Maximizing Social Reward: Positive Verbal Reinforcement Shapes Confirmation of Interpersonal Expectations

Abstract

Why might inaccurate stereotypes persist over time? One of the most puzzling consequences of stereotyping is their internalization by targets in a way that places constraints on individuals' future development and outcomes. Although previous work has hinted at a reward mechanism underlying perceivers' motivations to find or elicit evidence that confirms their own prior expectancies (Reggev et al., 2020), little work has explicitly examined why targets may confirm or internalize other people's expectations. Two behavioral studies tested whether social reward, in the form of positive verbal reinforcement, may motivate targets to confirm interpersonal expectations of warmth and competence (expressed through leading questions) both behaviorally and internally through self-concept change. The first study used pre-written experimenter comments to simulate the experience of a social interaction, while the second included a live- chat design. Although self-presentation motivations did not change significantly with social reward manipulations, competence self-concept increased after receiving social reinforcements on answers to competence leading questions, and participants who received social reward rated that their answers described them significantly more compared to those who did not. These findings suggest that social reward can drive changes in self-concept, especially in the competence domain. In view of neuroscientific research suggesting that the human brain processes social reward similarly to nonsocial reward (Levy & Glimcher, 2009), the confirmation of interpersonal expectations may represent the result of rational learning to maximize reward and minimize punishment. Finally, agent-based modeling illustrated how interpersonal confirmatory dynamics could have large-scale consequences in stereotype formation and maintenance.