PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

How does knowing another team member is cognitively impaired or enhanced affect people’s motivation to contribute to the team’s performance? Building on the Effects of Grouping on Impairments and Enhancements (GIE) framework, we conducted two between-subjects experiments (total N=2,352) with participants from a representative, nationwide sample of the German working population. We found that both another group member’s impairment (due to sleep deprivation) and enhancement (due to taking enhancement drugs) lowered participants’ intention to contribute to the team’s performance. These effects were mediated by lowered perceived competence (enhancement and impairment) and warmth (only enhancement) of the other group member. The other group member´s reason for being impaired or enhanced (altruistic vs. egoistic reasons) only moderated the mediation between impairment and warmth on intended effort. Our results illustrate that people’s work motivation is influenced by the psychophysiological states of other group members. Hence, enhancement of one group member can have the paradoxical effect of impairing the work performance of another.