Kayla Pierce

Cohort

2015

Subfields

Gender and Family, Social Psychology, Theory

Profile

Kayla’s research focuses on small group interactions, emotions, status, and identity. She is interested in testing social theories inside and outside the lab and using social psychological theory to explain and predict behavior in organizations, in families, and online. Her dissertation research investigates whether and how social status affects emotional contagion in task groups. This project also investigates whether specific emotions can disrupt or exacerbate status hierarchies in teams. She will use her findings to produce actionable recommendations for how groups and organizations can prevent the spread of harmful emotions. In her other projects, she is investigating 1.) the cognitive processing of clickbait (with Jessica Collett) and 2.) how race and gender impact credibility in the workplace (with Paige Ambord). Her research appears in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and a book entitled Identities in Everyday Life.

In 2019, Kayla was awarded the Kaneb Graduate Student Teaching Award and her research has been funded by the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts and the Center for the Study of Social Movements. Kayla was also elected to be the Graduate Student representative for the American Sociological Association’s Emotion Section (2019-2020).

Dissertation

Title: "Emotional Contagion in Status Hierarchies"
Committee: Erika Summers-Effler (co-chair), Jessica Collect (co-chair), David Gibson, Erin McDonnell
Abstract