Cameron Anderson 
Professor | Lorraine Tyson Mitchell Chair in Leadership & Communication II | Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES
Spotlight
Areas of Expertise (8)
Status Hierarchies
Psychology of Power
Self and Interpersonal Perception
Team Dynamics
Influence Processes
Personality
Emotions
Groups and Teams
About
Cameron Anderson is an expert on topics pertaining to power, status, and influence processes, leadership, negotiations and conflict resolution, and team dynamics. Anderson, a professor of organizational behavior, teaches courses in Power and Politics in Organizations, Negotiations, and Conflict Resolution. He has been awarded the Earl F. Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award seven times. Prior to joining the Haas faculty in 2005, Anderson taught at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and at the Stern School of Business at New York University, where he was awarded Professor of the Year. In addition to his research and teaching responsibilities, Anderson regularly consults with leading organizations and corporations worldwide.
Multimedia
Publications:
Documents:
Photos:
Videos:
Audio:
Education (2)
University of California, Berkeley: PhD, Social/Personality Psychology
University of Washington: BS, Psychology
Links (3)
Honors & Awards (11)
Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Full-time MBA Program
2008
Bakar Faculty Fellow, Haas School of Business
2010
Schwabacher Fellowship, Haas School of Business
2008
Most Influential Paper, Academy of Management Conflict Management Division
2008
Junior Faculty Research Grant (University of California)
October 2005, October 2007
Professor of the Year (Stern School of Business, New York University)
June 2005
Dispute Resolution Research Center Grant (Northwestern University): The sense of power in negotiations and decision-making
April 2002 (with Adam Galinsky)
Kellogg Teams and GroupsResearchCenter Grant (Northwestern University): Emotional similarity in teams
April 2002 (with Hoon-Seok Choi and Leigh Thompson)
Social Science Research Grant (UC Berkeley): Status, power, and emotion
October 1998
University Graduate Fellowship (UC Berkeley)
1997-1998
Member, Phi Beta Kappa (University of Washington)
1994
Selected External Service & Affiliations (8)
- Associate Editor, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2014-present
- Editorial Board Member, Academy of Management Journal, 2011-2015
- Editorial Board Member, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2009-2011
- Ad Hoc Journal Reviewer: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, Psychological Science, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Organization Science, European Journal of Social Psychology, Emotion, Motivation and Emotion, Cognition and Emotion, Journal of Research in Personality, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Applied Social Psychology
- Member, International Association of Conflict Management
- Member, Academy of Management
- Member, Society for Personality and Social Psychology
- Member, American Psychological Association
Positions Held (1)
At Haas since 2005
2013 – present, Professor, Haas School of Business 2011 – present, Lorraine Tyson Mitchell Chair in Leadership & Communication II 2008 – 2011, Associate Professor, Haas School of Business 2005 – 2008, Assistant Professor, Haas School of Business 2003 – 2005, Assistant Professor, Stern School of Business 2001 – 2003, Postdoctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Media Appearances (11)
Yes, You Can "Catch" Your Partner's Mood
Yahoo! online
2021-03-08
“We only found it to be a good thing, predicting a stronger bond and longer-lasting relationship,” Berkeley Haas School of Business professor Cameron Anderson says. “Being on the ‘same page’ means feeling validated, affirmed, acting more in concert with each other, and understanding each other better.”
Professor Profiles: Cameron Anderson, Haas School of Business
MBA Mission online
2021-01-20
Cameron Anderson, who received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 2001, came to Haas from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 2005. He has received the Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching at Haas seven times and was also named a Bakar Faculty Fellow in 2010. Anderson is currently the Lorraine Tyson Mitchell Chair in Leadership and Communication II as well as the Management of Organizations Group Chair.
Opinion | White Riot
The New York Times online
2021-01-13
“It is very, very difficult for individuals and groups to come to terms with losing status and power,” Cameron Anderson, a professor at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, wrote by email. While most acute among those possessing high status and power, Anderson said,
Turns Out Nice Folks Don’t Finish Last After All
California Magazine online
2020-12-18
So, how does that explain the rise of a bully like Donald Trump? According to the study’s lead author Cameron Anderson, a professor of organizational behavior at the Haas School of Business, the research showed that while, “disagreeableness did not help people attain power, … it also did not hurt their pursuit of power.”
Research Finds That Being A Jerk Doesn’t Help You Get Ahead At Work
Forbes online
2020-09-18
In findings from Berkeley Haas and UC Berkeley, evidence consistently showed that disagreeable people do not have an advantage at work. “I was surprised by the consistency of the findings. No matter the individual or the context, disagreeableness did not give people an advantage in the competition for power — even in more cutthroat, ‘dog-eat-dog’ organizational cultures,” said study co-author Cameron Anderson in a press release.
It doesn't pay to be a jerk at work, research finds
CNN online
2020-09-01
"Many people believe that nice guys finish last," said the study's lead author Cameron Anderson, a professor of organizational behavior at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Egomaniac Who Doesn't Care About Others? Study Finds You're Going Nowhere Fast
Newsweek online
2020-09-01
"The findings tell us that organizations do not prize and value agreeableness as much as they should. Disagreeable individuals achieve higher power and rank at the same rate as agreeable individuals, even though organizations benefit from putting more agreeable individuals in charge," Cameron Anderson, a Berkeley Haas profession who co-authored the study, told Newsweek in an email.
New Insight into the Limits of Self-Insight
Psychology Today online
2019-09-30
Others who work on similar questions found the results intriguing. “This is fascinating work,” social psychologist Cameron Anderson of the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley, who wasn’t involved in the research, says. “Most people would guess—and many interventions are built upon the assumption—that knowing how smart and skilled you are benefits you in the long run. But this casts doubt on that assumption.”
New Insights into Self-Insight: More May Not Be Better
Scientific American online
2019-08-27
Is it a good thing to honestly assess yourself, including your shortcomings? Or better to be a little overconfident? A new study, notable for following new strict pre-registration guidelines, indicated that the happiest people are actually those who vastly overestimate their own abilities. “Most people would guess—and many interventions are built upon the assumption—that knowing how smart and skilled you are benefits you in the long run," said Prof. Cameron Anderson, Lorraine Tyson Mitchell Chair in Leadership & Communication II and Chair of the Management of Organizations Group. "But this casts doubt on that assumption.”
How to resist the lure of overconfidence
Scientific American online
2019-08-02
Overconfidence can lead to bad decision making, yet overconfident people are still judged as more competent. "Confidence makes individuals appear more competent in the eyes of others, even when that confidence is unjustified and unwarranted," said Prof. Cameron Anderson, Lorraine Tyson Mitchell Chair in Leadership & Communication II and Chair of the Management of Organizations Group.
How Trump’s Brazenness Allows Him to Get Away With It
Atlantic online
2019-07-10
If people use secrecy as a heuristic to gauge importance, they use confidence as a heuristic to gauge competence. As Cameron Anderson, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, explained to me, “There is a lot of research showing that when people exhibit confidence, they come across as more competent, intelligent, skilled, and so forth.”
Selected Research Grants (5)
Institute of Industrial Relations Research Grant
University of California
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
Junior Faculty Research Grant
University of California
2005, 2007
Dispute Resolution Research Center Grant
Northwestern University
April 2002 The sense of power in negotiations and decision-making (with Adam Galinsky)
Kellogg Teams and Groups Research Center Grant
Northwestern University
April 2002 Emotional similarity in teams (with Hoon-Seok Choi and Leigh Thompson)
Social Science Research Grant
University of California
1998 Status, power, and emotion
Selected Papers & Publications (11)
Ranking low, feeling high: How hierarchical position and experienced power promote prosocial behavior in response to procedural justice
Journal of Applied Psychologyvan Dijke, M., De Cremer, D., Langendijk, G., Anderson, C.
2018
Hierarchical rank and principled dissent: How holding higher rank suppresses objection to unethical practices
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision ProcessesKennedy, J. A., Anderson. C.
2017
Hierarchy and Its Discontents: Status Disagreement Leads to Withdrawal of Contribution and Lower Group Performance
Organizational ScienceKilduff, G. J., Willer, R., & Anderson, C.
2016
The Role of Physical Formidability in Human Social Status Allocation
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyLukaszewski, A. W., Simmons, Z. L., Anderson, C., & Roney, J. R.
2016
Failure at the top: How power undermines collaborative performance
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyHildreth, J. A. D., & Anderson, C.
2016
Is the Desire for Status a Fundamental Human Motive? A Review of the Empirical Literature
Psychological BulletinAnderson, C., Hildreth, J. A.D., & Howland, L.
2015
Sociometric Status and Subjective Well-being
Psychological ScienceAnderson, C., Kraus, M. W., Galinsky, A. D., & Keltner, D.
2012
A Status-enhancement Account of Overconfidence
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyAnderson, C., Brion, S., Moore, D. M., Kennedy, J. A.
2012
The Functions and Dysfunctions of Hierarchy
Research in Organizational BehaviorAnderson, C., & Brown, C.
2010
The Pursuit of Status in Social Groups
Current Directions in Psychological ScienceAnderson, C., & Kilduff, G.
2009
Why do dominant personalities attain influence in groups? A competence-signaling account of personality dominance
Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 96, 491-503.Anderson, C., & Kilduff, G.
2009
Teaching (1)
Courses
Power and Politics in Organizations Negotiations and Conflict Resolution
Social