Sophia L. Pink

Samantha N. Smith, Sophia Pink, Erika Kirgios, Edward H. Chang, Katherine L. Milkman (2026), Which Group Should I Join? Competition Drives Group Selection Away From Like-Minded Others, . 10.1016/j.jesp.2025.104841

Abstract: People naturally seek group memberships that support their need for belonging and desire to interact with like-minded others (e.g., those with similar affiliations, such as political parties, preferred sports teams, or academic disciplines). However, we theorize and show that people may be more willing to forgo such homophily in the face of competition. We propose this pattern arises because of the belief that having a distinctive identity will yield two strategic advantages: (1) it will render a person's ideas and contributions more unique, improving their performance relative to the group; and (2) it will leave evaluators with no clear comparison standard, allowing the person in question to stand out from their group. Across four pre-registered studies (N = 3200), including a correlational field study of full-time workers and three experiments involving both real and hypothetical group choices, we show that competition increases people's willingness to opt into groups without like-minded others (e.g., becoming the only Democrat among Republicans) and find evidence consistent with our two proposed mechanisms. This research sheds new light on when and why competitive environments systematically shape our strategic thinking and affiliative choices.

Sophia Pink, Jose Cervantez, Erika Kirgios, Edward Chang, Katherine L. Milkman (2025), Can Stereotype Reactance Prompt Women to Compete? A Field Experiment, Organization Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2024.19563

Abstract: Women are consistently underrepresented in leadership roles. One contributor may be that women are generally less willing than equally-qualified men to enter competitions (e.g., for jobs or promotions). We draw from research on “stereotype reactance”—the idea that telling people about stereotyped expectations can encourage defiance—to propose and test whether telling women about the gender gap in competition entry can increase their willingness to compete. Our prediction contrasts with prior work on stereotype threat and descriptive norms suggesting that highlighting the gender competition gap might lead women to refrain from competing. In two incentive-compatible, preregistered online experiments, we find that informing women about the gender competition gap increases their likelihood of competing for higher pay, and this effect is mediated by stereotype reactance, consistent with our theorizing. Moreover, exposing both men and women to information about the gender competition gap closes the gap. We then test this informational intervention in a large-scale field experiment on an executive job search platform (n = 4,245), examining whether telling women about the gender competition gap increases their willingness to compete for leadership roles relative to a control message that tells them about an identity-irrelevant competition gap. We find that relative to our control message, informing women about the gender gap in willingness to compete increases submitted job applications by over 20% on the day of condition assignment. This suggests that women’s willingness to compete is affected not just by confidence, but also by cultural expectations and motivation to defy stereotypical norms.