特立獨行中釋放的成功訊息

特立獨行中釋放的成功訊息

Anyone who has felt like the odd duck of the group can take heart from new research from Harvard Business School that says sticking out in distinct ways can lend you an air of presence or influence.

Standing out in certain circumstances, like wearing sweats in a luxury store, also appears to boost an individual's standing.

One obvious way people signal what the researchers called 'status' is through visible markers, like what they wear and what they buy. Previous research has largely examined why people buy or wear branded items.

Less work has focused on what others think of those who try to communicate that they are different or worthy of attention. Efforts to be different are interesting because humans are wired to conform and be part of a group.

In a series of studies published in the Journal of Consumer Research in February, Silvia Bellezza, a doctoral student, and two Harvard professors sought to examine what observers thought of individuals who deviated from the norm in the workplace and in a retail setting. Some of the work was conducted in the lab on students. Other studies took place in the community and involved passersby or attendees of a seminar. Most of the studies included about 150 participants. What they found was that being a little different can socially benefit people -- in some situations.

'The problem is that conforming to norms is an easy and safe spot to be in,' Ms. Bellezza said. 'If you're willing to deviate, there are upsides.' It's also long been known that people veer from what's expected after they've built up enough trust within a group. But, she says, acting differently risks losing the benefits that come with conforming, such as shared group identity and automatic group trust.

In their first study, they asked shop assistants and pedestrians in Milan to rate what they thought of people who walked into luxury stores wearing gym clothes. The subjects also rated those who wore outfits typically considered more appropriate, like a dress and fur coat.

Pedestrians were more likely to think that a well-dressed individual was more likely to have the money to buy something in the store. Shop assistants thought the opposite. Those more familiar with the luxury retail environment were more likely to assume that a gym-clothes-wearing client was confident enough to not need to dress up more, and therefore more apt to be a celebrity making a purchase than someone wrapped in fur.

The same pattern emerged in subsequent studies conducted in other settings: Students afforded more respect to a fictitious bearded professor who wore a T-shirt than to a clean-shaven one who wore a tie. Candidates entering a business-plan competition who chose to use their own PowerPoint presentation background were tabbed more likely to win than those who used the standard background.

There are boundaries to the benefits of looking different, the Harvard work showed. If an individual was viewed as accidentally out of sync with everyone else, such as mistakenly wearing a red bow tie rather than black at a formal event, that erased positive feelings about him among those surveyed. Those opinions only improved when the survey group believed their contrarian acted differently on purpose.

'In order to think that the person's a big shot, you have to understand that the person is willingly engaging in this nonconforming conduct,' Ms. Bellezza says.

In addition, the environment must give cues that suggest a person's talent or wealth. Standing in the front of the classroom or walking confidently into a luxury store already imply some level of belonging. But when an observer didn't know whether the person they view is part of the group, eccentric dress was seen as a negative, according to the researchers.

People who tend toward the offbeat themselves show extra fondness for freethinking behavior in others. Francesca Gino, an associate business administration professor at Harvard Business School and an author on the paper, decided to test the theory outside the lab as well. She wore red Converse sneakers to teach a one-day event on small business management education. Dr. Gino found that those who identified themselves on a questionnaire as having a higher need to be unique were more likely to give her higher ratings than those who didn't.

'They inferred, 'She's so autonomous, she must do whatever she wants,' ' Ms. Bellezza says.

There are times when communicating high rank and competence becomes more important, such as during a shake-up in management at work. Signaling one's place in a group reduces uncertainty, but sometimes the goal may be to fit into the group, and sometimes to signal that one is a high-status person in the group, says David Dubois, a marketing professor at Insead in France and Singapore.

Willingness to deviate can be useful for groups as well, particularly when it comes to decision-making, says Charles Pavitt, a University of Delaware communications professor who studies social influence.

The person who brings up alternative points of view to make sure the group has sufficiently examined all options can help the group reach a better decision. If the group trusts the individual's intentions, this perspective will be considered seriously and the individual will still be considered part of the group, he says.

Perhaps the best strategy for preserving your place in the group while presenting offbeat ideas is to state explicitly that you are playing devil's advocate, Dr. Pavitt says.

Marshall Scott Poole, a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, cautions that while groups tend initially to make an evaluation of status based on external characteristics, over time people focus less on those characteristics and more on behavior.

Dr. Poole's best practical advice: 'Don't talk a lot if you have high status. People will assume you're competent and when you talk, they will listen to you.'

哈佛商學院(Harvard Business School)一項新的研究能讓感覺自己很像人群中“另類”的人為之一振。這項研究稱，堅持走與眾不同的道路能賦予你一種存在感或影響力。

在某些場合特立獨行，比如身穿運動衣走進一家奢侈品店似乎也能抬高一個人的身份。

人們往往通過一些看得見的標識來顯示研究人員所說的“地位”，比如穿什么樣的衣服和買什么樣的東西。之前的研究主要考察人們?yōu)槭裁匆徺I或穿著名牌。

但他人是如何看待那些試圖顯示自己與眾不同或值得關注的人呢?這方面的研究還比較少。這些追求與眾不同的人是很有意思的，因為人的天性是循規(guī)蹈矩和與其他人打成一片。

博士生西爾維婭·貝萊扎(Silvia Bellezza)及哈佛大學的兩名教授2月份在《消費者研究雜志》(Journal of Consumer Research)上發(fā)表了一系列研究的論文，在這些研究中，他們試圖考察觀察者如何看待在工作場所和零售店環(huán)境中不守定規(guī)的個人。一些研究是在實驗室里針對學生進行的。還有一些研究則是在社區(qū)環(huán)境中進行的，研究對象包括過路人和一個研討會的參加者。這些研究的參加人數(shù)大多在150名左右。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在某些情況下，略顯與眾不同能讓人在社會交往中獲益。

貝萊扎說：“問題在于，遵守定規(guī)是一種簡單而安全的做法。但如果你愿意特立獨行，也是有好處的。”另外我們早就知道，人們在某個群體中贏得充分信任之后會變得隨意一些。但她表示，特立獨行也有一定風險，會讓人無法享受遵守定規(guī)帶來的好處，比如群體認同和群體成員自然而然的信任。

在第一項研究中，研究人員在米蘭讓店員和路人對身穿運動衣走進奢侈品店的人進行評價。受訪者還對那些以一般標準衡量著裝更得體的人(比如身著禮服和皮草大衣)進行了評價。

路人傾向于認為衣著考究的人買得起奢侈品的可能性更大。而店員的看法則恰恰相反。對奢侈品零售環(huán)境更加熟悉的人往往認為穿運動衣的客人擁有充足的信心，而無需靠穿著來裝點門面，因此，與身裹皮草的人相比，他們更有可能是一擲千金的名流。

在其他環(huán)境中進行的后續(xù)研究也呈現(xiàn)出相同模式：學生更尊敬虛擬圖片中身穿T恤衫、胡子拉碴的教授，而不是胡子刮得干干 、打著領帶的教授。在商業(yè)計劃大賽中，選擇使用自己的PowerPoint幻燈片背景的參賽選手被認為比使用標準背景的選手更有希望勝出。

但研究也顯示，與眾不同能否帶來好處也要視情況而定。如果一個人被認為是無意中違反了定規(guī)(比如在正式場合錯誤地佩戴了紅領結而不是黑領結)，那么受訪者對這個人的正面印象就會蕩然無存。只有在受訪者認為這些叛逆者的行為是有意而為之時，正面印象才會增強。

貝萊扎說：“要把某個人視為重要人物，你必須要認為這個人是有意突破常規(guī)的。”

此外，環(huán)境必須能暗示一個人的才能或財富。站在教室前方或者信心十足地踏進奢侈品店已經(jīng)暗示出某種身份。但研究人員表示，當人們不了解他們的觀察對象是否是特定群體的一員時，古怪的穿著就會給人留下負面印象。

不走尋常路的人也會對其他人突破常規(guī)的行為青眼相待。哈佛商學院工商管理學副教授、研究論文作者之一弗朗西斯卡·吉諾(Francesca Gino)決定在實驗室之外也對該理論進行一番檢驗。

她腳蹬一雙紅色匡威(Converse)運動鞋在一個為期一天的小企業(yè)管理教育活動上講課。吉諾博士發(fā)現(xiàn)，在問卷調(diào)查中自認為更追求與眾不同的人往往比其他人給她的評價更高。

貝萊扎說：“他們據(jù)此推斷：‘她很有主見，她肯定會按照自己的想法來行事。’”

有時候，彰顯自己的地位和能力會有特殊意義，比如在職場管理層變動時。在法國和新加坡設有分校的歐洲工商管理學院(Insead)的市場營銷學教授戴維·杜布瓦(David Dubois)稱，顯示一個人在群體中的地位會減少不確定感，但也要具體問題具體對待，有時候目標也許是融入這個群體，有時則是要顯示這個人在該群體中擁有較高地位。

特拉華大學(University of Delaware)研究社會影響問題的傳播學教授查爾斯·帕維特(Charles Pavitt)表示，特立獨行的意愿對群體來說也是很有用的，尤其是在決策方面。

如果有人能提出不同意見，以確保群體充分考察所有觀點，那么這個人就能幫助該群體做出更好的決策。他說，如果一個群體相信唱反調(diào)的人出發(fā)點是好的，那么相關意見就會得到認真考慮，而這個人則仍能被群體接納。

帕維特博士說，要想在提出異議的同時保持你在群體中的位置，最佳策略也許是明確指出你是有意提出不同意見的。

伊利諾伊大學厄巴納-香檳分校(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)的傳播學教授馬歇爾·斯科特·普爾(Marshall Scott Poole)警告稱，雖然群體最初往往根據(jù)外在特征來衡量一個人的地位，但慢慢地，關注點會由這些外在特征轉(zhuǎn)向人的行為。

普爾博士建議最好這樣做：“如果你身居高位，不要多說話。人們會認為你很有能力，你一旦開口，他們就會聽你的。”