishes the psychological perspective from that of other disciplines, such as economics or business. The volume then presents a range of psychological approaches to the study of …
Standard-Based Entitlement
The decision to disclose employee compensation has implications for workplace ethics, motivation, and performance. Pay transparency reduces pay disparity, fostering fairness, and ethical equity. Conversely, pay secrecy can maintain disparity but may drive increased effort. This study proposes a theoretical framework—standard-based entitlement—that explains the non-linear effects of pay disclosure. Our theory predicts that people’s compensation re…
N-equality
We examine the equality preferences of resource allocators, finding that a ubiquitous situational factor-the mere number of recipients (N)-shapes the trade-offs these allocators make between their equality concerns and other considerations. Specifically, our studies offer evidence for an N-Equality effect: Third-party allocators become less concerned about inequality as the number of recipients increases. A pilot study illustrates the N-Equality …
From insecurity to inspiration
Who is particularly likely to compare abilities and opinions with their romantic partner, and why? We conducted two studies examining these questions. In Study 1, we examined predictors of ability-based partner comparisons in three samples (N1 = 276, N2 = 279, N3 = 288). Younger people, those with lower self-esteem, and those in shorter and less satisfying relationships were more inclined to compare abilities with their romantic partners. In Stud…
Psychology (10 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (4 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (4 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (4 works)