About

Devon Proudfoot is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior in the ILR School at Cornell University. She studies topics related to inequality and creativity in organizations. Her work has been published in leading journals in psychology and management, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Management Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Prior to joining the faculty at Cornell, Devon Proudfoot completed her PhD in Management and Organizations at Duke University. She also holds a MSc in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in Psychology from McGill University.

Research topics

• Social psychology
• Psychology
• Developmental psychology

Selected publications

• Perceptions of Creativity: Exploring the Dynamics of Recognition, Evaluation, and Bias

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  This symposium explores these critical dimensions, examining how perceptions of creativity shape the recognition and valuation of creative work. Through four papers, this session addresses pressing questions, including how creativity and innovation are understood and communicated in organizational settings, the impact of creative processes on evaluation, the role of context in shaping creativity judgments, and how stereotypes influence perceptions of creative accomplishments. Together, these papers provide a comprehensive look at the factors that define, influence, and sometimes distort the recognition of creativity in professional and societal contexts. Lay Perceptions of Creativity and Innovation Author: Analexis Glaude; An Inductive Exploration of Creativity as Insight or Investment in Popular Music Author: Spencer Harrison; INSEAD Author: Shawn Chan; INSEAD Breaking Boundaries: How Categorical Expansion Shapes Creativity Judgments Author: Carl Blaine Horton; Author: Melanie Brucks; Author: Travis Tae Oh; Yeshiva University Author: Sheena S. Iyengar; Columbia University in the City of New York Creativity Is for the Young? People Underestimate the Age of Creative Achievers Author: Mary Ross; Author: Brian J. Lucas; Cornell University

  PublisherDOI

• Accuracy Neglect in Discrimination Reduction

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  Organizations can use many different strategies to combat hiring discrimination. Previous research shows that both strategies addressing evaluator bias (preferences for/against certain groups of candidates) and evaluator error (insensitivity to candidate quality) effectively reduce discrimination. However, drawing from theories of discrimination prototypes, we propose that evaluator bias (vs. error) is seen as more prototypical of hiring discrimination and thus bias-focused strategies are perceived as more relevant to discrimination reduction. We find support for this prediction across samples of recruiters, hiring managers, and HR professionals. Notably, consistent with research on diversity initiative framing, we also find that hiring managers prefer to learn about error-reducing (vs. bias-reducing) hiring strategies, as error reduction is perceived as more relevant to organizational performance. Practically, our findings suggest that focusing on accuracy in hiring may be a neglected route to discrimination reduction and also one that may incite less resistance than a focus on bias.

  PublisherDOI

• Resistance to Workplace Equality: A Spotlight on Psychological Barriers

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  While the U.S. workforce is becoming increasingly diverse in terms of the representation of different social groups, unfair group-based disparities still remain a pervasive feature in the workplace. And while organizations have stepped up efforts to redress social inequalities in the workplace, the past few years have seen a steady increase in backlash against DEI initiatives. From a micro-level perspective, this symposium showcases research that advances our understanding of psychological antecedents of resistance towards initiatives aimed at achieving group equality in the workplace. Rather than examining how perceivers' social identities and group belonging influence backlash against equality-promoting policies, the five papers in this symposium focus on more ubiquitous dispositional and situational features that spark resistance to social equality, including lay perceptions, assumptions, and biases. We hope that this symposium helps theorists and policy practitioners alike understand broad skepticism and resistance towards equality-promoting initiatives in addition to social identity based explanations already popular in public discourse about backlash against DEI. The Ironic Effects of Mandating Diversity Training on Belief in the Existence of Discrimination Author: Peter Jin; Duke University Author: Gavan Fitzsimons; Duke University Author: Aaron Kay; Duke University How Female Leadership Shapes Employee Perceptions of Concrete Organizational DEI Actions Author: Jenny Oh; Carnegie Mellon University Author: Catherine Shea; Carnegie Mellon University Evaluating the Distribution of Discrimination: Widespread or Concentrated? Author: Manuel Galvan; New York University Beyond Balancing Scales: Exploring the Pervasive Representation of Equality as Zero Sum Author: Michael M Berkebile-Weinberg; Columbia Business School Author: Isaac Raymundo; Columbia Business School Author: N. Derek Brown; Columbia Business School Hierarchical Social Structures are Perceived as Less Changeable than Egalitarian Social Structures Author: Usman Liaquat; Cornell University Author: Devon Proudfoot; Cornell University

  PublisherDOI

• Creating an Inclusive Future: Connecting Diversity to Creativity and Creative Work

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09

  article

  Over the past decades, scholars in management studies have continuously engaged in vibrant discussions around the topic of creativity - the production of novel and useful ideas at work (Amabile, 1983). In particular, researchers have tried to understand and delve deep into an important factor that influences creativity and creative workers: diversity. However, although diversity can positively impact creativity and creative work (i.e., Chua, 2018; Godart, Maddux, Shipilov, & Galinsky, 2015; Hoever, Van Knippenberg, van Ginkel, Barkema, 2012; Tadmor, Galinsky, & Maddux, 2012), organizational scholars have also found that these constructs can negatively influence each other (i.e., Hora, Baudra, Lemoine, & Grijalva, 2022; Lu, 2023; Proudfoot, Kay, & Koval, 2015; Proudfoot, Berry, Chang, & Kay, 2023). The purpose of this presenter symposium is to contribute to our ambiguous understanding of the link between diversity, creativity, and creative work and provide novel insights on how some important kinds of diversity (i.e., cultural, and gender) might shape creativity and the experiences of creative workers. Artists Become More Successful Through Multicultural Exploration and Exploitation in the Global Art Author: Khwan Kim; INSEAD Author: Frederic Clement Godart; INSEAD Author: William Maddux; U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Culture and Creativity Assessment Author: Wyatt Lee; Cornell U. Orchestrating Careers Author: Chesta Ahuja; UCL School of Management Author: Clarissa Cortland; UCL School of Management Where Is My Seat? Fighting for Belonging in Creative Work Author: Martina Pizzinato; UCL School of Management

  PublisherDOI

• Greater Variability in Judgments of the Value of Novel Ideas

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Devaluation by Omission: Limited Identity Options Elicit Anger and Increase Identification

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09

  articleSenior author

  From completing the census to filling out an employee engagement survey, people are often asked to provide demographic information about themselves, such as their gender, by selecting their identity from a list of options. However, the options provided in such situations are seldom unlimited—they typically reflect only a subset of possible identities. In the present research, we explored social identity threat caused by subtle acts of omission, specifically, situations in which social identity information is requested but one’s identity is not among the options provided. We predicted that being unable to identify with one’s group—e.g., in the demographics section of a job application form—may signal social identity devaluation, eliciting negative affect (e.g., anger), reducing anticipated organizational belonging, and increasing the importance of the omitted identity to group members’ sense of self. Six pre-registered experiments (N = 2,964 adults) sampling members of two minority identity groups (i.e., gender minorities and members of a minority political party) support these predictions. Our findings document the existence of a subtle but likely pervasive form of social identity threat. We discuss implications for organizations concerned with reducing social identity threat for employees.

  PublisherDOI

• The Identity Disclosure Matrix: A Conceptual Framework for Why and How We Share Our Identities

  Identity · 2024-06-29 · 3 citations

  article

  Psychological inquiry into identity has focused predominantly on its construction, contents, or consequences for individuals. However, often overlooked in identity research agendas are the motivations that drive people to disclose their identities to others. Contemporary research suggests that identity has become a psychosocial currency individuals can exchange to navigate social interactions toward desired aims. Here, we introduce the Identity Disclosure Matrix (IDM) as a conceptual framework for understanding why and how identities are disclosed. We contend that efforts to intervene on identities would be more efficacious by considering the reasons and ways people disclose them. We then leverage the IDM to suggest that emotion regulation and social connection are two basic and interactive needs that motivate disclosing who one is to others. Enacted at either high or low levels, motivations to satisfy these two needs result in four unique types of identity disclosures that enable individuals to navigate the social world.

  PublisherDOI

• Greater variability in judgements of the value of novel ideas

  Nature Human Behaviour · 2024-01-12 · 8 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Devaluation by Omission: Limited Identity Options Elicit Anger and Increase Identification

  Psychological Science · 2024-01-29 · 6 citations

  articleSenior author

  In the present research, we explored social-identity threat caused by subtle acts of omission, specifically situations in which social-identity information is requested but one’s identity is not among the options provided. We predicted that being unable to identify with one’s group—that is, in the demographics section of a survey—may signal social-identity devaluation, eliciting negative affect (e.g., anger) and increasing the importance of the omitted identity to group members’ sense of self. Six preregistered experiments ( N = 2,964 adults) sampling members of two minority-identity groups (i.e., gender minorities and members of a minority political party) support these predictions. Our findings document the existence of a subtle but likely pervasive form of social-identity threat.

  PublisherDOI

• The Creative Journey: From Ideation to Evaluation

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Aaron C. Kay

  Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging

  12 shared

• Stephanie Nixon

  8 shared

• Sean Fath

  New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations

  7 shared

• Denise M. Nepveux

  Utica College

  7 shared

• Zack Marshall

  6 shared

• Wayne Johnson

  5 shared

• Aaron C. Kay

  Duke University

  5 shared

• Sarah Flicker

  York University

  5 shared