Zoe Kinias

• Trombini, C.; Jiang, W.; Kinias, Z. K., (Forthcoming), "Receiving Social Support Motivates Long-Term Prosocial Behavior", Journal Of Business Ethics
  Abstract: Prosocial behavior—actions aimed to benefit other individuals, groups, or communities—are important for promoting and maintaining a healthy society. Extant research on the factors driving prosocial behavior has mainly addressed short-term effects, overlooking the factors that motivate long-term prosocial behavior. Building on attachment theory, we theorize that an interpersonal factor, receiving social support, can foster prosocial behavior in the long-term, both in the environment where the support was received and beyond it. We argue that receiving social support positively predicts felt security—a sense of being safe, cared for, and loved—which in turn associates with higher motivation to engage in behaviors that benefit others. We test our hypotheses with cross-sectional, longitudinal, retrospective, and experimental data. In Study 1, data from a sample of international business school alumni validate past research and show a significant positive relationship between receiving social support and engaging in prosocial behavior both within and beyond the environment in which support was received. Study 2 leverages data of US adults in a multi-wave study to show that receiving social support predicts prosocial activities several years later. Study 3 uses a retrospective survey to show that receiving social support relates positively to long-term prosocial behavior through higher felt security. Study 4 experimentally manipulates social support and further demonstrates that receiving social support fosters prosocial behavior through boosting felt security. Overall, our findings show that receiving social support motivates long-term prosociality through its positive association with felt security.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05743-7

• Masters-Waage, T.; Kinias, Z. K.; Stewart, D.; Artgueta-Rivera, J.; King, E., 2024, "Social Inattentional Blindness to Idea Stealing in Meetings", Scientific Reports, April 14(8060)
  Abstract: Using a virtual reality social experiment, participants (N = 154) experienced being at the table during a decision-making meeting and identified the best solutions generated. During the meeting, one meeting participant repeated another participant’s idea, presenting it as his own. Although this idea stealing was clearly visible and audible, only 30% of participants correctly identified who shared the idea first. Subsequent analyses suggest that the social environment affected this novel form of inattentional blindness. Although there was no experimental effect of team diversity on noticing, there was correlational evidence of an indirect effect of perceived team status on noticing via attentional engagement. In sum, this paper extends the inattentional blindness phenomenon to a realistic professional interaction and demonstrates how features of the social environment can reduce social inattention.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56905-6

• Cortland, C. I.; Kinias, Z. K., (Forthcoming), "Adding Fuel to the Collective Fire: Stereotype Threat, Solidarity, and Support for Change", Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
  Abstract: We hypothesize a yet-unstudied effect of experiencing systemic stereotype threat on women’s collective action efforts: igniting women’s support for other women and motivation to improve organizational gender balance. Hypotheses are supported in two surveys (Study 1: N = 1,365 business school alumnae; Study 2: N = 386 women Master of Business Administration [MBA]), and four experiments (Studies 3–6; total N = 1,897 working women). Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that experiencing stereotype threat is negatively associated with women’s domain-relevant engagement (supporting extant work on the negative effects of stereotype threat), but positively associated with women’s support and advocacy of gender balance. Studies 3 to 6 provide causal evidence that stereotype threat activation leads to greater attitudes and intentions to support gender balance, ruling out negative affect as an alternative explanation and identifying ingroup solidarity as a mechanism. We discuss implications for working women, women leaders, and organizations striving to empower their entire workforce through developing equitable and inclusive practices.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01461672231202630

• Adbi, A.; Chatterjee, C.; Cortland, C.; Kinias, Z. K.; Singh, J., 2021, "Women’s Disempowerment and Preferences for Skin Lightening Products That Reinforce Colorism: Experimental Evidence From India", Psychology of Women Quarterly, June 45(2): 178 - 193.
  Abstract: Global racism and colorism, the preference for fairer skin even within ethnic and racial groups, leads millions of women of African, Asian, and Latin descent to use products with chemical ingredients intended to lighten skin color. Drawing from literatures on the impact of chronic and situational disempowerment on behavioral risk-taking to enhance status, we hypothesized that activating feelings of disempowerment would increase women of color?s interest in stronger and riskier products meant to lighten skin tone quickly and effectively. In two experiments (Experiment 1: N = 253 women and 264 men; Experiment 2: replication study, N = 318 women) with distinct samples of Indian participants, we found that being in a state of psychological disempowerment (vs. empowerment) increased Indian women?s preference for stronger and riskier skin lightening products but not for milder products. Indian men?s interest in both types of products was unaffected by the same psychological disempowerment prime. Based on these findings, we recommend increased consideration among teaching faculty, research scholars, and clinicians on how feeling disempowered can lead women of color to take risks to lighten their skin as well as other issues of intersectionality and with respect to colorism. We also encourage the adoption of policies aimed at empowering women of color and minimizing access to harmful skin lightening products.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0361684321993796

• Guadalupe, M.; Kinias, Z. K.; Schloderer, F., 2020, "Individual identity and organizational identification: Evidence from a field experiment", AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 110: 193 - 198.
  Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between individual identity and organizational attachment. Using individual data from employees at a large employer in the services sector, we show that making individual values salient (through a value affirmation) on average reduces organizational attachment. However, this effect is heterogenous across individuals: those initially attached to the organization increase their attachment, while those who started off less identified with the organization reduce their attachment. Overall, the results illustrate the importance of heterogeneity and how individual identity/values and organizational attachment can conflict.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20201092

• Stamkou, E.; van Kleef, G. A.; Homan, A. C.; Gelfand, M. J.; van de Vijver, F. J. R.; van Egmond, M. C.; Boer, D.; Phiri, N.; Ayub, N.; Kinias, Z. K., et al., 2019, "Cultural Collectivism and Tightness Moderate Responses to Norm Violators: Effects on Power Perception, Moral Emotions, and Leader Support", Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, June 45(6): 947 - 964.
  Abstract: Responses to norm violators are poorly understood. On one hand, norm violators are perceived as powerful, which may help them to get ahead. On the other hand, norm violators evoke moral outrage, which may frustrate their upward social mobility. We addressed this paradox by considering the role of culture. Collectivistic cultures value group harmony and tight cultures value social order. We therefore hypothesized that collectivism and tightness moderate reactions to norm violators. We presented 2,369 participants in 19 countries with a norm violation or a norm adherence scenario. In individualistic cultures, norm violators were considered more powerful than norm abiders and evoked less moral outrage, whereas in collectivistic cultures, norm violators were considered less powerful and evoked more moral outrage. Moreover, respondents in tighter cultures expressed a stronger preference for norm followers as leaders. Cultural values thus influence responses to norm violators, which may have downstream consequences for violators’ hierarchical positions.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167218802832

• Cortland, C. I.; Kinias, Z. K., 2019, "Stereotype Threat and Women’s Work Satisfaction: The Importance of Role Models", Archives of Scientific Psychology, January 7(1): 81 - 89.
  Abstract: Globally across OECD countries, increasingly more women than men are graduating from a higher education institution with at least a bachelor’s degree (OECD, 2017), yet women continue to be highly underrepresented in top leadership positions around the world. What can explain the stark workplace and economic gender inequity despite the growing pool of educated women? One key contributor to gender inequity in the workplace is the psychological experience of women, and decades of research have found that concerns about confirming negative gender stereotypes in professional contexts can hinder women’s motivation, performance, and engagement, all of which can ultimately contribute to the exacerbation of workplace gender inequity. This research explores whether and in what way(s) social support from different workplace sources (role models, formal and informal mentors/sponsors, supportive supervisors, and peer support) benefit and protect women’s psychological resilience to disrupt the negative cycle of gender inequity.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/arc0000056

• Kinias, Z. K.; Sim, J., 2016, "Facilitating women’s success in business: Interrupting the process of stereotype threat through affirmation of personal values", Journal of Applied Psychology, January 101(11): 1585 - 1597.
  Abstract: Two field experiments examined if and how values affirmations can ameliorate stereotype threat-induced gender performance gaps in an international competitive business environment. Based on self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988), we predicted that writing about personal values unrelated to the perceived threat would attenuate the gender performance gap. Study 1 found that an online assignment to write about one’s personal values (but not a similar writing assignment including organizational values) closed the gender gap in course grades by 89.0% among 423 Masters of Business Administration students (MBAs) at an international business school. Study 2 replicated this effect among 396 MBAs in a different cohort with random assignment and tested 3 related mediators (self-efficacy, self-doubt, and self-criticism). Personal values reflection (but not reflecting on values including those of the organization or writing about others’ values) reduced the gender gap by 66.5%, and there was a significant indirect effect through reduced self-doubt. These findings show that a brief personal values writing exercise can dramatically improve women’s performance in competitive environments where they are negatively stereotyped. The results also demonstrate that stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson, 1995) can occur within a largely non-American population with work experience and that affirming one’s core personal values (without organizational values) can ameliorate the threat.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000139

• Kinias, Z. K.; Kim, H. S.; Hafenbrack, A. C.; Lee, J. J., 2014, "Standing out as a signal to selfishness: Culture and devaluation of non-normative characteristics", Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, July 124(2): 190 - 203.
  Abstract: This article proposes and tests a theoretical model articulating when and why differences in devaluation and avoidance of individuals with non-normative characteristics emerge between East Asian and Western cultural contexts. Four main studies examined this theoretical model. In a pilot study, relative to Americans, Koreans devalued a target individual with a non-normative characteristic, and in Study 1 the target’s efforts to forestall disruption of group processes eliminated the devaluation in Korea, with perceived selfishness mediating this process. In Study 2, Koreans, relative to Americans, devalued and avoided coworkers with non-normative characteristics, particularly when the non-normative characteristic was controllable. Study 3 further showed that perceived selfishness mediates this effect with a behavioral dependent variable. Study 4 tested the generalizability to positively valenced characteristics and found that Koreans (relative to Americans) also devalue individuals with positive characteristics at non-normative levels. Implications for individuals with non-normative characteristics, organizational diversity, and cross-cultural interaction are discussed.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.03.006

• Hafenbrack, A. C.; Kinias, Z. K.; Barsade, S. G., 2014, "Debiasing the Mind Through Meditation: Mindfulness and the Sunk-Cost Bias", Psychological Science, February 25(2): 369 - 376.
  Abstract: In the research reported here, we investigated the debiasing effect of mindfulness meditation on the sunk-cost bias. We conducted four studies (one correlational and three experimental); the results suggest that increased mindfulness reduces the tendency to allow unrecoverable prior costs to influence current decisions. Study 1 served as an initial correlational demonstration of the positive relationship between trait mindfulness and resistance to the sunk-cost bias. Studies 2a and 2b were laboratory experiments examining the effect of a mindfulness-meditation induction on increased resistance to the sunk-cost bias. In Study 3, we examined the mediating mechanisms of temporal focus and negative affect, and we found that the sunk-cost bias was attenuated by drawing one's temporal focus away from the future and past and by reducing state negative affect, both of which were accomplished through mindfulness meditation.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797613503853

• Simon, S.; Kinias, Z. K.; O'Brien, L. T.; Major, B.; Bivolaru, E., 2013, "Prototypes of Discrimination: How Status Asymmetry and Stereotype Asymmetry Affect Judgments of Racial Discrimination", Basic and Applied Social Psychology, November 35(6): 525 - 533.
  Abstract: This research investigated status asymmetry and stereotype asymmetry features of the racial discrimination prototype. Consistent with status asymmetry predictions, Black observers made greater attributions to discrimination when the victim was Black and the perpetrator was White than when the roles were reversed. In contrast, White observers made similar attributions to discrimination, regardless of status asymmetry. In partial support of the stereotype asymmetry hypothesis, Black and White observers made greater attributions to discrimination for Black victims in a domain where Blacks are negatively stereotyped than positively stereotyped. However, attributions to discrimination for White victims were unaffected by the domain.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2013.823620

• Narayanan, J.; Tai, K.; Kinias, Z. K., 2013, "Power motivates interpersonal connection following social exclusion", Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, November 122(2): 257 - 265.
  Abstract: Research has systematically documented the negative effects of social exclusion, yet little is known about how these negative effects can be mitigated. Building on the approach-inhibition theory of power (Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson, 2003), we examined the role of power in facilitating social connection following exclusion. Four experiments found that following exclusion, high power (relative to low power) individuals intend to socially connect more with others. Specifically, following exclusion, individuals primed with high power sought new social connections more than those primed with low power (Studies 1–4) or those receiving no power prime (Study 1). The intention to seek social connection as a function of power was limited to situations of exclusion, as it did not occur when individuals were included (Studies 3 and 4). Approach orientation mediates the effect of power on intentions to connect with others (Studies 2 and 4).

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.08.006

• Kinias, Z. K., 2012, "Culture and gender inequality: Psychological consequences of perceiving gender inequality", Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, January 15(1): 89 - 103.
  Abstract: Previous research linking perceptions of gender inequality and psychological well-being were considered in light of the proposition that people from different cultures differ in their beliefs about how justifiable gender inequality is, and this research investigated these differences and their psychological consequences using cross-cultural comparisons. The results show that Hong Kong Chinese women saw gender inequality as less unjust (Study 1) and less unfair (Study 2) and valued gender equality less (Study 2) than European American women did. Gender inequality caused anger (Study 1) and predicted reduced life satisfaction (Study 2) more among European American women than among Hong Kong Chinese women. Implications for cross-cultural tolerance are discussed.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1368430211408940

• Seger, C.; Smith, E. R.; Kinias, Z. K.; Mackie, D. M., 2009, "Knowing how they feel: Perceiving emotions felt by outgroups", Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, January 45(1): 80 - 89.
  Abstract: Individuals can often accurately perceive others’ emotions in a purely interpersonal context. However, when people identify with an important ingroup, they experience distinctive patterns of emotion [Smith, E. R., Seger, C. R., & Mackie, D. M. (2007). Can emotions be truly group-level? Evidence regarding four conceptual criteria. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 431–446]. Thus, in three studies using a variety of meaningful groups, we examine how a salient distinction between groups might influence people’s ability to estimate the emotions of outgroup members. Participants demonstrated substantial though imperfect accuracy in estimating the emotions reported by outgroups. Specific biases affected their estimates, especially the overlap of perceived emotions of the outgroup with the ingroup’s own emotions. Furthermore, there was a general overprediction of outgroups’ negative emotions and underprediction of their positive emotions. Because of the importance of an outgroup’s emotions as potential causes of their behavior, accuracy and biases in group emotion estimation may be consequential for intergroup relations.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.019

• O'Brien, L. T.; Kinias, Z. K.; Major, B., 2008, "How status and stereotypes impact attributions to discrimination: The stereotype-asymmetry hypothesis", Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, March 44(2): 405 - 412.
  Abstract: Past research suggests a status-asymmetry effect in attributions to discrimination such that people are more likely to make attributions to discrimination when the victim is from a lower status group than the perpetrator as compared to when the victim is from a higher status group than the perpetrator. The present studies test a stereotype-asymmetry effect, such that people are more likely to make attributions to discrimination when rejection occurs in a domain in which the victim is negatively rather than positively stereotyped. In Study 1 (observers) and Study 2 (victims), participants attributed rejection following a job interview to discrimination more when the victim was negatively stereotyped than when the victim was positively stereotyped. The stereotypicality of the domain was more important than the relative status of the victim and the perpetrator in determining judgments of discrimination. Thus stereotype-asymmetry is a key feature of the discrimination prototype.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2006.12.003

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