Latest Research about the Four Styles of Justification

The Anatomy of Peace explores four common justification styles that people adopt when they go in the box—the justification styles of better-than, I-deserve, worse-than, and need-to-be-seen-as (see chapters 12 and 13). Recent research into these different justification styles, or “carry boxes,” reveals some interesting patterns. You can participate in this research by going to www.arbinger.com and taking Arbinger’s Mindset Styles Assessment (MSA).

The MSA measures how frequently and in what situations people tend to go in the box and assesses this comparatively across different work and home relationships—toward one’s boss, coworkers, subordinates, partner, children, parents, siblings, neighbors, and strangers. It also provides data about one’s most common justification styles when one goes into the box. The following table shows the percentage of people’s in-the-box and out-of-the-box responses for each kind of relationship, as well as the most common justification style in that type of relationship. The relationships are listed in order from those in which people’s responses indicate they are most often in the box to those in which they are least often in the box.

These results are revealing. They indicate that on average, people see and treat their partners or spouses worse than any other group—worse even than they see and treat strangers! In terms of family relationships, the research reveals that people act with hearts at war toward their spouses and partners in 54 percent of the situations surveyed (as compared to in 53 percent of those situations with strangers). This compares to 51 percent of the time toward parents or siblings and just 42 percent of the time toward one’s children.

On the work front, people are most often in the box toward their bosses (45 percent of the situations). Those with people reporting to them indicate that they go into the box toward their subordinates in 36 percent of the situations surveyed. The research indicates that people least often go into the box toward coworkers (34 percent of the situations). Comparing home to work, the scores indicate that people are in the box across all relationships at home in 50 percent of the situations measured. By contrast, people at work operate from within the box in 38 percent of those situations.

Regarding which justification styles are most common in each type of relationship, the better-than box is most common toward coworkers, subordinates, children, parents/siblings, and neighbors/strangers. The I-deserve box is by far the most common justification style toward one’s partner or spouse, and the need-to-be-seen-as box is the most common justification style toward one’s boss. The worse-than box appears to be most active at work toward one’s boss and at home toward one’s spouse or partner.

The MSA measures responses in these various relationships across the situations in the following table. The situations are listed in order from those in which people’s responses indicate they are most often in the box to those in which they are least often in the box.

These responses are interesting. At first blush, it might be surprising that the situation in which people are least likely to respond in an in-the-box way is when they make a mistake. But upon reflection, this makes good sense. Since the box is what prevents one from recognizing or taking responsibility for a mistake in the first place, the recognition that one has made a mistake is a realization that one is most likely to have when one is out of the box. The score for this situation corroborates this.

On the other end of the scale, people more often go into the box when they believe others are making things difficult for them, as the view that others are doing so is often itself a function of the box. People most often go into the box when others are waiting for something from them, which seems an odd situation to be rated worst by such a large margin. But the data is revealing. Those who give in-the-box responses to that question overwhelmingly select the better-than answer (more than 50 percent of the in-the-box responses are better-than responses, by far the highest average for any question on the assessment), with need-to-be-seen-as and worse-than next in frequency. It makes sense that people who might be late delivering something often find justification by thinking that they have had more important things to do, for example.

We invite you to take the Mindset Styles Assessment at www.arbinger.com. Many people who take the assessment say things like, “I wish I’d taken this fifteen years ago. It would have saved me a fortune in therapy fees!” The comparative data and analysis you receive are penetrating and helpful. The assessment will give you indications about your leanings between being in the box and out of the box and what justification styles appear to be most common for you at work, at home, in specific relationships, and in various common situations. Finally, the assessment will give you suggestions about how you might interpret your data and what you might do to improve your efforts to get out of the box.