- When assessing someone else, warmth plays a more important role than competence.
- When assessing ourselves, we believe that competence (the capability of someone to carry out intentions) is more important.
- Without knowing, we often assume that there is a “trade off” between warmth and competence in a person. These two dimensions help us understand how we think about and act toward others. We admire warm/competent people, envy (and sometimes scapegoat) those who are cold and competent, pity those who are perceived as warm and incompetent, and have contempt for the cold and incompetent.
Source: Harvard Business School
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