It's the content of the feedback that matters, not the person giving it: An experimental study on change of negative performance expectations

Previous research on biased expectation change has mainly focused on the mechanisms underlying the deficient processing of novel positive information at the individual level. Yet, it is less clear whether also characteristics of the person who provides new learning experiences influence the modification of negative expectations. To approach this question, we tested whether the perceived warmth and competence of a person who provides positive performance feedback influences the extent to which performance expectations change. Participants from a non-clinical sample (N = 146) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions which manipulated the experimenter's interpersonal behaviour in terms of warmth and competence: augmented, limited, control group (minimal physical contact). All participants received the same positive feedback for their performance in an emotion recognition test. Warmth and competence were successfully manipulated, with large effects, but this did not lead to differences in expectation change. Instead, positive post-feedback expectations were associated with low cognitive immunisation and high perceived cognitive value of the feedback across groups. The findings suggest that changing negative performance expectations through positive feedback is possible and mainly depends on the perception of the content of the feedback, while characteristics of the feedback-providing person are less relevant.