About

Cameron Anderson is a professor of organizational behavior at UC Berkeley Haas, holding the Lorraine Tyson Mitchell Chair in Leadership & Communication II. His expertise encompasses topics related to power, status, influence processes, leadership, negotiations, conflict resolution, and team dynamics. Anderson teaches courses in Power and Politics in Organizations, Negotiations, and Conflict Resolution. Prior to joining Haas in 2005, he 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. He regularly consults with leading organizations and corporations worldwide, contributing his research and insights to the understanding of social hierarchies, influence, and interpersonal perception within organizational settings.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Engineering
• Developmental psychology
• Demography

Selected publications

• The Effects of Mindfulness on Cognitive Control and Meaning in Life in College Students

  DigitalCommons - Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw State University) · 2025-12-08

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This study examines the relationship between cognitive control, mindfulness, and perceived meaning in life. Research demonstrates a strong relationship between activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and performance on various cognitive functions as measured by the Erikson Flanker task (Botvinick, et al., 2001) and that increased activity in the ACC is associated with better emotional well-being and self-reflection (Tang, et al., 2015). Mindfulness, defined as nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment, may enhance these ACC-mediated processes. The purpose of this experiment is to examine whether a guided mindfulness activity can improve performance on an ACC-related task and self-reported meaning in life. We predict that participants who engage in a mindfulness activity will demonstrate faster reaction time and improved accuracy on the Flanker task, demonstrating enhanced efficiency of the ACC, and report higher scores on the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) compared to the control group. Approximately 34 participants will be assigned to a mindfulness or control condition in a between-subjects design. All participants will complete the Flanker task and MLQ at baseline and again one week later. During that time, the mindfulness group will complete a meditation activity, while the control group receives no intervention. It is predicted that the mindfulness group will demonstrate greater improvement in both measures, suggesting enhanced cognitive control and perceived meaning. If supported, these findings would support the role of mindfulness in enhancing ACC-related cognitive control and meaning in life, implicating a greater role of the ACC in these measures for future research.

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• Status and subjective well-being: A conceptual replication and extension of Anderson et al. (2012)

  PLoS ONE · 2024-09-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Does the status people possess shape their subjective well-being (SWB)? Prior research that has addressed this question has been correlational. Therefore, in the current research, we provide causal evidence of this effect: In two experiments, we found that individuals reported higher SWB when their own status was higher compared to when it was lower. However, individuals' SWB was not only shaped by their own status, but also by others' status. Specifically, individuals reported higher SWB when others' status was lower than when it was higher. Thus, people have a competitive orientation towards status; they not only want to have high status on an absolute level (e.g., to be highly respected and admired), but also to have higher status than others (e.g., to be more respected and admired than others). A standard self-affirmation manipulation was used in an attempt to mitigate individuals' competitive orientation towards status, but only helped already high-status members feel happier in groups of high-status members, rather than help low-status members feel happier when they uniquely held low status.

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• The Gender Gap and Academic Publishing in Political Science: Evidence from Canada

  The American Review of Canadian Studies · 2024-04-02

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• Be careful what you wish for: Individuals perceived to desire status are afforded less status

  PLoS ONE · 2024-06-25 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  In multiple studies, we found that people who are viewed as possessing a stronger desire for status are, ironically, afforded lower status by others. Coworkers who were viewed as having a higher (versus lower) desire for status (Study 1a and 1b), and individuals who were described as having a higher desire for status (versus a lower desire for status or no information), were afforded lower status (Studies 2, 3a, and 3b). Mediation analyses and an experimental manipulation of the mediator (Study 3a and 3b) suggested that the observed negative effect of desire for status on status was mediated primarily by perceptions of low prosociality. These findings have important implications for status organizing processes in groups.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• New Insights on Navigating Formal Organizational Hierarchies and Informal Identity-based Hierarchies

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2022-07-06

  article

  In this symposium, we adopt a multi-method approach to examine how individuals perceive and navigate formal (e.g., organizational) and informal (e.g. identity-based) hierarchies. Across five talks employing field studies, lab experiments, and online studies, we discuss how a group norm of deference influences reactions to dominant actors, how individuals’ ability to perceive informal status hierarchies impacts team performance, how hierarchical rank differently influences men and women’s perceptions of inequality, how positional insecurity creates a gender difference in leadership behaviors, and how racial minorities attenuate identity-based hierarchies. The papers in this symposium seek to broaden our understanding of how individuals with varying social characteristics navigate both formal and informal hierarchies. Why Dominance Incites Deference: A Social Norms Account Presenter: Jennifer Dannals; Yale School of Management Presenter: Emily Reit; Stanford Graduate School of Business Presenter: Deborah Gruenfeld; Professor at Stanford U. Graduate School of Business Accurately Perceiving Status Hierarchies Reduces Status Conflict and Benefits Group Performance Presenter: Siyu Yu; Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice U. Presenter: Gavin J. Kilduff; New York U. Presenter: Tessa West; NYU Stern School of Business Men, but not Women, Perceive Less Inequality as a Function of their Higher Organizational Rank Presenter: Sonya Mishra; UC Berkeley Presenter: Laura Kray; U. of California, Berkeley Presenter: Cameron Anderson; U. of California, Berkeley Gender differences in response to leadership insecurity and their influence on team performance Presenter: Jin Wook Chang; Korea U. Business School Presenter: Rosalind M. Chow; Carnegie Mellon U. Presenter: Anita Williams Woolley; Carnegie Mellon U. Uniting Through Differences: Rich Cultural-Identity Expression as a Conduit to Inclusion Presenter: Rachel Arnett; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania

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• Social class background, disjoint agency, and hiring decisions

  Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · 2021 · 24 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  PublisherDOI

• The Possession of High Status Strengthens the Status Motive

  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · 2020 · 31 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology

  = 6,426), four of which were preregistered, supported this hypothesis. Individuals with higher status in their social groups or who were randomly assigned to a high-status condition were more motivated to have high status than were individuals with low status. Furthermore, upper-class individuals had a stronger status motive than working-class individuals, in part, due to their high status. High-status individuals had a stronger status motive, in part, because they were more confident in their ability to achieve (or retain) high status, but not because of other possible mechanisms (e.g., task self-efficacy). These findings provide a possible explanation for why status hierarchies are so stable and why inequality rises in social collectives over time.

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• Disagreeableness and the attainment of power in organizations

  OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2020-08-11

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• People with disagreeable personalities (selfish, combative, and manipulative) do not have an advantage in pursuing power at work

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 42 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Engineering

  Does being disagreeable-that is, behaving in aggressive, selfish, and manipulative ways-help people attain power? This question has long captivated philosophers, scholars, and laypeople alike, and yet prior empirical findings have been inconclusive. In the current research, we conducted two preregistered prospective longitudinal studies in which we measured participants' disagreeableness prior to entering the labor market and then assessed the power they attained in the context of their work organization ∼14 y later when their professional careers had unfolded. Both studies found disagreeable individuals did not attain higher power as opposed to extraverted individuals who did gain higher power in their organizations. Furthermore, the null relationship between disagreeableness and power was not moderated by individual differences, such as gender or ethnicity, or by contextual variables, such as organizational culture. What can account for this null relationship? A close examination of behavior patterns in the workplace found that disagreeable individuals engaged in two distinct patterns of behavior that offset each other's effects on power attainment: They engaged in more dominant-aggressive behavior, which positively predicted attaining higher power, but also engaged in less communal and generous behavior, which predicted attaining less power. These two effects, when combined, appeared to cancel each other out and led to a null correlation between disagreeableness and power.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Seeing Social Hierarchy in a New Light: The Bright Side of Power and the Dark Side of Status

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2019-08-01

  article

  The dynamics that underlie social hierarchy among individuals represent some of the fastest growing research areas in management and related sciences (Fiske, 2010; Magee & Galinsky, 2008; Rucker, Galinsky, & Magee, 2018), and with good reasons hierarchy is a fundamental element of social life and impacts a wide range of important individual outcomes. Two of the most prominent and fundamental hierarchical dimensions in the social sciences are status and power (Blader & Chen, 2012; Blau, 1964; Fiske, 2010; Kemper, 2006; Magee & Galinsky, 2008; Weber, 1964). Although individuals’power and status may covary, there are nevertheless meaningful distinctions between them: power is defined as asymmetric control over valued resources in relationships (Emerson 1962; Magee & Galinsky, 2008), whereas status is defined the degree of respect, esteem, and prestige that an individual holds in the eyes of others (Magee & Galinsky, 2008). The prevalence and significance of social hierarchy has prompted a considerable amount of research that links both status and power to various outcomes. Interestingly, the effects of power tend to be socially undesirable. For example, high power reduces perspective taking (Fiske, 1993; Galinsky et al., 2006; Lammers, Gordijn, & Otten, 2008; Tjosvold & Sagaria, 1978) and enactment of justice (Blader & Chen, 2012). Power focuses an individual’s attention on their own interests (Piff, Kraus, Côté, Cheng, & Keltner, 2010; van Kleef & Côté, 2007). The powerful are more likely to engage in a range of selfish and unethical behaviors, including cheating for money (Dubois et al., 2015), sexually harassing others (Studd, 1996), and objectifying others as a means to their own ends (Gruenfeld et al., 2008). On the contrary, the effects of status are generally socially desirable. High status increases perspective taking (Blader, Shirako, & Chen, 2016). This is because the status- conferral processes lead them to focus on others (Flynn, Reagans, Amanatullah, & Ames, 2006) as they strive to monitor and maintain their high-status position. Status is positively associated with justice toward others (Blader & Chen, 2012). However, the existing literature is showing an incomplete picture about the impact of power and status on individual behaviors and attitudes, emphasizing only the dark side of power and the bright side of status. This one-sided view renders a screwed understanding, if not a misunderstanding, of power and status effects. This symposium calls scholars to consider social hierarchy in a new light, specifically by highlighting the potential upside of power and downside of status on people’s behaviors and attitudes. Together, the four empirical papers shed new light on effects of power and status. We anticipate that our symposium will stimulate new perspectives and raise important questions about power and status. As such, we hope it will foster greater sophistication in future theorizing and empirical work on power and status. Shock and Ha! How Power Influences the Use of Humor Presenter: Thomas Bradford Bitterly; U. of Michigan, Ross School of Business Powerlessness also Corrupts: Lacking Power Increases Self-Promotional Lying Presenter: Huisi Li; Cornell U. Presenter: Ya-ru Chen; Cornell U. Presenter: John Angus Hildreth; Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Status and Social Class Increases Status Motive Presenter: Cameron Anderson; U. of California, Berkeley Presenter: Daron Sharps; U. of California, Berkeley Presenter: John Angus Hildreth; Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Model Behavior?: The Effect of Status on the Imitation of Self-Interested Behavior Presenter: Michelle Duguid; Cornell U.

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Frequent coauthors

• Elizabeth R. Tenney

  University of Utah

  17 shared

• Nathan Meikle

  University of Kansas

  17 shared

• Dacher Keltner

  17 shared

• David Hunsaker

  17 shared

• Marius van Dijke

  Erasmus University Rotterdam

  16 shared

• Gerben Langendijk

  Erasmus University Rotterdam

  16 shared

• David De Cremer

  National University of Singapore

  16 shared

• Don A. Moore

  16 shared

Awards & honors

• Earl F. Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award (2008)
• Professor of the Year (Stern School of Business, New York Un…
• Most Influential Paper, Academy of Management Conflict Manag…
• Schwabacher Fellowship, Haas School of Business (2008)
• Junior Faculty Research Grant (University of California) (Oc…