r/technology • u/Choobeen • 2d ago

Society Research shows the 'compliment sandwich' is no longer effective - University of Western Ontario

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-compliment-sandwich-longer-effective.html
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u/rostron92 2d ago

Going to college for graphic design, we all would critique each other's work, and one of the requirements was to come up with at least one nice thing to say. And it was always the least helpful or least genuine thing said during a critique.

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u/cez801 2d ago

Least helpful is probably true.

Least geniue is probably not ( I am pretty sure that someone looking at your design did not hate everything about it - meaning that the nice thing would have most likely been true ).

I am not a designer, but did do software product management for a while. I used frame it with users as ‘while compliments are nice, things you don’t like are something I can do something about. So I’d prefer to hear about the annoying parts of the software’

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u/rollingForInitiative 2d ago

Also depends a bit on the context. If I get code reviews at work I don’t need my coworkers to give me mandatory compliments just because.

If I am coaching a junior dev I’ll make sure to let them know what they’re doing well, since it’s nice to get some positive feedback when you’re new, and you don’t want to feel like you’re doing all things wrong.

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u/gyroda 2d ago

Similarly, when I'm working with a junior, I will be very deliberate in owning my mistakes. Sometimes I leave a comment and it turns out I'm wrong - gotta make it clear that I'm far from infallible and they can and should call me out when I'm wrong.

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u/rollingForInitiative 2d ago

Oh yeah. It probably helps a junior to see all the senior devs criticising each other back and forth all the time, while still being perfectly nice and friendly with each other.