Emily Bianchi

Associate Professor of Organization & Management Emory University, Goizueta Business School

  • Atlanta GA

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Biography

Emily Bianchi joined the Goizueta Business School in 2011. She holds a PhD in Management from Columbia University and a BA in Psychology from Harvard University. Bianchi's research examines how the state of the economy shapes attitudes and behaviors ranging from individualism to ethics. Her work also looks at how economic conditions in early adulthood influence later job attitudes, self-concepts, and moral behavior. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR's Marketplace, USA Today, The Financial Times, Businessweek and others. Prior to graduate school, Bianchi was a Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Education

Columbia University

PhD

Management

2012

Columbia University

MPhil

Management

2009

Harvard University

BA

Psychology & Afro-American Studies

2001

Areas of Expertise

Economic Conditions and Early Adulthood
Job Attitudes
Moral Behavior
Economic Conditions and Psychology
Organizational Behavior
Social Psychology

Publications

Does the Black/White wage gap widen during recessions?

Work and Organizations

Shinjinee Chattopadhyay & Emily Bianchi

2021-01-15

Researchers have long documented a significant wage gap between White and Black workers, at least some of which is attributable to discrimination. Drawing on research suggesting that discrimination increases during recessions, we test whether the racial wage gap expands during economic downturns. Using longitudinal wage data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics over a 40-year time period (N = 18,954), we find that the wage gap between Black and White workers increases with the unemployment rate. Moreover, we find that the cyclical wage gap is more pronounced in states in which Whites hold more negative attitudes about Blacks and in states with larger Black populations, suggesting that the racial wage gap expansion during recessions is at least partially driven by discrimination. Finally, we find evidence for at least two mechanisms by which the wage gap expands during recessions. First, we find that Black workers are more likely to lose their jobs during downturns and earn lower wages upon reemployment than comparable Whites. Second, we find that Black hourly workers are slightly more likely to have their hours reduced during recessions than White hourly workers, thereby resulting in lower earnings. These findings suggest that the racial wage gap widens during recessions and that discrimination accounts for at least some of this expansion.

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The psychology of entrenched privilege: High socioeconomic status individuals from affluent backgrounds are uniquely high in entitlement

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Côté, S., Stellar, J., Willer, R., Forbes, R., Martin, S. & Bianchi, E.C.

2021-01-15

As rates of intergenerational social mobility decline, it is increasingly important to understand the psychological consequences of entrenched socioeconomic privilege. Here, we explore whether current and childhood socioeconomic status (SES) are interactively related to entitlement, such that among currently high SES individuals, those from affluent backgrounds are likely to feel uniquely high levels of entitlement, whereas currently low SES individuals feel low entitlement regardless of their backgrounds. A meta-analysis of four exploratory studies (total N = 3,105) found that currently high SES individuals who were also raised in high SES households were especially inclined to report feeling entitled, a pattern that was robust across three indicators of SES: income, education, and subjective SES. Results of a preregistered, confirmatory study (N = 1,058) replicated this interactive pattern for education and subjective SES, though not for income. Our findings highlight the importance of considering current and childhood SES jointly to understand the psychological consequences of SES.

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How the Economy Shapes the Way We Think about Ourselves and Others

Current Opinion in Psychology

Emily C. Bianchi

2020-02-06

While recessions are a regular feature of modern economic life, researchers have only recently begun to explore their psychological implications. This review examines evidence that recessions are linked to changes in how people regard themselves and others. Specifically, it reviews work suggesting that recessions are associated with declines in individualism and increases in interdependence. It also reviews evidence indicating that economic turmoil is associated with greater racial animosity. Finally, it considers some psychological processes underlying these effects.

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Research Spotlight

4 min

Ask an Expert: Can a Recession Boost Employee Job Satisfaction?

Will the United States tip into recession in 2023? The jury for many remains out, though there are enough clouds forming on the horizon to cause consternation for firms eyeing the next financial quarter. But while recessions invariably spell belt-tightening, are they always plain bad for business? Could there be some kind of silver lining to hard times? New research led by Goizueta Business School’s Emily Bianchi suggests there is in fact an upside to economic downturns: higher employee job satisfaction. Bianchi and colleagues from Oglethorpe and Hong Kong Polytechnic Universities have found that in times of increased financial uncertainty, people tend to think less about other opportunities or openings, and focus more on the jobs they actually have. This in turn makes us see our jobs and workplace more favorably, says Bianchi. “It might feel counter-intuitive because there’s reason to think that tumultuous times make the workplace and workplace relations more tense or challenging. But we wanted to explore whether the security of having a job in an economic slump might positively impact the way people think about their roles and employers,” Bianchi says. Our hunch was that fewer available jobs outside the organization may translate into greater satisfaction with the jobs we have in hand when there’s a recession. To test this possibility, Bianchi and co-authors ran three studies. The first looked at almost 50 years of data from the U.S. General Social Survey, a cross-sectional barometer of people’s attitudes and opinions, including their assessment of the economy and satisfaction with the work they do. Through analyses of respondents’ answers between 1974 and 2016, Bianchi et al. found compelling evidence to support their hypothesis: at both the national and state level, job satisfaction rose during recessions and fell off again when the economy did better. A second study analyzed data from the U.K. where recessions tend to hit at the same time as the United States, but can be more or less severe. Two surveys conducted by the University of Essex followed the same respondents between 1991 and 2013, allowing Bianchi et al. to measure how individual job satisfaction fluctuated with macro-economic changes. Limiting their analysis to those people who remained employed over the time period and controlling for things like age, gender and income, the researchers were able to isolate the impact of recession based on the way that a group of just over 8,500,000 employees felt about their jobs. They found the same pattern. “By looking at the same individuals over time, we’re able to eliminate any impact coming from changes in the composition of the workforce across economic cycles,” says Bianchi. The same pattern emerged: during bad economic times, people reported greater job satisfaction even within the same group. Unlocking the Upside of Downturns To dig deeper into the psychological mechanisms undergirding these patterns, Bianchi et al. ran an experiment. One group was shown “bad news” about the economy, while the other read a report on economic growth and “plentiful jobs.” Both groups were then asked to self-report on job satisfaction. Those who had read the news article on recession and unemployment reported greater contentment with their current jobs. Moreover, when reminded of recessions, they reported that alternative jobs became less salient, which in turn led to greater job satisfaction. In other words, their own jobs were “more satisfying.” One implication of these findings is that they challenge the notion that job satisfaction is exclusively dictated by what happens inside the organization. We tend to think of businesses as bubbles that are somehow impervious to the outside world. But these studies show broader societal events can affect us in surprising ways. A Silver Lining for Employers Recessions are rarely welcome news. And for employers, they can engender feelings of hopelessness, says Bianchi. The insights shared in her paper should provide some reassurance, nonetheless, that even when the chips are down, they might have one less thing to worry about. But there’s a caveat. Our findings suggest that there might actually be a bright side to recessions for employers; that greater job satisfaction during these difficult times might help people psychologically weather an otherwise challenging situation. “Of course, this does not mean that employers should take advantage of this surprising goodwill by asking more of their employees. Rather, while employers likely believe that there is little they can do to bolster job satisfaction during tough times, our research suggests that satisfaction-boosting efforts may be even more effective. Moreover, our findings suggest that employers should be more attuned to bolstering satisfaction when times are good and employees are particularly apt to be looking at other opportunities.” Interested in learning more about how a recession may impact the workplace? Then let us help with your coverage and questions. Goizueta Business School’s Emily Bianchi is available to speak regarding this important topic simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.

Emily Bianchi

5 min

Research Reveals Uptick in Hostility toward Black Americans during Tough Economic Times

Goizueta Experts Encourage Business Leaders to Double Down on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts. Do recessions stoke racial tension? When there’s an economic downturn, are White Americans more likely to feel distrust or even animosity towards their Black peers? Researchers have long wondered about the broader societal impact of financial recessions, but until recently their effects on race relations have been unclear. In a recent paper, Emily Bianchi, associate professor of organization and management, Erika Hall, assistant professor of organization and management, and Sarah Lee 19PhD, assistant professor of management, Dominican University of California and visiting professor of organizational behavior, Pepperdine University, find that there is indeed a subtle uptick in hostility towards Black Americans during bad economic times. Their paper, Reexamining the Link Between Economic Downturns and Racial Antipathy, examines publicly available data on attitudes, political trends, and behavioral patterns in the U.S. Sarah Lee 19PhD While businesses tend to cut diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts during economic downturns, Bianchi and Hall underscore that these efforts may be even more critical during these times. To study this phenomenon, the researchers analyzed more than 20 years of data from the American National Election Survey (ANES), a biannual survey capturing political affiliations and perceptions of political candidates from 1964 until 2012. They analyzed how White Americans’ attitudes towards Blacks changed depending on the state of the economy and found that in worse economic times, Whites felt more negatively about Blacks. As Bianchi notes: “we were able to analyze the responses of more than 30,000 individuals who identified as White. And we do find that for decades – between the 1960s and the first part of the 21 century – White Americans feel less warmly about Black Americans during times of financial hardship.” Emily Bianchi, associate professor of organization and management In a second study, Bianchi, Hall, and Lee examined data from Project Implicit, a popular website that allows people to test their own implicit bias and also gauges racial attitudes. Again, the authors found that in worse economic times, White Americans held more negative implicit and explicit attitudes about race. In particular, during the Great Recession, they found that White’s attitudes towards Blacks became substantially more negative in states that were hard hit by the economic crisis compared to states in which the economic downturn was less severe. Having established that economic conditions affected fluctuations in attitudes towards race, the authors then examined whether these emotional shifts translated into actual behavioral outcomes. In other words, if Whites felt more negatively towards Blacks during recessions would this mean that Black professionals were less likely to be successful when the economy floundered? They tested this possibility by looking at two domains of public activity: record sales and voting patterns. First, they examined data from the Billboard Top 10 American songs between 1980 and 2014 and recorded the race of each musician who secured a Billboard hit. They found that in bad economic years, Black musicians were 90% less likely to have a top 10 hit, presumably because White consumers (by far the biggest consumer group during this period) were less likely to support them. Next, they examined the results of more than 8000 elections to the U.S. House of Representatives over the same period. They found that in bad economic times, Black politicians were 21% less likely to win elections. Interestingly, the converse also appears to be true. In good times, Black musicians and politicians fared much better in the polls and the charts – pointing to a certain fluidity in attitudes, says Bianchi. “Across these very different domains, studies, and sample sizes, we find the same consistent pattern: when times are tough, White Americans feel more animosity towards Black Americans and are less likely to support Black musicians or politicians. When things pick up, White Americans have more positive attitudes towards Black Americans and are more likely to endorse Black musicians and Black candidates.” The authors attribute these effects to innate human feelings of fear in the face of threat. Economic threats or shocks tend to evoke uncertainty and fear about what is to come. This translates into greater distrust of others, particularly those perceived as different in some way. And it’s an effect, they argue, that should be very much on the radar of businesses and decision-makers. Erika Hall, assistant professor of organization and management The research cites, “Anecdotally, we know that when times are good, organizations will tend to prioritize their efforts in the area of diversity and inclusion. But while this is critically important at all times, our research suggest that these efforts are probably even more important when times are tough.” All of this points to a need to attend to these issues more acutely when there’s a downturn, says Bianchi. And she cautions that this is likely to be counterintuitive to most leaders, who are likely more inclined to sideline diversity efforts when the economy slides. In terms of the current debate around race relations in the US, however, Bianchi stresses that the economic dimension is just one piece of a “very complicated puzzle.” “What we have seen and are seeing in 2020 and 2021 is a confluence of many major factors: a pandemic that has put a lot of people out of work, and that has put everyone on edge, punctuated by some horrific and well documented instances of violence against Black citizens,” Bianchi says. “So many of these things are in the mixing pot, that it’s hard to pinpoint one specific cause behind the current race crisis in the U.S. So many things coming together at once that have put us in this moment.” Only time will tell how this might play out compared to what we saw in the 80s and 90s, which were economic fluctuations rather than a complete drop off a cliff, she says. It will be more difficult to tease apart the effect of the economy versus the effect of the pandemic versus the effect of police violence on America’s race relations – a situation that Bianchi describes as a “cauldron of mess.” That said, she stresses that for business leaders, now is a good time to double down on efforts to drive diversity and inclusion. “I’d suggest leaders be especially mindful that at times of economic stress such as we are currently experiencing, there is a very real danger of heightened racial animosity.” We’ve attached a full article with even more advice and helpful information from our experts – but if you are looking to learn more or cover this topic, we can help. All of our faculty are available to speak with media, simply click on either expert’s icon now – to book an interview today.

Emily BianchiErika V. Hall

1 min

The role of the economy on individualism

Past work has shown that as countries become wealthier, people often become more individualistic. In new research, Emily Bianchi, assistant professor of organization & management, takes the investigation a step further and finds that even subtle fluctuations in the economy are associated with changes in individualism. She finds that during good economic times, Americans are more likely to seek out ways to signal their uniqueness and individuality. For instance, during boom times, Americans tend to give their children more uncommon names and are more likely to prize autonomy and independence in child-rearing. They are also more likely to favor music featuring self-oriented lyrics. Conversely, during recessions, Americans tend to focus more on fitting in and tend to give their children more common names, listen to more relationally oriented music, and encourage their children to get along with others. Additionally, Bianchi discovered that recessions engender uncertainty, which, in turn, decreases individualism and encourages interdependence. The study results indicated that the “link between wealth and individualism is driven not only by differences in how people live, work, and learn but also by their sense of the predictability, orderliness, and certainty of the surrounding environment.” Source:

Emily Bianchi
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In the News

CEOs Who Began Their Careers During Booms Tend to Be Less Ethical

Harvard Business Review  online

2017-05-12

For CEOs who began their careers when jobs were plentiful and ethical shortcuts were more prevalent, bending rules may become the template for how things are done and what it takes to succeed and survive

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How Money Affects Social Ties

TEDx  online

2017-03-07

Emily Bianchi’s talk discusses economic conditions and its role in shaping attitudes and behaviors in our personal and professional lives.

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Higher-Earning Households Tend To Spend More Time Alone

NPR  radio

2016-05-15

"Does access to money predict social behavior? That's the question posed by researchers Emily Bianchi and Kathleen Vohs in a new study. They dug into data for nearly 30,000 respondents of the General Social Survey - that's a long-running sociological survey of American attitude and behavior - to find out how what we earn affects how we spend our time.'

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