About

I am an Assistant Professor in the Management of Organizations Group at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. I am currently a Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow, awarded to honor faculty at Haas with a record of accomplishment and a bright future.

Research topics

• Social psychology
• Psychology
• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Aesthetics
• Visual arts
• World Wide Web
• Art

Selected publications

• The Privilege to be Yourself Depends on What Others Think of You: Social Status Increases Authenticity

  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · 2025-03-29

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Authenticity is associated with numerous benefits, including well-being, relationship satisfaction, and workplace engagement, sparking interest in its antecedents. Previous research has primarily concentrated on intraindividual factors like self-knowledge, self-awareness, and self-esteem. Complementing this perspective, we suggest that interpersonal factors also influence authenticity. Specifically, we propose that social status, defined as the respect and admiration received from others, enhances authenticity. Study 1 confirmed that higher status correlated with authentic self-expression in 1,656 naturalistic conversations between strangers. Subsequent studies found that the positive link between status and authenticity (Study 2; N = 980) occurs, in part, through social acceptance (Studies 3–4; N = 1,372). Two additional experiments (Study 5a–b; N = 1,764) manipulated status and compared its causal impact on authenticity to power, another key aspect of social hierarchy, and a recognized antecedent of authenticity. Collectively, our findings support a social perspective in understanding authenticity: individuals feel more like themselves when they are respected and admired by others.

  PublisherDOI

• The Preeminence of Communality in the Leadership Preferences of Followers

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Widespread narratives about leadership often emphasize the importance of exhibiting agentic traits like assertiveness, ambition, and confidence. Counter to this perspective, the present research suggests that when evaluating leaders, followers especially value communal traits, such as honesty, open-mindedness, and compassion—even at the expense of agentic traits. Eight preregistered studies (N = 3,682) support our theorizing. In Study 1, we find that people describe their ideal leader as more communal than the typical leader, representing a divide between preferred versus prototypical leaders. We then examine the preference for communality in leaders at the trait level (Studies 2-3), in evaluations of candidates for leadership positions (Studies 4a-5), and in a leader selection task (Study 6). Finally, we evince one reason communal leaders may not emerge—communality does not predict self-selection into leadership pathways (Study 7). Taken together, our findings suggest that prominent narratives about leadership have tended to downplay the importance and appeal of communal traits for followers.

  PublisherDOI

• The preeminence of communality in the leadership preferences of followers.

  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · 2025-02-03 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author

  = 3,682) support our theorizing. In Study 1, we find that people describe their ideal leader as more communal than the typical leader, representing a divide between preferred versus prototypical leaders. We then examine the preference for communality in leaders at the trait level (Studies 2 and 3) and in evaluations of candidates for leadership positions (Studies 4a-5). Further, we find that followers' preference for communal leaders is explained, in part, by the anticipation that a communal leader will create a more psychologically safe climate than an agentic leader (Study 6). Finally, we evince one reason communal leaders may not emerge-communality does not predict self-selection into leadership pathways (Study 7). Taken together, our findings suggest that prominent narratives about leadership have tended to downplay the importance and appeal of communal traits for followers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Navigating Workplace Impressions and Disclosures: Strategies, Challenges, and Consequences

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  This symposium, titled “Navigating Workplace Impressions and Disclosures: Strategies, Challenges, and Consequences”, explores the nuanced dynamics of disclosure and impression management in professional contexts, emphasizing the complexities individuals face when sharing personal and professional information. Disclosures—ranging from identities to rationales, losses, and self-promotion—shape impressions, interpersonal relationships, and organizational cultures. However, navigating what, how, and when to share is fraught with challenges, including the risk of misjudgments, authenticity perceptions, and unintended consequences for relationships and well-being. Drawing from diverse methodologies and theoretical perspectives, this symposium examines key barriers to disclosure, perceptions of self-presentation, and their downstream effects on individual and organizational outcomes. Collectively, the projects offer actionable insights for researchers and practitioners on fostering effective information sharing in workplace settings. To Share or Not to Share? Managing Personal Identity in Professional Biographies Author: Aastha Mittal; Columbia Business School Are People Good at Self-Promotion? Taking Stock of the Divergent Effects of Ubiquitous Behaviors Author: Kelly Nault; IE University What’s Your Why? The Unexpected Benefits of Rationales in the Perception of Authenticity Author: Erica R Bailey; University of California Berkeley Silent Suffering: Investigating Disclosure of Work Loss Author: F Katelynn Boland; The “I Told You So” Effect Author: Mary Ross; Author: Salvatore J. Affinito; New York University

  PublisherDOI

• Caught Between Real and Ideal: Impostor Thoughts and Challenges of Authenticity in Modern Workplace

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  The four papers in this symposium converge around a critical and timely theme: the tension arising when individuals’ internal sense of self conflicts with the external persona or image they project in the workplace. This misalignment—whether stemming from feelings of inauthenticity, impostor thoughts, or the challenge of balancing authenticity with professionalism—carries significant psychological and social consequences, including diminished well-being, reduced workplace engagement, and strained interpersonal relationships (for reviews, see Cha et al., 2019; Gullifor, Gardner, Karam, Noghani, & Cogliser, 2023). These challenges have grown increasingly salient in today’s workplace, where the rapid integration of AI technologies, a stronger emphasis on diversity and inclusion, and shifting workplace norms have introduced new complexities to navigating one’s professional identity and authenticity. For instance, AI usage blurs the lines between individual competence and technological assistance, diminishing employees’ sense of ownership over their contributions and triggering impostor thoughts. Similarly, efforts to foster diversity and inclusion, while essential, can inadvertently pressure underrepresented groups to conform to dominant professional norms, often at the expense of their authentic selves. These dynamics have been compounded by growing calls for workplace authenticity and a notable uptick in reports of “impostor thoughts” (Clance, Dingman, Reviere, & Stober, 1995; Clance & Imes, 1978; Tewfik, 2022), making it essential to explore how the misalignment between self-perception and external expectations influences individual and organizational outcomes. The papers in this symposium collectively tackle this tension, examining its causes, consequences, and potential interventions. They challenge conventional assumptions in the literature, such as the stability of impostor thoughts as individual traits, the uniformly negative impact of impostor thoughts, and the perceived competition between authenticity and professionalism. By integrating diverse methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives, these studies provide fresh insights into how misalignments between internal and external identities shape behavior, group dynamics, and organizational culture. Daily Triggers and Buffers of Workplace Impostor Thoughts Author: Yifan Song; Texas A&M University Author: Cong Zhang; Texas A&M University Author: Mo Wang; University of Florida Author: Lin Wang; Sun Yat-Sen University Author: Tian Jiang; Sun Yat-Sen University Beyond Support of Augmentation-Based AI Usage: Impostor Thoughts and Their Workplace Consequences Author: Hanho Lee; The Ohio State University Author: Zixu Zhang; The University of Arizona Author: Hun Whee Lee; The Ohio State University Author: Sarah Doyle; The University of Arizona Author: Robert B. Lount; The Ohio State University The Paradoxical Effects of Leader Impostor Thoughts on Employee Voice Author: Basima Tewfik; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Authenticity and Professionalism—Complementing or Competing Factors at Work? Author: Erica R Bailey; University of California Berkeley Discussants Author: Julianna Pillemer; New York University Author: Tracy Dumas; The Ohio State University

  PublisherDOI

• Pinning down state authenticity: defining and validating a state authenticity measure

  Self and Identity · 2024-12-13 · 4 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Thoughts of God and acceptance of artificial intelligence: A replication

  2024-03-11 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen access

  We report our attempts to replicate results by Karataş and Cutright (2023), in which thoughts of God increased people’s receptivity to advice from artificially intelligent advisors. We attempt faithful replications of the five online studies from the original paper all with larger sample sizes than the originals. We fail to find evidence consistent with the claims of Karataş and Cutright. Our results suggest that if the original effect exists, it is too small to have been detected by the original studies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 51309 Authenticity Motivates Interest in Minimally Invasive Cosmetic Procedures

  Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology · 2024-09-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Potential Pitfall of Passion: Passion Is Associated With Performance Overconfidence

  Social Psychological and Personality Science · 2024-05-21 · 8 citations

  article1st author

  Having passion is almost universally lauded. People strive to follow their passion at work, and organizations increasingly seek out passionate employees. Supporting the benefits of passion, prior research finds a robust relationship between passion and higher levels of job performance. At the same time, this research also reveals significant variability in the size of the effect. To explain this heterogeneity, we propose that passion is associated with performance overconfidence—inflated views about how well the self is performing—and that this association provides a helpful lens in understanding when passion will be more or less beneficial for performance. A daily diary field study with 829 employees (33,160 observations) and an experiment with 396 participants provide evidence that passion is associated with performance overconfidence. These findings provide a lens through which to discuss when, why, and for whom passion may be more helpful for performance or a potential pitfall.

  PublisherDOI

• Be Who You Are? Identity And Organizational Challenges To Authenticity

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09

  article

  As described in decades of authenticity research, there are numerous psychological and social benefits to authenticity in and outside of the workplace. For example, authenticity is a robust predictor of subjective well-being (Sutton, 2020) and higher quality relationships (Brunell et al., 2010; Le & Impett, 2013). In addition, experiencing authenticity at work can increase engagement with work tasks (Bailey et al., 2023; Cable et al., 2013), less depleted (Reis et al., 2016), and even increase work performance (Van den Bosch & Taris, 2014). For those in leadership positions, authenticity reaps significant benefits in terms of increasing support (Steffens et al., 2021) and commitment by followers (Leroy et al., 2012). Indeed, “authenticity” was Merriam-Webster’s word of the year in 2023, suggesting a strong societal hunger for understanding the topic and its application in personal and professional life. Given these seemingly numerous benefits to authenticity, less is known about how individuals can access or increase authenticity (Beer & Brandler 2021) and the identity-based constraints surrounding who can be authentic (Martinez et al., 2017). Even more crucially for workers, the nature of authenticity in constrained roles, demanding organizations, or challenging identities remains elusive. Given this, the goal of this symposium is to bring together a set of researchers seeking to understand authenticity in context, specifically situating authenticity in specific roles, identities, and situations. By positioning authenticity in terms of social demands, our findings provide concrete prescriptions on the antecedents of this important construct. We have curated a broad collection of studies which consider the concept of authenticity at various levels of analysis and using various methods, and which address the key points of identity and organizational constraints in distinctive yet complementary ways. We believe that this symposium will offer a productive opportunity to consider how the pursuit and achievement of authenticity in the workplace is enabled and undermined, pursuant to important scholarly and practical innovations in the study of authenticity at work. Leveraging Authenticity for Marketplace Creation and Maintenance Author: Belinda Zakrzewska; U. of Sussex Business School Small Donors Give Politicians The Allure Of Authenticity Author: Erica Bailey; Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley Audience Entanglement: How Creative Workers on Digital Platforms Manage the Pressures of Widespread Author: Julianna Pillemer; New York U. The Need for Authenticated Self-Awareness: Toward a Theory of Connective Authenticity Author: Jacob Brown; U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Author: Lyndon Earl Garrett; Boston College

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Sheena S. Iyengar

  12 shared

• Jon Jachimowicz

  7 shared

• Adam D. Galinsky

  4 shared

• adam galinsky

  3 shared

• Andreas Wihler

  3 shared

• Kai Krautter

  3 shared

• Michael White

  Columbia University

  3 shared

• C. Blaine Horton

  3 shared

Education

• PhD, Columbia Business School

  Columbia University

  2023

Awards & honors

• Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow