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Papers by Stephen Harkins

Research paper thumbnail of Self-Evaluation and Creativity

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Lack of evaluation potential leads to the social loafing effect, the finding that participants wo... more Lack of evaluation potential leads to the social loafing effect, the finding that participants working together expend less effort than participants working alone. In 1988 Bartis, Szymanski and Harkins replicated this effect, showing that the lack of potential for evaluation by the experimenter ...

Research paper thumbnail of Social Inhibition of Helping Yourself: Bystander Response to a Cheeseburger

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1977

Research paper thumbnail of The Potency of the Potential for Experimenter and Self-Evaluation in Motivating Vigilance Performance

Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Jun 7, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Race of source effects in the Elaboration Likelihood Model

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dec 1, 1994

In a series of experiments, we investigated the effect of race of source on persuasive communicat... more In a series of experiments, we investigated the effect of race of source on persuasive communications in the Elaboration Likelihood Model (R.E. Petty & J.T. Cacioppo, 1981, 1986). In Experiment 1, we found no evidence that White participants responded to a Black source as a simple negative cue. Experiment 2 suggested the possibility that exposure to a Black source led to low-involvement message processing. In Experiments 3 and 4, a distraction paradigm was used to test this possibility, and it was found that participants under low involvement were highly motivated to process a message presented by a Black source. In Experiment 5, we found that attitudes toward the source's ethnic group, rather than violations of expectancies, accounted for this processing effect. Taken together, the results of these experiments are consistent with S.L. Gaertner and J.F. Dovidio's (1986) theory of aversive racism, which suggests that Whites, because of a combination of egalitarian values and underlying negative racial attitudes, are very concerned about not appearing unfavorable toward Blacks, leading them to be highly motivated to process messages presented by a source from this group.

Research paper thumbnail of Persuasion: Two Views: Smilla's Sense of Persuasion

Research paper thumbnail of Procrustes at work

Research paper thumbnail of The Role of Task Complexity, and Sources and Criteria of Evaluation in Motivating Task Performance

Multiple Perspectives on the Effects of Evaluation on Performance, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Social Context Effects in Persuasion: The Effects of Multiple Sources and Multiple Targets

Basic Group Processes, 1983

Research paper thumbnail of The Three-Variable Model: From Occam’s Razor to the Black Box

Multiple Perspectives on the Effects of Evaluation on Performance, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of The effect of evaluation on performance: Distinguishing mere effort from drive theory

Research paper thumbnail of A Mere Effort Account of the Effect of Stereotype Threat on Task Performance

Research paper thumbnail of Working memory as a mediator of stereotype threat effects

Research paper thumbnail of The Effect of Stereotype Threat on Performance of a Rhythmic Motor Skill

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2015

Many studies using cognitive tasks have found that stereotype threat, or concern about confirming... more Many studies using cognitive tasks have found that stereotype threat, or concern about confirming a negative stereotype about one's group, debilitates performance. The few studies that documented similar effects on sensorimotor performance have used only relatively coarse measures to quantify performance. This study tested the effect of stereotype threat on a rhythmic ball bouncing task, where previous analyses of the task dynamics afforded more detailed quantification of the effect of threat on motor control. In this task, novices hit the ball with positive racket acceleration, indicative of unstable performance. With practice, they learn to stabilize error by changing their ball-racket impact from positive to negative acceleration. Results showed that for novices, stereotype threat potentiated hitting the ball with positive racket acceleration, leading to poorer performance of stigmatized females. However, when the threat manipulation was delivered after having acquired some skill, reflected by negative racket acceleration, the stigmatized females performed better. These findings are consistent with the mere effort account that argues that stereotype threat potentiates the most likely response on the given task. The study also demonstrates the value of identifying the control mechanisms through which stereotype threat has its effects on outcome measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Research paper thumbnail of Anticipated Discussion of Interpretation Eliminates Actor-Observer Differences in the Attribution of Causality

Sociometry, 1977

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact

Research paper thumbnail of The effects of nonconscious and conscious motivation on performance

Research paper thumbnail of Evaluation is necessary to produce stereotype threat performance effects

Social Influence, 2010

In the first direct test of the assumption that an evaluative source is necessary to produce ster... more In the first direct test of the assumption that an evaluative source is necessary to produce stereotype threat effects, we combined a traditional stereotype threat manipulation with a scoring manipulation. Participants in a “pooled” condition believed that their scores would be averaged across gender, whereas in a “segregated” condition participants were led to believe that their scores would be segregated

Research paper thumbnail of Autonomic Differences Between Extraverts and Introverts During Vigilance

Research paper thumbnail of Persuasion: Two Views: Smilla's Sense of Persuasion

Research paper thumbnail of Theory in Social Psychology: A Matter of Taste?

Research paper thumbnail of Group research (broadly construed): Hale and hearty

Research paper thumbnail of Self-Evaluation and Creativity

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Lack of evaluation potential leads to the social loafing effect, the finding that participants wo... more Lack of evaluation potential leads to the social loafing effect, the finding that participants working together expend less effort than participants working alone. In 1988 Bartis, Szymanski and Harkins replicated this effect, showing that the lack of potential for evaluation by the experimenter ...

Research paper thumbnail of Social Inhibition of Helping Yourself: Bystander Response to a Cheeseburger

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1977

Research paper thumbnail of The Potency of the Potential for Experimenter and Self-Evaluation in Motivating Vigilance Performance

Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Jun 7, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Race of source effects in the Elaboration Likelihood Model

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dec 1, 1994

In a series of experiments, we investigated the effect of race of source on persuasive communicat... more In a series of experiments, we investigated the effect of race of source on persuasive communications in the Elaboration Likelihood Model (R.E. Petty & J.T. Cacioppo, 1981, 1986). In Experiment 1, we found no evidence that White participants responded to a Black source as a simple negative cue. Experiment 2 suggested the possibility that exposure to a Black source led to low-involvement message processing. In Experiments 3 and 4, a distraction paradigm was used to test this possibility, and it was found that participants under low involvement were highly motivated to process a message presented by a Black source. In Experiment 5, we found that attitudes toward the source's ethnic group, rather than violations of expectancies, accounted for this processing effect. Taken together, the results of these experiments are consistent with S.L. Gaertner and J.F. Dovidio's (1986) theory of aversive racism, which suggests that Whites, because of a combination of egalitarian values and underlying negative racial attitudes, are very concerned about not appearing unfavorable toward Blacks, leading them to be highly motivated to process messages presented by a source from this group.

Research paper thumbnail of Persuasion: Two Views: Smilla's Sense of Persuasion

Research paper thumbnail of Procrustes at work

Research paper thumbnail of The Role of Task Complexity, and Sources and Criteria of Evaluation in Motivating Task Performance

Multiple Perspectives on the Effects of Evaluation on Performance, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Social Context Effects in Persuasion: The Effects of Multiple Sources and Multiple Targets

Basic Group Processes, 1983

Research paper thumbnail of The Three-Variable Model: From Occam’s Razor to the Black Box

Multiple Perspectives on the Effects of Evaluation on Performance, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of The effect of evaluation on performance: Distinguishing mere effort from drive theory

Research paper thumbnail of A Mere Effort Account of the Effect of Stereotype Threat on Task Performance

Research paper thumbnail of Working memory as a mediator of stereotype threat effects

Research paper thumbnail of The Effect of Stereotype Threat on Performance of a Rhythmic Motor Skill

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2015

Many studies using cognitive tasks have found that stereotype threat, or concern about confirming... more Many studies using cognitive tasks have found that stereotype threat, or concern about confirming a negative stereotype about one's group, debilitates performance. The few studies that documented similar effects on sensorimotor performance have used only relatively coarse measures to quantify performance. This study tested the effect of stereotype threat on a rhythmic ball bouncing task, where previous analyses of the task dynamics afforded more detailed quantification of the effect of threat on motor control. In this task, novices hit the ball with positive racket acceleration, indicative of unstable performance. With practice, they learn to stabilize error by changing their ball-racket impact from positive to negative acceleration. Results showed that for novices, stereotype threat potentiated hitting the ball with positive racket acceleration, leading to poorer performance of stigmatized females. However, when the threat manipulation was delivered after having acquired some skill, reflected by negative racket acceleration, the stigmatized females performed better. These findings are consistent with the mere effort account that argues that stereotype threat potentiates the most likely response on the given task. The study also demonstrates the value of identifying the control mechanisms through which stereotype threat has its effects on outcome measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Research paper thumbnail of Anticipated Discussion of Interpretation Eliminates Actor-Observer Differences in the Attribution of Causality

Sociometry, 1977

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact

Research paper thumbnail of The effects of nonconscious and conscious motivation on performance

Research paper thumbnail of Evaluation is necessary to produce stereotype threat performance effects

Social Influence, 2010

In the first direct test of the assumption that an evaluative source is necessary to produce ster... more In the first direct test of the assumption that an evaluative source is necessary to produce stereotype threat effects, we combined a traditional stereotype threat manipulation with a scoring manipulation. Participants in a “pooled” condition believed that their scores would be averaged across gender, whereas in a “segregated” condition participants were led to believe that their scores would be segregated

Research paper thumbnail of Autonomic Differences Between Extraverts and Introverts During Vigilance

Research paper thumbnail of Persuasion: Two Views: Smilla's Sense of Persuasion

Research paper thumbnail of Theory in Social Psychology: A Matter of Taste?

Research paper thumbnail of Group research (broadly construed): Hale and hearty