Stacey @drstaceyf is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Zicklin College of Business, Baruch College, City University New York. She received her PhD and MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business in 2011. Broadly speaking, she conducts research on consumer welfare. In one line of work, she focuses on processes related to self-regulation – how individuals prioritize short-term goals (e.g., eating tasty food; wasting resources) and long-term goals (e.g., eating healthy; conserving resources). For instance, she has explored when healthy food labels make people hungry (1), when negative feedback is motivating as a function of expertise (2), and how relationship depth impacts the provision of negative feedback (3). She has also explored how risk attitudes impact medical appointment scheduling behavior (4) and the impact of choice architecture on consumer’s savings, organ donation, eating, and shopping decisions (5), (6). She is currently on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing.

Note from the Learning Scientists: We previously published a post about a large literature review on feedback. We now continue the conversation with a post about two common myths related to feedback - and the evidence against them.

Myth 1: People don’t want to receive negative feedback

Whenever I discuss my research on feedback with strangers, I ask for their beliefs about feedback. For the most part, these beliefs converge on one core idea: that people don’t like negative feedback. It’s not pleasant to hear and it’s not fun to give. I typically hear others say if you have to give negative feedback, sandwich it between two pieces of positive feedback (the ubiquitous “Sandwich Model.”). Indeed, many popular press articles in the business and teaching domains espouse this belief. While the belief in supremacy of positive feedback is well-intentioned, but I’ve now conducted more than 30 experiments on feedback, and this belief is false. Here’s why:

Motivation Matters:

The “Sandwich Model” assumes that people always want to feel good and maintain a sense of positive self-esteem. This assumption leads to the idea that people should ask for positive feedback from others, and that we should give positive feedback to someone when they ask for it. Yet, we find that there is another important motive that people have when seeking and giving feedback: self-improvement (2), (7), (8). In fact, when engaging with feedback, the self-improvement motive often dominates the self-esteem (feeling good) motive. If people genuinely want to do better and you aren’t telling them when they make a mistake, they can’t improve.

The Meaning of Feedback Varies Over Time

Our work suggests that positive feedback signals commitment, i.e., that goal pursuit is fun and valuable, or that one can attain their goals. In contrast, negative feedback signals lack of effort (9). It informs people of where they need to spend their time in the future and offers insight into how people can improve (2), (7). Notably, our focus is on constructive feedback. If you simply tell a student they are bad at something, they will likely be discouraged and de-motivated. However, if negative feedback is constructive, these negative emotional experiences are likely to be mitigated. Importantly, positive feedback should also be constructive. It should point out in what areas someone is performing well and what behaviors they should continue to perform in the future. All too often, positive feedback is filled with empty praise.