Michele J. Gelfand

Behind the aeronautics giant Boeing’s recent high-profile crises and scandals is a shift in its organizational culture toward greater looseness and decentralization in pursuit of profit. To get back on course, the company needs to realign all its operations with the unique demands of the aviation industry.

In a study utilizing computer simulations, researchers from University of Maryland and Stanford University showed that gossip helps disseminate information about people's reputations, allowing individuals to connect with more cooperative individuals while avoiding selfish ones. The study found that gossipers may gain an evolutionary advantage by influencing others and encouraging cooperation.

While threat-related language naturally becomes more pervasive during wars and natural disasters, it can also spread as a result of misinformation campaigns, “engagement” algorithms, and social contagion effects. Improving our understanding of the threat environment thus has become an urgent imperative.

An overarching picture of Michele's work

An important lesson from the pandemic comes from a surprising source: the dodo, a flightless bird that went extinct four centuries ago.

Why Some Societies Respond to Danger Better Than Others

On Monday, the U.S. reached a heartbreaking 500,000 deaths from COVID-19.

Our research shows how ‘tighter’ societies do better – and how the rest must learn to adapt in order to defeat the pandemic

Reopening the economy has often been framed as a partisan issue in the US. But within households, many families are having their own arguments about how lax or strict they should be about the threat of the virus.

Different mindsets about rules can lead to different behaviors.

And the cultural earthquake it’s unleashing.

In the fight against coronavirus, we need every advantage. America’s scientific expertise is second to none, but are U.S. cultural attitudes and tendencies our achilles heel?

Here are some trends to watch.

It’s not just about medicine. It’s about culture.

Feuds, Other Conflicts May Have Neurological Basis, Psychology Study Finds

Your partner’s intentions might be good, but the outcome often isn’t.

Across the world, voters are falling prey to leaders who appeal to their worst instincts. Why?

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Words that carry weight: In a University of Maryland study, Pakistanis and Americans who read diaries from the others’ culture often came away with a more positive and tolerant perspective.

Research is starting to reveal how the urge for vengeance may have evolved, when it can be useful and what could prevent the violence it can provoke

When people feel threatened, they’re more receptive to politicians who espouse xenophobic rhetoric.

Extremely rare but vivid threats often loom large in the human mind.

Dr. Gelfand answers reader questions in Behavioral Scientist's "Ask a Behavioral Scientist" series

This psychology professor and her research team argues that it’s not about remaking the company, but introducing structure without compromising on Tesla’s commitment to innovate.

While the Islamic State has claimed responsibility, the real story is a bit more complicated than that.

On Equal Pay Day, we rightly focus on how a woman would have to work over three months more in order to make what her male counterpart did last year for the same full time work — a gender pay gap that amounts to about $900 billion in annual lost earnings for women holding full-time jobs. But inequities in the workplace go far beyond wage disparity.

A book excerpt and interview with Michele Gelfand, an author and psychologist at the University of Maryland

According to a new book by cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand, “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World,” much of the diversity in the way we think and act derives from a key difference—how tightly or loosely we adhere to social norms. Looking a countries, states, cities, workplaces and even families, Gelfand shows how tight and loose cultures shape our entire lives, and play a big role in the decisions we make around where we live, what company we work for and how we approach others.

Michele Gelfand is Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland and author of an eye-opening new book on the role that culture—and specifically how strictly different cultures enforce norms—plays in our lives.

Research on how people make and break rules can help us understand each other.

Events like the 2015 Paris attacks, the 2015 San Bernardino shootings, the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and others since are seared into our memories. While many details of these attacks were different, they do have a striking commonality: these attacks were perpetrated by immigrant residents or citizens of the targeted country. Such tragedies raise a puzzling question: what would make someone turn against their own country?

Some books stick with you, long after you’ve closed the cover.

In a study of traffic patterns, researchers at the University of California found that drivers of luxury cars were far more likely to cut off other cars than were lower status cars.

“There is a deeper cultural code driving our behavior which reflects the strength of our social norms.”

Men vastly outnumber women among sexual harassers. The reason has more to do with culture than with intrinsic maleness.

These days, it seems like the best path to political success is to become an autocrat.

Amazon’s 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods was met with a lot of fanfare. In the words of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, the partnership was “love at first sight.” A year later, such optimism seems hard to find at Whole Foods.

My research shows that when people feel threatened they want ‘tighter’ social norms, with profound consequences for politics

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Is your organization “tight” or “loose”?

Psychologist Michele Gelfand’s grand unified theory of cultural “tightness”

Seventeen years ago today, 9/11 brought America together. We also tightened the rules of our country dramatically.

We spend many of our waking hours in organizations, but we rarely think about the underlying cultural DNA that is guiding our behavior at work.

Is your culture tight or loose?

ISIS filled a vital cultural need. Its leaders promised, and delivered, badly needed social order in areas reeling from disintegration.

The red state-blue state dividing line between U.S. states ignores a much deeper history and psychology that each state possesses.

Whenever a society, or individual, feels threatened, it tends to tighten up on rules.

M&A deals between groups with different corporate norms can be bad news for investors

Nations differ vastly in how much store they set by rules. Understanding why can help foster communication, cooperation and even change for the better

Available research on economic sanctions attests to their limited effectiveness at best.