A recent study report published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science reveals that people who are entitled are less likely to follow instructions than less entitled ones. As per the study report, people who are entitled consider instructions as an unfair imposition on them, and this is the reason why they do not comply.
This is not the first time that scientists have revealed startling things about entitled people. Earlier, study reports have found that individuals with a higher sense of entitlement are more likely to believe they deserve preferences when compared to other people living around them. These people usually will be less concerned about things which are socially acceptable, and they always love to follow their own path; no matter it is positive or negative.
"The fact that there are a lot of complaints these days about having to deal with entitled students and entitled employees. We thought that everyone would follow instructions when we told people that they would definitely get punished for not doing so, but entitled individuals still were less likely to follow instructions than less entitled individuals," said Emily Zitek of Cornell University, the lead author of the study.
During the research, Zitek and his fellow author Alexander Jordan of Harvard Medical School provided a set of scenarios to handpicked entitled people to find out why they ignore instructions. After the research, Zitek and Jordan found that it is very much hard to get entitled people to follow instructions in any scenarios.
The lead author also added that people who are handling entitled people should try to frame instructions in such a way that it will convince them in the most positive manner. The researchers made it clear that the proposed instructions for entitled people should be crafted in a more fairer and legitimate way for maximum effectiveness.
"A challenge for managers, professors, and anyone else who needs to get people with a sense of entitlement to follow instructions is to think about how to frame the instructions to make them seem fairer or more legitimate," concluded Zitek.
