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This is an experimental study that investigates the relationship between Asian American backgrounds and worker mechanistic dehumanization, and its associated workplace outcomes. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of four conditions, in which they will be asked to read about a worker doing repetitive tasks that is from one of four backgrounds: East Asian American, South Asian American, Southeast Asian American, and White American. Participants will be asked to rate the extent to which they would mechanistically dehumanize the target (i.e., seeing them as robots/machines) at work, and their respective workplace perceptions/outcomes (e.g., leadership potential perceptions, exploitative treatment, workplace friendships). We are interested in seeing whether those from Asian American backgrounds are more mechanistically dehumanized, and whether that predicts worse workplace outcomes.

This project is interested in robotic-dehumanization as it relates to perceptions of self-control in others.

This project is interested in robotic-dehumanization as it relates to perceptions of self-control in others.

An experimental induction of wise reasoning writing exercise will be tested for its effect on feelings toward outgroup vs ingroup

Creativity predicts extensive benefits across life domains (e.g., good problem-solving, high job performance). To boost creativity is critical, yet more research is needed to understand ways to help people think creatively. Past creativity research focused mainly on shaping people’s goals (e.g., travel more, learn new knowledge) to increase creativity. The current research takes a novel angle and argues that the way people structure the relations among their extant goals—in a network, hierarchical, vs. sequential model—also matters. Specifically, we predicted that when participants structure their goals in a network (vs. hierarchy or sequence), this reveals multiple and non-obvious goal relations, increasing creative performance on an unrelated task.

Colorblind and multicultural policies are the most widely adopted diversity practices. Although researchers and practitioners have traditionally favored multiculturalism over colorblindness, recent social and political discourses have revealed more polarized stances. The current study provides insights into these discourses. We argue that the promotion of multiculturalism (vs. colorblindness) can backfire, depending on individuals' essentialist beliefs.

Past studies suggest that self-report wise reasoning is associated with less cognitive bias (Brienza, Kung et al., 2017). This study incorporated wise reasoning training in an undergraduate course to test whether wise reasoning training (vs. control: no training) causes students to have less biased judgement in a social issue outside of the classroom

Colorblind and multicultural policies are the most widely adopted diversity practices. Although researchers and practitioners have traditionally favored multiculturalism over colorblindness, recent social and political discourses have revealed more polarized stances. The current study provides insights into these discourses. We argue that the promotion of multiculturalism (vs. colorblindness) can backfire, depending on individuals' essentialist beliefs.

Our past studies have shown that people typically form one of the three major models to organize the relations of their goals (i.e., hierarchical, network, and sequential). This study aims to explore what individual differences can predict the use of one particular goal model (of the three). Specifically, we predict that people's regulatory mode may play a role. Having a locomotion mode increases people's preference for straightforward goal pathway (i.e., unifinal means), whereas having an assessment mode increases people's preference for evaluating multiple goal pathways (i.e., multifinal means) (Orehek et al., 2012). Therefore, in this study that manipulates regulatory mode, we predicted that participants in the locomotion mode condition would be more likely to visualize their goals in a sequence; those in the assessment mode condition would be more likely to visualize their goals in a network.

An experimental induction of wise reasoning writing exercise will be tested for its effect on feelings toward outgroup (e.g., Chinese) vs ingroup (e.g., White/Caucasians)

Our past research identified that people mainly use three distinct structures to organize their goals (i.e. hierarchical, network, and sequential), and they have critical implications for self-regulation. As an extension of the work, we conduct this study to examine the goal models’ implications for goal conflict experience. We designed this study to test how goal models impact work-family conflict experience among full-time employees, who are married and living with their spouse.

This overall project investigates potential underlying reasons, such as mechanistic dehumanization, to explain why Asian American workers in the U.S. are associated with positive stereotypes (e.g., model minority myth), yet experience negative workplace outcomes (e.g., lack of leadership representation). In this survey study, participants will be asked to report the extent to which they dehumanize various social groups in the US, by indicating the extent to which they believe certain metaphors (e.g., robot, machine, animal) are descriptive of the group and of themselves. We are interested in seeing whether people tend to robotically dehumanize Asian Americans more than other groups.

Our past research identified that people mainly use three distinct structures to organize their goals (i.e. hierarchical, network, and sequential), and they have critical implications for self-regulation. As an extension of the work, we conduct this study to examine the goal models’ implications for goal conflict experience. We designed this study to test how goal models impact work-family conflict experience among full-time employees, who are married and living with their spouse.

Colorblind and multicultural policies are the most widely adopted diversity practices. Although researchers and practitioners have traditionally favored multiculturalism over colorblindness, recent social and political discourses have revealed more polarized stances. The current study provides insights into these discourses. We argue that the promotion of multiculturalism (vs. colorblindness) can backfire, depending on individuals' essentialist beliefs.

People frequently receive and deliver feedback in both formal and informal situations. One potentially critical factor that influences feedback effectiveness is how direct or indirect it is perceived to be, yet this factor has not been studied empirically in the feedback literature. Integrating theories in communication indirectness and gain/loss message framing, we propose that gain/loss framing interacts with feedback valence (success, failure) to affect the perceived directness of feedback. This in turn has implications for feedback effectiveness — the extent to which feedback motivates the recipient and is perceived accurately. Feedback in incongruent frames (non-gain framed failure, non-loss framed success) versus congruent frames (gain-framed success, loss-framed failure) should be more indirect and communicate the feedback signal (positive, negative) less strongly. Incongruent (vs. congruent) frames have asymmetrical effects on recipient motivation. For failure feedback, incongruently framed feedback is more motivating whereas for success feedback, congruently framed feedback is more motivating.

Past studies suggest that self-report wise reasoning is associated with less cognitive bias (Brienza, Kung et al., 2017). This study incorporated wise reasoning training in an undergraduate course to test whether wise reasoning training (vs. control: no training) causes students to have less biased judgement in a social issue outside of the classroom

A simplified version of the live game during the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Convention 2021, for community members to identify pre-eminent scholars from when they were early career.

Intercultural negotiations are often seen as challenging because cross-cultural differences and distrust toward foreign others can impede the negotiations. We propose that implicit culture beliefs interplay with cultural context (intracultural vs. intercultural) and improve intercultural negotiation outcomes

This study aims to generate evidence of incremental validity for the mechanistic dehumanization account by addressing the following research question: Does mechanistic dehumanization of Asian Americans (AAs) predict negative workplace outcomes, above and beyond Model Minority Stereotype (MMS) and Perpetual Foreigner Syndrome (PFS)?

This study will address the following question: Does internalized dehumanization predict negative work outcomes for Asian Americans? Are the outcomes predicted by internalized dehumanization, above and beyond internalization of MMS and PFS?

This project investigates the relationship between observed worker mechanistic dehumanization at work and workplace outcomes (i.e., participants’ report of what occurs in workplaces). In this survey study, participants will be asked to report the extent to which they observe that three social groups: East Asian Americans, South Asian Americans, and White Americans are mechanistically dehumanized (i.e., seen as robots/machines) at work, and their respective workplace outcomes (e.g., leadership potential perceptions, exploitative treatment, workplace friendships). We are interested in seeing whether those from Asian American backgrounds are more mechanistically dehumanized, and whether that predicts worse workplace outcomes.