Research

Do people recognize the influence they have over others? When are people most influential? Why is it so hard to say 'no' to a request? Representative projects:

• Schlund, R., Sommers, R., & Bohns, V. K. (2024). Giving people the words to say no leads them to feel freer to say yes. Scientific Reports.
• Roghanizad, M. M., & Bohns, V. K. (2022). Should I ask over Zoom, phone, email, or in-person? Communication channel and predicted versus actual compliance. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
• Bohns, V. K. (2022). Toward a psychology of consent. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
• Lee, A. J., Mason, M. F., & Malcomb, C. S. (2021). Beyond cheap talk accounts: A theory of politeness in negotiations. Research in Organizational Behavior.
• Boothby, E. J., & Bohns, V. K. (2021). Why a Simple Act of Kindness Is Not as Simple as It Seems: Underestimating the Positive Impact of Our Compliments on Others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Anicich, E. M., Lee, A. J., & Liu, S. (2021). Thanks, but No Thanks: Unpacking the Relationship between Power and Gratitude. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Lee, A. J., Loschelder, D. D., Schweinsberg, M., Mason, M. F., & Galinsky, A. D. (2018). Too precise to pursue: How precise first offers create barriers-to-entry in negotiations and markets. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
• Lee, A. J., & Ames, D. R. (2017). “I can’t pay more” versus “It’s not worth more”: Divergent effects of constraint and disparagement rationales in negotiations. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
• Bohns, V. K. (2016). (Mis)understanding our influence over others: A review of the underestimation-of-compliance effect. Current Directions in Psychological Science.

How do people's belief systems influence their attitudes toward others, judgments, and behaviors? Representative projects:

• Zitek, E. M., & Schlund, R. J. (2021). Psychological entitlement predicts noncompliance with the health guidelines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Personality and individual differences.
• Zitek, E. M., & Phillips, L. T. (2020). Ease and control: the cognitive benefits of hierarchy. Current opinion in psychology.
• Lucas, B. J., & Kteily, N. S. (2018). (Anti-)egalitarianism differentially predicts empathy for members of advantaged versus disadvantaged groups. Journal of personality and social psychology.

How and when do people generate their most creative ideas? How are creators and their ideas evaluated by others? Representative projects: 

• Kim., S., Lucas, B.J., & Goncalo, J. (2023). Low power warm-up effect: Understanding the effect of power on creativity over time. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 
• Lucas, B. J. & Mai, K. M. (2022). Illumination and elbow grease: A theory of how mental models of the creative process influence creativity. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 168, 104107.
• Lucas, B. J. & Nordgren, L. F. (2022). Lay people’s beliefs about creativity: evidence for an insight bias. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26, 6-7.
• Lucas, B. J. & Nordgren, L F. (2020). The creative cliff illusion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, 19830-19836.
• Proudfoot, D. & Fath, S. (2020). Signaling creative genius: How perceived social connectedness influences judgments of creative potential. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 
• Kay, Min B., Devon Proudfoot, and Richard P. Larrick (2018). There’s no team in I: How observers perceive individual creativity in a team setting. Journal of Applied Psychology. 
• Carton, A. M., & Lucas, B. J. (2018). How can leaders overcome the blurry vision bias? Identifying an antidote to the paradox of vision communication. Academy of Management Journal.

How do people think about right and wrong, moral values, and ethical dilemmas? How do these things influence judgments of others and of organizations? Representative projects:

• Berry, Z. & Lucas, B.J. (2024). How much is enough? The relationship between prosocial effort and moral character judgments. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Berry, Z., & Hildreth, J. A. D. (2024). When your friend is my friend: How loyalty prompts support for indirect ties in moral dilemmas. Organization Science.
• Zitek, E. M., Giurge, L., & Smith, I. (2023). Recognizing and correcting positive bias: The salient victim effect. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 
• Berry, Z., Lewis Jr., N.A., & Sowden, W.J. (2021). The Double-Edged Sword of Loyalty. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 
• Sah, S., & Feiler, D. (2020). Conflict of interest disclosure with high-quality advice: The disclosure penalty and the altruistic signal. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law.
• Tang, S., Koval, C.Z., Larrick, R.P. & Harris, L.H. (2020). The Morality of Organization vs. Organized Members: Organizations are Attributed More Control and Responsibility for Negative Outcomes than are Equivalent Members. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
• Rose, S. L., Sah, S., Dweik, R., Schmidt, C., Mercer, M., Mitchum, A., ... & Robertson, C. (2019). Patient responses to physician disclosures of industry conflicts of interest: A randomized field experiment. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
• Sah, S., Loewenstein, G., & Cain, D. (2019). Insinuation anxiety: Concern that advice rejection will signal distrust after conflict of interest disclosures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Hildreth, J.A.D. & Anderson, C. (2018) Does loyalty trump honesty? Moral judgments of loyalty driven deceit. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

How do power, status, and societal hierarchies influence beliefs, judgments, and workplace behaviors? Representative projects: 

• Townsend, C. H., Mishra, S., Kray, L. J. (2024). Not all powerful people are created equal: An examination of gender and pathways to social hierarchy through the lens of social cognition. Psychological Science.
• Matusik, J. G., Mitchell, R. L., Hays, N. A., Fath, S., & Hollenbeck, J. R. (2022). The highs and lows of hierarchy in multiteam systems. Academy of Management Journal.
• Anderson, C., Hildreth, J. A. D., & Sharps, D. L. (2020). The possession of high status strengthens the status motive. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Bohns, V. K. & Newark, D. A. (2019). Power and perceived influence: I caused your behavior, but I’m not responsible for it. Social and Personality Psychology Compass.

How do organizations promote a diverse workforce, equitable outcomes, and inclusive cultures? Representative projects: 

• Ponce de Leon, R., Carter, J. T., Rosette, A. (2024). Sincere solidarity or performative pretense? Evaluations of organizational leadership. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
• Fath, S., Proudfoot, D. (2024). Devaluation by omission: Limited identity options elicit anger and increase identification. Psychological Science.
• Proudfoot, D., Berry, Z., Chang, E. H., & Kay, M. B. (2024). The diversity heuristic: How team demographic composition influences judgments of team creativity. Management Science.
• King, D. D., Hall, A. V., Johnson, L., Carter, J., Burrows, D., & Samuel, N. (2023). Research on anti-Black racism in organizations: Insights, ideas, and considerations. Journal of Business and Psychology.
• Fath, S., Ma, A., & Rosette, A. S. (2022). Self-views of disadvantage and success impact perceptions of privilege among White men. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
• Portocarrero, S., & Carter, J. T. (2022). “But the fellows are simply diversity hires!” How organizational contexts influence status beliefs. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences.
• Portocarrero, S., & Carter, J. T. (2022). Diversity initiatives in the US workplace: A brief history, their intended and unintended consequences. Sociology Compass. 
• Fath, S., Larrick, R. P., Soll, J. B., & Zhu, S. (2021). Why putting on blinders can help us see more clearly. MIT Sloan Management Review.
• Hall, E. V., Townsend, S. S. M., & Carter, J. T. (2021). What’s in a name? The hidden historical ideologies embedded in the Black and African-American racial labels. Psychological Science.
• Graber, J., & Zitek, E. M. (2021). Reducing criminal record discrimination through banning the box: the importance of timing and explanation in the reveal of a drug conviction. Psychology, Crime & Law.
• Lucas, B. J., Berry, Z., Giurge, L. M., & Chugh, D. (2021). A longer shortlist increases the consideration of female candidates in male-dominant domains. Nature: Human Behaviour.