Nicole Stephens
Jeanne Brett Chair Professor of Management & Organizations Professor of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences (Courtesy) at Kellogg School of Management
Biography
Kellogg School of Management
Nicole M. Stephens is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at Kellogg School of Management. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Stanford University and her B.A. from Williams College. As a social and cultural psychologist, her research explores the ways in which the social world systematically influences how people understand themselves and their actions. Her specific focus is on how social class, race, ethnicity, and gender shape people's everyday life experiences, as well as important life outcomes such as educational attainment and health.
One line of Professor Stephens's research examines how experiences in different social class environments affect the ways in which people understand the choices that they make in their daily lives. Another line of research investigates how first-generation college students, from diverse cultural backgrounds, adjust in response to the mainstream culture of higher education. Together her research illuminates how seemingly neutral assumptions about what it means to be a "good," "normal," or "educated" person reflect the culturally-specific perspectives of majority groups in society, and thereby contribute to social inequality. The underlying goal of this research is to develop more diverse and effective schools, workplaces, and communities.
Professor Stephens is a member of various interdisciplinary working groups that strive to achieve this goal: The Bias Interrupters Working Group, which seeks to reduce bias against women and racial minorities in the workplace; the Harvard Higher Education Leaders Forum, which seeks to solve problems in higher education through evidence-based solutions; and The Mindset Scholars Network, which seeks to expand educational opportunity through the science of psychological intervention.
Professor Stephens's work is published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Psychological Science. In recognition of her work, Professor Stephens has been awarded the Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Award, as well as the the APA Award for Early Career Contribution to Social Psychology and the Louise Kidder Early Career Award.
** Research Interests**
The sociocultural patterning of mind and behavior; The sources of social class, racial/ethnic, and gender disparities in higher education and the workplace; Developing interventions to leverage the benefits of diversity in organizations.
Education * * PhD, 2010, Social Psychology, Stanford University * MA, 2007, Social Psychology, Stanford University * BA, 2002, Psychology, Williams College, magna cum laude
Academic Positions
- Professor, Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2020-present
- Professor, Psychology, Northwestern University, 2020-present
- Associate Professor, Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2013-2020
- Associate Professor of Psychology (courtesy), Northwestern University, 2010-2020
- Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2010-2013
Professional Experience
- Marketing Consultant, Widgetbox, Inc., 2007-2007
- Textbook Consultant, Social Psychology, 2006-2006
- Research Assistant, San Francisco State University, 2003-2003
- Research Analyst, Marketing and Planning Systems, 2003-2004
- Fulbright Scholar, Universidad de Chile, 2002-2003
- Research Assistant, Williams College, 2002-2002
- Research Associate, The Parthenon Group, 2001-2001
- Research Assistant, Williams College, 2000-2000
Awards
- Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Award, The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
- Wheeler Institute Award, London Business School
- APA Award for Early Career Contribution (Social Psychology), American Psychological Association (APA)
- Israel Organizational Behavior Conference Best Paper Award, Israel Organizational Behavior Conference
- Louise Kidder Early Career Award, The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
- Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Award, The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
- Stanley Reiter Best Paper Award, Kellogg School of Management
Editorial Positions
- Editorial Board, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2018-2020
- Editorial Board Member, Frontiers in Psychology, 2017
- Editor, Current Opinion in Psychology, Social Class and Inequality Special Edition, 2016-2017
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Cases
Stephens, Nicole, Hazel Rose Markus and Sarah S.M. Townsend. 2007. Choice as an act of meaning: The case of social class. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 93(5): 814-830.
Social class is one important source of models of agency normative guidelines for how to be a good person. Using choice as a prototypically agentic action, five studies test the hypotheses that models of agency prevalent in working class (WK) contexts reflect a normative preference for similarity to others, whereas models prevalent in middle class (MD) contexts reflect a preference for difference from others. Focusing on participants' choices, we found that participants from WK relative to MD contexts more often chose pens that appeared similar to, rather than different from, other pens in the choice set, and more often chose the same images as another participant. Focusing on participants' responses to others' choices, we found that participants from WK relative to MD contexts liked their chosen pens more when a confederate chose similarly, and responded more positively when a friend chose the same car in a hypothetical scenario. Finally, we found that car advertisements targeting WK rather than MD consumers more often emphasized connection to, rather than differentiation from, others, suggesting that models of agency are reflected in pervasive cultural products.
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