Laura Wallace
Assistant Professor of Organization & Management
- Atlanta GA UNITED STATES
Wallace studies how to build trust with implications for addressing societal disadvantage, changing minds, and fostering growth.
Media
Biography
Her research program examines how people and organizations can foster trust, with consequences for their ability to address societal disadvantage, change minds, and foster growth.
Her research has been published in top scientific outlets, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP), and Journal of Experimental Psychology: General® (JEP:G). She has been awarded competitive funding, including a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship and a Presidential Fellowship from The Ohio State University. She has also received multiple honors, including the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP) Dissertation Award Finalist, Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Outstanding Research Award, and International Association for Conflict Management (IACM) Outstanding Conference Paper Award. Her work has been featured in leading media outlets including Chicago Booth Review, The Times, Newsweek, New York Post, and U.S. News & World Report.
Education
Ohio State University
PhD
Psychology
2019
Ohio State University
MA
Psychology
2015
Xavier University
BA
Organizational Communications
2012
Areas of Expertise
Publications
When sources honestly provide their biased opinion: Bias as a distinct perception with independent effects on credibility and persuasion
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin2020
Anecdotally, attributions that others are biased pervade many domains. Yet, research examining the effects of perceptions of bias is sparse, possibly due to some prior researchers conflating bias with untrustworthiness. We sought to demonstrate that perceptions of bias and untrustworthiness are separable and have independent effects. The current work examines these differences in the persuasion domain, but this distinction has implications for other domains as well.
Influences of source bias that differ from source untrustworthiness: When flip-flopping is more and less surprising
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology2020
iscussions of the difference between biased and fake news were prevalent after the 2016 United States Presidential election. However, within social psychology, and especially the psychology of persuasion, perceptions of source bias have been largely overlooked or conflated with untrustworthiness. In the current work, we sought to demonstrate that bias and untrustworthiness can have differing effects. One such situation is when persuasive sources originally take one position but switch to a different position (flip-flopping). We find that people expect biased versus objective sources to consistently maintain their position.
Matching and mismatching personal and organizational mindsets: Effects on belonging and organizational interest
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General2023
Effects of one-versus two-sided messages on perceived bias: When presenting two sides does versus does not alleviate concerns about bias
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin2023
Growth mindsets are beliefs that abilities, like intelligence, are mutable. Although most prior work has focused on people’s personal mindset beliefs, a burgeoning literature has identified that organizations also vary in the extent to which they communicate and endorse growth mindsets. Organizational growth mindsets have powerful effects on belonging and interest in joining organizations, suggesting that they may be a productive way to intervene to improve individual and societal outcomes. Yet, little is known about for whom organizational mindset interventions might be more or less effective, a critical question for effective implementation and theory.
Biased, but expert: Trade-offs in how stigmatized versus non-stigmatized advocates are perceived and consequences for persuasion
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology2024
Stigmatized versus non-stigmatized people advocating on behalf of the stigmatized group are perceived as more biased, suggesting that they might be less effective advocates. Yet, research testing whether stigmatized or non-stigmatized advocates are more persuasive has yielded mixed results. The current work builds on previous research to clarify that this occurs because stigmatized advocates are also perceived as more expert on social justice issues. Six studies document these trade-offs in perceptions.
Celebrating organizational history triggers social identity threat among Black Americans
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences2024
Many mainstream organizations celebrate their historical successes. In their history, however, they often marginalized racial minorities, women, and other underrepresented groups. We suggest that when organizations celebrate their histories, even without mentioning historical marginalization, they can undermine belonging and intentions to join the organization among historically marginalized groups. Four experiments demonstrate that Black participants who were exposed to an organization that celebrated their history versus the present showed reduced belonging and intentions to participate in the organization.
The preference for attitude neutrality
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General2025
Much research has noted people’s tendency toward extremity. This work has made it clear that some people prefer to hold extreme views and might leave the impression that when biases and preferences occur, they primarily favor extremity. In contrast, in the present work, we examine the possibility that some people prefer attitudinal neutrality across two pretesting samples, three main studies, and two supplementary studies (Ntotal = 1,873).
When do mindsets predict interest in an organizational culture of growth vs. genius? A mindset strength perspective
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology2025
Decades of research indicate that growth versus fixed mindsets can influence important outcomes. Some, however, have recently questioned this conclusion, documenting small to nonexistent effects. Inspired by attitudes research, we propose that some growth mindsets may be stronger—more impactful—than others. Specifically, this work examines whether mindsets held with higher certainty are more likely to influence responses.
In the News
Could Celebrating Your Organization’s History Undermine DEI Efforts?
Society for Personality and Social Psychology online
2024-09-04
Many companies and organizations invest considerable resources in celebrating their histories, so they must think it’s beneficial. But what if these celebrations have a dark side-effect? By glorifying an era when blatant prejudice and discrimination were rampant without acknowledging this negative side of history, celebrating organizational history could make people from marginalized groups feel like they don’t belong today.
Celebrating Corporate History Can Backfire
Chicago Booth Review online
2024-07-01
Many companies and other organizations, from religious institutions to universities, celebrate their history in this way. It can be a means of engaging with potential employees, as well as customers and others. But research points to some risk in this type of celebration. Black Americans may experience an organization’s celebration of its history as marginalizing and even threatening, find Chicago Booth postdoctoral scholar Laura E. Wallace, WGU Labs’ Stephanie L. Reeves, and Ohio State’s Steven J. Spencer, who write that the reaction is related to the fraught racial history of the United States.