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Category: Data

Description: To ensure the validity of the experimental manipulation, we conducted a pilot study containing only the email vignettes and the manipulation check items. We separated this study from the main experiment in acknowledgement of the recent discussion concerning a manipulation check in itself being an intervention that potentially influences participants' subsequent behaviors in an experimental task (e.g., Bless & Burger, 2016; Fayant, Sigall, Lemonnier, Retsin, & Alexopoulos, 2017). Participants read the emails from the supervisor and were able to respond via email (e.g., “You can write an email to shortly discuss the task with your supervisor J.P.”). We included this interactive element to make the task more immersive and also to serve as an implicit measure to capture participants' task engagement. After reading the supervisor emails, participants rated the extent to which they perceived opening and closing behavior during the experiment (“To which extent did the supervisor (J.P.) from this task mention or show the following aspects in his/her email?”).