Backhanded Compliments: Implicit Social Comparison Undermines Flattery
Backhanded compliments are seeming praise that draws an implicit unfavorable social comparison: your ideas were good for an intern. Five experiments show that although flatterers deploy backhanded compliments to garner liking while also conveying superior social status, recipients view backhanded compliments as strategic put-downs and penalize would-be flatterers.
Citation:
Ovul Sezer, Alison Wood Brooks, and Michael Norton (2016) ,"Backhanded Compliments: Implicit Social Comparison Undermines Flattery", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 44, eds. Page Moreau, Stefano Puntoni, and , Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 201-206.
Authors
Ovul Sezer, Harvard Business School, USA
Alison Wood Brooks, Harvard Business School, USA
Michael Norton, Harvard Business School, USA
Volume
NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 44 | 2016
Share Proceeding
Featured papers
See MoreFeatured
I8. How Food Images on Social Media Influence Online Reactions
Annika Abell, University of South Florida, USA
Dipayan Biswas, University of South Florida, USA
Featured
A1. Trusting and Acting on Chance Online
Shivaun Anderberg, University of Sydney, Australia
Ellen Garbarino, University of Sydney, Australia
Featured
Analyzing the Perception of experiential luxury consumption of millennials on instagram: A new methodological approach
Marina Leban, ESCP Europe, France
Matthias Plennert, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg