Self-awareness may not always be the helpful trait that it seems.
Self-awareness is generally considered a good thing, something for leaders (and others) to cultivate to improve their confidence, creativity, and ability to communicate. It’s often lauded as fostering empathy, personal growth, and the desire to improve.
But research by University of Pennsylvania’s Kristina Wald and Chicago Booth’s Shereen Chaudhry identifies a notable side effect: The more self-aware you are, the more you may be judged and mistrusted for negative behaviors. In short, if you act like a jerk and don’t realize it, that’s one thing—but if you know you’re doing it, that doesn’t sit well with others.
In a series of six experiments, the researchers examined the impact of self-awareness on trust and perceived intention. In the first experiment, participants were introduced to an imaginary coworker named Taylor who was, depending on the group into which participants were placed, either friendly or not. But the real twist was Taylor’s level of self-awareness: Some participants learned that Taylor had earned a high score on a self-awareness test that everyone in the office had taken, and others learned that Taylor’s score had been low. Most people who were told Taylor was unfriendly but also self-aware believed the rude behavior was intentional, the result of a dismissive attitude toward coworkers.
In a second experiment, participants were paired with a study confederate—someone who pretends to be another participant but is actually in on the rules and told to act a certain way. The confederates acted either engaged or disengaged while listening to the participant tell a personal story, and they had to write down how they thought the storyteller would rate their active listening.
Participants saw these ratings, an indication of self-awareness. When a confederate was disengaged and knew it, participants rated that “partner” as being less trustworthy and having intentionally disregarded the storyteller’s feelings.
Thus, not only can self-awareness amplify others’ judgments, but it can also influence their perceptions about intent, the researchers explain. Someone aware that their actions are perceived negatively is judged more harshly because it seems that they want to be hurtful.
In another experiment, participants were asked to recall past rude behavior by a real coworker. Again, and across all the scenarios studied, the trust participants had in someone was affected by their understanding of the person’s ability to recognize and change their inconsiderate actions: People who were self-aware were considered less trustworthy. But when someone didn’t realize how their behavior affected others, their actions were viewed as less deliberate and therefore less damaging to trust.
Chaudhry points to the 2021 Texas power crisis, when winter storms led to prolonged outages for more than 4.5 million people, as an example of self-awareness as a policy liability. Governor Greg Abbott initially said that a failure of wind and solar power had caused the problems. But public outrage grew when news broke that politicians and regulators had been told of weather-related risks and yet failed to make power operators winterize their facilities.
But the findings have everyday implications too. In the office, an employee who seems to be aware of their own shortcomings may receive a harsher performance review, Chaudhry notes. And in court, judges and jurors consider a defendant’s sincerity, or perceived insincerity.
“In defending their client’s behavior, attorneys may be well-served to consider presenting information about their client’s lack of self-awareness to help bolster their case,” the researchers write. “Likewise, prosecutors, judges, and jury members may wish to consider evidence of self-awareness (as a cue to intent) in determining the severity of the offense and its associated punishment.”
Kristina Wald and Shereen Chaudhry, “Ignorance Can Be Trustworthy: The Effect of Social Self-Awareness on Trust,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, December 2024.
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