Rejecting Others' Influence: Negative Sentiment and Status in Task Groups

Sentiment has been shown to affect status processes, but the mechanism is unclear. This article presents evidence in support of one of two competing approaches—sentiments as constituent elements of expectations or sentiments as moderators of expectations—that conceptualize the effect of interpersonal sentiments on status behaviors, as studied within the framework of expectations states theory. I create an experimental design, based on the standard experimental setting developed by expectations states theorists, to adjudicate between these two approaches. Subjects' levels of responsibility for team outcome and sentiment vary between the four experimental conditions, in accordance with the Camilleri and Berger model for decision making. Data reveal support for the “sentiment as moderator” model. I propose further directions for formalizing these findings.