Sarah Townsend

Dr. Sarah S. M. Townsend studies the psychological foundations of inequality. Her research reveals the dysfunctional behaviors and physiological costs that can result when individuals’ cultural norms collide with the dominant cultural norms of organizations. She examines how these“cultural divides” are often a hidden source of inequality, but how they can be used to lessen opportunity gaps and fuel greater cross-group understanding. Dr. Townsend uses a multi-method approach, measuring cardiovascular and hormonal responses along with how people think, feel, and act.

Dr. Townsend is an associate editor for Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and an editorial board member for both Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Academy of Management Discoveries. She has also been featured on Poets and Quants as "Professor of the Week" and was named a "Rising Star" by the Association of Psychological Science. Dr. Townsend's research has been published in numerous scholarly outlets and she has been an invited speaker at numerous events and conferences hosted by the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, the Academy of Management, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for the Science of Motivation. Further, her research has been covered by various media outlets, including The Atlantic, Huffington Post, New York Magazine, and The Washington Post.

Dr. Townsend teaches undergraduate, MBA, and executive courses on leadership and the science of bias, diversity, and inclusion.

Education

• Ph.D. UC Santa Barbara (2005 — 2011)
• B.A., M.A. Stanford University (1997 — 2001)

Companies

• Assistant Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business (2021)
• Associate Professor of Management and Organization University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business (2020)
• Assistant Professor of Management and Organization University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business (2013 — 2020)
• Visiting Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations and Postdoctoral Fellow Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management (2011 — 2012)
• Visiting Researcher Department of Psychology, Stanford University (2010 — 2011)
• Lab Manager Department of Psychology, Stanford University (2003 — 2005)

Publications

• Stephens, N. M., Rivera, L. A., & Townsend, S. S. M. (2021). The cycle of workplace bias and how to interrupt it. Research in Organizational Behavior.
• Hall, E. V., Townsend, S. S. M., & Carter, J. (2021). What’s in a name? The hidden historical ideologies embedded in the Black and African-American racial labels. Psychological Science.
• Townsend, S. S. M., Stephens, N. M., & Hamedani, M. (2021). Difference-education improves first-generation students’ grades throughout college and increases comfort with social group difference. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Birnbaum, H. J., Stephens, N. M., Townsend, S. S. M., & Hamedani, M. G. (2020). A Diversity Ideology Intervention: Multiculturalism Reduces the Racial Achievement Gap. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1-9.
• Phillips, L.T., Stephens, N.M., Townsend, S.S.M., & Goudeau, S. (2020). Access is not enough: Cultural mismatch persists to limit first-generation students’ opportunities for achievement throughout college. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
  
• Dittmann, A. G., Stephens, N. M., & Townsend, S. S. M. (2020). Achievement is not class-neutral: Working together benefits people from working-class contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
• Townsend, S. S. M., Stephens, N. M., Smallets, S., & Hamedani, M. (2019). Empowerment through difference: An online difference-education intervention closes the social class achievement gap. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45, 1068-1083.
• Stephens, N. M., Hamedani, M., & Townsend, S. S. M. (2019). Difference matters: Teaching students a contextual theory of difference can help them succeed. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14, 156–174.
• Destin, M., Manzo, V. M., & Townsend, S. S. M. (2018). Thoughts about a Successful Future Encourage Action in the Face of Challenge. Motivation and Emotion, 42, 321-333.
• Townsend, S. S. M., Stephens, N. M., Smallets, S., & Hamedani, M. (2018). Empowerment through difference: An online difference-education intervention closes the social class achievement gap. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Townsend, S. S. M., & Truong, M. (2017). Cultural models of self and social class disparities at organizational gateways and pathways. Current Opinion in Psychology, 18, 93-98.
• Stephens, N. M., & Townsend, S. S. M. (2017). Research: How you feel about individualism is influenced by your social class. Harvard Business Review, May 22.
• Major, B., Kuntsman, J. W., Malta, B. D., Sawyer, P. J., Townsend, S. S. M., & Mendes, W. B. (2016). Suspicion of motives shapes minorities’ responses to positive feedback in interracial interactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 62, 75-88.
• Stephens, N. M., Townsend, S. S. M., Hamedani, M., Destin, M., & Manzo, V. (2015). A Difference-education intervention equips first-generation college students to thrive in the face of stressful college situations. Psychological Science, 26, 1556-1566.
• Hall, E. V., Phillips, K. W., & Townsend, S. S. M. (2015). A rose by any other name? The consequences of subtyping “African Americans” from "Blacks." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 56, 183-190.
  
• Stephens, N. M., Cameron, J., & Townsend, S. S. M. (2014). Lower social class does not (always) mean greater interdependence: Women in poverty have fewer social resources than working-class women. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 45, 1061–1073.
• Townsend, S. S. M., Kim, H. S., & Mesquita, B. Are you feeling what I’m feeling? (2014). Emotional concordance attenuates experiences of stress. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5, 526-533.
• Townsend, S. S. M., Eliezer, D., Major, B., & Mendes, W. B. (2014). Influencing the World versus Adjusting to Constraints: Social Class Moderates Responses to Discrimination. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5, 226-234.
• Townsend, S. S. M., & Thompson, L. (2014). Implications of the Protestant Work Ethic for cooperative and mixed-motive teams. Organizational Psychology Review, 4, 4-26.
• Stephens, N. M., Townsend, S. S. M., Markus, H. R., & Phillips, T. (2012). A cultural mismatch: The adverse effect of independent cultural norms on the neuroendocrine and affective responses of first-generation college students in American universities. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 1389-1393.
• Townsend, S. S. M., Fryberg, S. A., Wilkins, C. L., & Markus, H. R. (2012). Being mixed: Who claims a biracial identity? Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 18, 91-96.
• Sawyer, P., Major, B., Casad, B. J., Townsend, S. S. M., & Mendes, W. B. (2012). Discrimination and the stress response: Psychological and physiological consequences of anticipating prejudice in interracial interaction. American Journal of Public Health, 102, 1020-1026.
• Townsend, S. S. M., Major, B., Gangi, C., & Mendes, W. B. (2011). From “In the air” to “Under the skin:” Cortisol responses to social identity threat. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 151-164.
• Eliezer, D., Townsend, S. S. M., Sawyer, P. J., Major, B., & Mendes, W. B. (2011). System-justifying beliefs moderate the relationship between perceived discrimination and resting blood pressure. Social Cognition, 29, 303-321.
• Townsend, S. S. M., Major, B., Sawyer, P. J., & Mendes, W. B. (2010). Can the absence of prejudice be more threatening than its presence? It depends on one’s worldview. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 933-947.
• Townsend, S. S. M., Markus, H. R., & Bergsieker, H. B. (2009). My choice, your categories: The denial of multiracial identities. Journal of Social Issues, 65, 185-204.
• Uchida, Y., Townsend, S. S. M., Markus, H. R., & Bergsieker, H. B. (2009). Emotions as within or between people? Cultural variation in lay theories of emotion expression and emotion inference. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1427-1439.
• Stephens, N. M., Markus, H. R., & Townsend, S. S. M. (2007). Choice as an act of meaning: The case of social class. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 814-830.
• Markus, H. R., Uchida, Y., Omoregie, H., Townsend, S. S. M., & Kitayama, S. (2006). Going for the gold: American and Japanese models of Olympic agency. Psychological Science, 17, 103-112.