Kim Peters
Biographic Data
| ID | 3657703 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kim Peters |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kim |
| FAMILY NAME | Peters |
| SIGNATURE | PETERS K |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Queensland |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8091-8636 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 105 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A Social Identity Model of Leadership Development Implementation
Despite substantial investment in leadership development, organizations often struggle to implement relevant programs effectively. This reflects the fact that the success of program implementation is contingent on identity dynamics. Building on the social identity model of leadership, the ASPIRe model, and evidence-based programs such as 5R that apply these principles, we argue that, to be effective, implementation needs to ensure that the approa…
Income and Immorality
The topic of CEO pay has become increasingly prevalent in public discourse. In this paper, we explore whether perceptions that a CEO is relatively highly paid affect evaluations of the moral character of the CEO and of the organisation that they represent. Using a time-separated survey of employees’ perceptions of the pay and moral character of their CEO (N = 306; pre-registered), we found that CEOs who were perceived to be relatively well paid w…
Investigating object orientation effects across 18 languages
Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of objects mentioned in sentences. Mental representation is often measured with the sentence-picture verification task, wherein participants first read a sentence that implies the object property (i.e., shape and orientation). Participants then respond to an image of an object by indicating whether it was an object from the sentenc…
Identifying antecedents and mechanisms of age-based stereotype threat
Older employees are stereotyped at work (e.g., as technophobic), making them susceptible to stereotype threat, or the concern of being reduced to a negative stereotype. Although consequences of age-based stereotype threat have been identified (e.g., poorer job attitudes), far less is known about workplace triggers and underlying mechanism. Three studies aimed to identify the workplace antecedents and mechanism underlying stereotype threat. Togeth…
Continuity and change
The European Journal of Social Psychology (EJSP) has been a key outlet for social psychological research across the world for more than 50 years. The myriad changes that have occurred in the last half-century continue to present the field, and EJSP more specifically, with a number of opportunities and challenges. In terms of opportunities, new social and political environments continue to spur innovation in topics, research practices and in the s…
Introduction to the special issue on gossip and group processes
Measuring the semantic priming effect across many languages
Do followers mind the pay gap? An experimental test of the impact of the vertical pay gap on leader effectiveness
The pay gap between those in leadership positions and other organisational members has risen markedly over the last five decades. There is evidence that this gap may undermine subordinate identification with and evaluation of the organisation and its leaders. To date, however, there is limited evidence that this gap affects related subordinate behaviour, including their willingness to follow their leader’s commands and work for the organisational…
The role of social identity and self-efficacy in predicting service providers’ use of Stepping Stones Triple P following training
SSTP professionals’ delivery data were analysed with survey data from 2 years after training. • Social identity was associated with delivery of Stepping Stones Triple P in independent analysis. • Self-efficacy mediated the relationship between social identity and use of SSTP. Identifying factors that may contribute to the use of programs following the completion of training by practitioners is of practical and theoretical importance. This study e…
Power to the people
Organizational identification underpins a range of important outcomes in the workplace, including workers' well‐being. Drawing on the social identity approach to health (SIAH), here we explore whether certain organizational forms—specifically, organizational decentralization—can boost organizational identification and, in this way, employee well‐being. We test this possibility in four high‐powered samples of workers in the UK, US and Italy (N tot…
A 32‐society investigation of the influence of perceived economic inequality on social class stereotyping
There is a growing body of work suggesting that social class stereotypes are amplified when people perceive higher levels of economic inequality—that is, the wealthy are perceived as more competent and assertive and the poor as more incompetent and unassertive. The present study tested this prediction in 32 societies and also examines the role of wealth‐based categorization in explaining this relationship. We found that people who perceived highe…
How living in economically unequal societies shapes our minds and our social lives
In recent decades, the economies of many countries have produced increasingly unequal outcomes for the rich and poor. This economic trend has attracted interest from members of the media, public and political classes as well as researchers who are interested in its societal implications. While this research has traditionally been the purview of economists and sociologists, there has been a burgeoning growth in research that has sought to understa…
The Language of Inequality
There is evidence that in more economically unequal societies, social relations are more strained. We argue that this may reflect the tendency for wealth to become a more fitting lens for seeing the world, so that in economically more unequal circumstances, people more readily divide the world into “the haves” and “have nots.” Our argument is supported by archival and experimental evidence. Two archival analyses reveal that at times of greater in…
A social identity analysis of how pay inequality divides the workplace
The present research examines why organizations with more unequal pay structures have been found to be characterized by a range of negative workplace outcomes. Drawing on the social identity approach, we propose that higher pay disparity can increase the comparative fit of pay categories whereby the organizational “haves” (the highest paid employees) and “have nots” (the lowest paid employees) are more likely to be categorized into distinct socia…
Situational factors shape moral judgements in the trolley dilemma in Eastern, Southern and Western countries in a culturally diverse sample
Testing the motivational effects of attainable role models
The motivational theory of role modeling proposes motivational processes as critical mechanisms through which attainable role models can increase role aspirants' adoption of more ambitious goals. We conducted four studies to empirically test this proposition with role aspirants and their role models in field and experimental settings (total N = 2,165). Results provide empirical support for motivational processes of role modelling. Together they d…
How economic inequality shapes social class stereotyping
Consequences of Economic Inequality for the Social and Political Vitality of Society
Economic inequality has been found to have pernicious effects, reducing mental and physical health, decreasing societal cohesion, and fueling support for nativist parties and illiberal autocratic leaders. We start this review with an outline of what social identity theorizing offers to the study of inequality. We then articulate four hypotheses that can be derived from the social identity approach: the fit hypothesis, the wealth‐categorization hy…
To which world regions does the valence-dominance model of social perception apply
Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof an…
Identity economics meets identity leadership
“Our Country Needs a Strong Leader Right Now”
Societal inequality has been found to harm the mental and physical health of its members and undermine overall social cohesion. Here, we tested the hypothesis that economic inequality is associated with a wish for a strong leader in a study involving 28 countries from five continents (Study 1, N = 6,112), a study involving an Australian community sample (Study 2, N = 515), and two experiments (Study 3a, N = 96; Study 3b, N = 296). We found correl…
The Social Psychology of Inequality
Norm talk and human cooperation
Norm talk is verbal communication that explicitly states or implicitly implies a social norm. To investigate its ability to shape cultural dynamics, 2 types of norm talk were examined: injunction, which explicitly states what should be done, and gossip, which implies a norm by stating an action approved or disapproved of by the communicator. In 2 experiments, participants engaged in norm talk in repeated public goods games. Norm talk was found to…
Attributions of leaders’ charisma increase after their death
In the present research, we replicate previous research showing that death increases attributions of a leader’s charisma and that this is mediated by followers’ perceptions of a connection between the leader and their group (identity fusion). We also extend previous research by including identity leadership as a further mediator, examining the importance of a leaders’ perceived ability to strengthen the identity of the group they lead. Prediction…
Superstars are not necessarily role models
There is a general assumption that we choose role models from the ranks of those who have demonstrated extraordinary competence. However, the person perception literature supports the expectation that morality may also matter, and that we may be most likely to role model competent individuals if we also believe that they have good moral character. To test this possibility, we conducted four studies of adults’ role modeling of workplace supervisor…
Consequences of Economic Inequality for the Social and Political Vitality of Society
Economic inequality has been found to have pernicious effects, reducing mental and physical health, decreasing societal cohesion, and fueling support for nativist parties and illiberal autocratic leaders. We start this review with an outline of what social identity theorizing offers to the study of inequality. We then articulate four hypotheses that can be derived from the social identity approach: the fit hypothesis, the wealth‐categorization hy…
From social talk to social action
Seemingly trivial social talk provides fertile ground for emotion sharing (a narrator and audience's realization that they experience the same emotional response toward a target), which in turn creates a coalition between the narrator and the audience, configures the narrator and audience's relationship with the target, and coordinates their target-directed action. In this article, the authors use 4 studies to investigate this thesis. In Studies …
How economic inequality shapes social class stereotyping
Bad habit or social good? How perceptions of gossiper morality are related to gossip content
From a folk perspective, gossipers (individuals who talk about the behaviours of others) are considered to be immoral individuals, doing harm to those they discuss. However, this folk perspective sits uneasily with recent claims that gossipers may actually do some good. In particular, it has been suggested that gossipers who share diagnostic information about the morality of social targets may help audiences to identify targets who are trustworth…
Talking about others
There is evidence that we may be more likely to share stories about other people to the extent that they arouse emotion. If so, this emotional social talk may have important social consequences, providing the basis for many of our social beliefs and mobilising people to engage or disengage with the targets of the talk. Across three studies, we tested the situated communicability of emotional social information by examining if the ability of emoti…
How living in economically unequal societies shapes our minds and our social lives
In recent decades, the economies of many countries have produced increasingly unequal outcomes for the rich and poor. This economic trend has attracted interest from members of the media, public and political classes as well as researchers who are interested in its societal implications. While this research has traditionally been the purview of economists and sociologists, there has been a burgeoning growth in research that has sought to understa…
A multimodal theory of affect diffusion
There is broad consensus in the literature that affect diffuses through social networks (such that a person may "acquire" or "catch" an affective state from his or her social contacts). It is further assumed that affect diffusion primarily occurs as the result of people's tendencies to synchronize their affective actions (such as smiles and frowns). However, as we show, there is a lack of clarity in the literature about the substrate and scope of…
Norm talk and human cooperation
Norm talk is verbal communication that explicitly states or implicitly implies a social norm. To investigate its ability to shape cultural dynamics, 2 types of norm talk were examined: injunction, which explicitly states what should be done, and gossip, which implies a norm by stating an action approved or disapproved of by the communicator. In 2 experiments, participants engaged in norm talk in repeated public goods games. Norm talk was found to…
To which world regions does the valence-dominance model of social perception apply
Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof an…
Situational factors shape moral judgements in the trolley dilemma in Eastern, Southern and Western countries in a culturally diverse sample
Marines, medics, and machismo
Women have made substantial inroads into some traditionally masculine occupations (e.g., accounting, journalism) but not into others (e.g., military, surgery). Evidence suggests the latter group of occupations is characterized by hyper-masculine 'macho' stereotypes that are especially disadvantageous to women. Here, we explore whether such macho occupational stereotypes may be especially tenacious, not just because of their impact on women, but a…
Power to the people
Organizational identification underpins a range of important outcomes in the workplace, including workers' well‐being. Drawing on the social identity approach to health (SIAH), here we explore whether certain organizational forms—specifically, organizational decentralization—can boost organizational identification and, in this way, employee well‐being. We test this possibility in four high‐powered samples of workers in the UK, US and Italy (N tot…
A social identity analysis of how pay inequality divides the workplace
The present research examines why organizations with more unequal pay structures have been found to be characterized by a range of negative workplace outcomes. Drawing on the social identity approach, we propose that higher pay disparity can increase the comparative fit of pay categories whereby the organizational “haves” (the highest paid employees) and “have nots” (the lowest paid employees) are more likely to be categorized into distinct socia…
Superstars are not necessarily role models
There is a general assumption that we choose role models from the ranks of those who have demonstrated extraordinary competence. However, the person perception literature supports the expectation that morality may also matter, and that we may be most likely to role model competent individuals if we also believe that they have good moral character. To test this possibility, we conducted four studies of adults’ role modeling of workplace supervisor…
From social talk to social action
Seemingly trivial social talk provides fertile ground for emotion sharing (a narrator and audience's realization that they experience the same emotional response toward a target), which in turn creates a coalition between the narrator and the audience, configures the narrator and audience's relationship with the target, and coordinates their target-directed action. In this article, the authors use 4 studies to investigate this thesis. In Studies …
Talking about others
There is evidence that we may be more likely to share stories about other people to the extent that they arouse emotion. If so, this emotional social talk may have important social consequences, providing the basis for many of our social beliefs and mobilising people to engage or disengage with the targets of the talk. Across three studies, we tested the situated communicability of emotional social information by examining if the ability of emoti…
The Motivational Theory of Role Modeling
Role models are often suggested as a way of motivating individuals to set and achieve ambitious goals, especially for members of stigmatized groups in achievement settings. Yet, the literature on role models tends not to draw on the motivational literature to explain how role models may help role aspirants achieve these outcomes. In this paper, we introduce role aspirants and their motivational processes into an understanding of role modeling by …
Bad habit or social good? How perceptions of gossiper morality are related to gossip content
From a folk perspective, gossipers (individuals who talk about the behaviours of others) are considered to be immoral individuals, doing harm to those they discuss. However, this folk perspective sits uneasily with recent claims that gossipers may actually do some good. In particular, it has been suggested that gossipers who share diagnostic information about the morality of social targets may help audiences to identify targets who are trustworth…
Marines, medics, and machismo
Women have made substantial inroads into some traditionally masculine occupations (e.g., accounting, journalism) but not into others (e.g., military, surgery). Evidence suggests the latter group of occupations is characterized by hyper-masculine 'macho' stereotypes that are especially disadvantageous to women. Here, we explore whether such macho occupational stereotypes may be especially tenacious, not just because of their impact on women, but a…
A multimodal theory of affect diffusion
There is broad consensus in the literature that affect diffuses through social networks (such that a person may "acquire" or "catch" an affective state from his or her social contacts). It is further assumed that affect diffusion primarily occurs as the result of people's tendencies to synchronize their affective actions (such as smiles and frowns). However, as we show, there is a lack of clarity in the literature about the substrate and scope of…
Facets of the Fundamental Content Dimensions
1.808). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported our model. Both the two-factor model and the four-factor model showed good fit indices across countries. Participants answered additional measures intended to demonstrate the fruitfulness of distinguishing the facets. The findings support the model's construct validity by positioning the fundamental dimensions and their facets within a network of self-construal, values, impression man…
Getting on top of the glass cliff
A social identity analysis of responses to economic inequality
Attributions of leaders’ charisma increase after their death
In the present research, we replicate previous research showing that death increases attributions of a leader’s charisma and that this is mediated by followers’ perceptions of a connection between the leader and their group (identity fusion). We also extend previous research by including identity leadership as a further mediator, examining the importance of a leaders’ perceived ability to strengthen the identity of the group they lead. Prediction…
Superstars are not necessarily role models
There is a general assumption that we choose role models from the ranks of those who have demonstrated extraordinary competence. However, the person perception literature supports the expectation that morality may also matter, and that we may be most likely to role model competent individuals if we also believe that they have good moral character. To test this possibility, we conducted four studies of adults’ role modeling of workplace supervisor…
I follow, therefore I lead
It is acknowledged that identity plays an important role in a person's leadership development. To date, however, there has been little consideration of the possibility – suggested by the social identity perspective – that individuals who identify as followers may be especially likely to emerge as leaders. We test this possibility in a longitudinal sample of recruit commandos in the Royal Marines. Recruits rated their identification with leader an…
“Our Country Needs a Strong Leader Right Now”
Societal inequality has been found to harm the mental and physical health of its members and undermine overall social cohesion. Here, we tested the hypothesis that economic inequality is associated with a wish for a strong leader in a study involving 28 countries from five continents (Study 1, N = 6,112), a study involving an Australian community sample (Study 2, N = 515), and two experiments (Study 3a, N = 96; Study 3b, N = 296). We found correl…
The Social Psychology of Inequality
Norm talk and human cooperation
Norm talk is verbal communication that explicitly states or implicitly implies a social norm. To investigate its ability to shape cultural dynamics, 2 types of norm talk were examined: injunction, which explicitly states what should be done, and gossip, which implies a norm by stating an action approved or disapproved of by the communicator. In 2 experiments, participants engaged in norm talk in repeated public goods games. Norm talk was found to…
Identity economics meets identity leadership
Testing the motivational effects of attainable role models
The motivational theory of role modeling proposes motivational processes as critical mechanisms through which attainable role models can increase role aspirants' adoption of more ambitious goals. We conducted four studies to empirically test this proposition with role aspirants and their role models in field and experimental settings (total N = 2,165). Results provide empirical support for motivational processes of role modelling. Together they d…
How economic inequality shapes social class stereotyping
Consequences of Economic Inequality for the Social and Political Vitality of Society
Economic inequality has been found to have pernicious effects, reducing mental and physical health, decreasing societal cohesion, and fueling support for nativist parties and illiberal autocratic leaders. We start this review with an outline of what social identity theorizing offers to the study of inequality. We then articulate four hypotheses that can be derived from the social identity approach: the fit hypothesis, the wealth‐categorization hy…
To which world regions does the valence-dominance model of social perception apply
Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof an…
The Language of Inequality
There is evidence that in more economically unequal societies, social relations are more strained. We argue that this may reflect the tendency for wealth to become a more fitting lens for seeing the world, so that in economically more unequal circumstances, people more readily divide the world into “the haves” and “have nots.” Our argument is supported by archival and experimental evidence. Two archival analyses reveal that at times of greater in…
A social identity analysis of how pay inequality divides the workplace
The present research examines why organizations with more unequal pay structures have been found to be characterized by a range of negative workplace outcomes. Drawing on the social identity approach, we propose that higher pay disparity can increase the comparative fit of pay categories whereby the organizational “haves” (the highest paid employees) and “have nots” (the lowest paid employees) are more likely to be categorized into distinct socia…
Situational factors shape moral judgements in the trolley dilemma in Eastern, Southern and Western countries in a culturally diverse sample
Power to the people
Organizational identification underpins a range of important outcomes in the workplace, including workers' well‐being. Drawing on the social identity approach to health (SIAH), here we explore whether certain organizational forms—specifically, organizational decentralization—can boost organizational identification and, in this way, employee well‐being. We test this possibility in four high‐powered samples of workers in the UK, US and Italy (N tot…
A 32‐society investigation of the influence of perceived economic inequality on social class stereotyping
There is a growing body of work suggesting that social class stereotypes are amplified when people perceive higher levels of economic inequality—that is, the wealthy are perceived as more competent and assertive and the poor as more incompetent and unassertive. The present study tested this prediction in 32 societies and also examines the role of wealth‐based categorization in explaining this relationship. We found that people who perceived highe…
Psychology (29 works) · Social Psychology (29 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (14 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Social identity theory (10 works) · Inequality (9 works) · Perception (9 works) · Social group (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works)