Social Psychology Network

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Deborah Gruenfeld

Deborah Gruenfeld

Deborah H Gruenfeld is a social psychologist whose research and teaching examine how people are transformed by the organizations and social structures in which they work. The author of numerous articles on the psychology of power, and on group behavior, Professor Gruenfeld has taught popular courses on these and related topics to MBA students and executives at Stanford and at Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Professor Gruenfeld’s work on the psychology of power not only gives credence to the old adage that power corrupts, but it explains why this occurs. Whereas the classic Machiavellian perspective suggests that power’s effects are mostly premeditated and strategic, her research suggests that when power corrupts, it can be without conscious awareness. Her theory of power, published in Psychological Review with co-authors Dacher Keltner and Cameron Anderson, asserts that power is disinhibiting: by reducing concern for the social consequences of one’s actions, power strengthens the link between personal desires and the acts that satisfy them. Recent papers document also that power leads to an action-orientation (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,) limits the ability to take another's perspective (Psychological Science), and that it increases the tendency to view others as means to an end (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology).

Professor Gruenfeld joined the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2000. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Cornell University in 1983, her master’s in journalism from New York University in 1985, and her PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois in 1993. She was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavior Sciences from 2002-2003, and she is a member of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. Professor Gruenfeld is also the recipient of research grants from the MacArthur Foundation though the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security at the University of Illinois; and the Citicorp Behavioral Sciences Research Council.

Primary Interests:

  • Group Processes
  • Interpersonal Processes
  • Organizational Behavior
  • Political Psychology

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20:51 Featured SVG

Power and Influence

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  • 20:51

    Power and Influence

    Length: 20:51


  • 14:16

    Acting with Power (Stanford Alumni)

    Length: 14:16


  • 5:30

    Managing Groups and Teams

    Length: 5:30


  • 59:59

    How to Have Power and Influence

    Length: 59:59


  • 58:23

    Acting with Power (Stanford Graduate School of Business)

    Length: 58:23


  • 55:27

    Power in Crisis

    Length: 55:27


  • 57:11

    Acting With Power (A Small World Webinar Series)

    Length: 57:11


  • 33:21

    Grit and Growth: The Psychology of Power and Influence

    Length: 33:21


  • 1:16:11

    Acting with Power: Why You are More Powerful Than You Believe and How to Access It

    Length: 1:16:11



Journal Articles:

  • Galinsky, A. D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Magee, J. C. (2003). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 85(3), 453-466.
  • Gruenfeld, D. H., Martorana, P. V., & Fan, E. T. (2000). What do groups learn from their worldliest members? Direct and indirect influence in dynamic teams. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 82(1), 45-59.
  • Gruenfeld, D. H., & Preston, J. (2000). Upending the status quo: Cognitive complexity in U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturn legal precedent. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(8), 1013-1022.
  • Gruenfeld, D. H., & Wyer, R. S. (1992). The semantics and pragmatics of social influence: How affirmations and denials affect beliefs in referent propositions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62(1), 38-49.
  • Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Anderson, C. (2003). Power, approach and inhibition. Psychological Review, 110, 265-284.
  • Status, ideology, and integrative complexity on the U.S. Supreme Court: Rethinking the politics of political decision making. (1995). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 5-20.

Courses Taught:

  • Acting with Power
  • Dynamics of Organizations
  • Entrepreneurship from the Perspective of Women
  • Introduction to Organization Behavior
  • Managing Groups in Organizations

Deborah Gruenfeld
Graduate School of Business
Stanford University
518 Memorial Way
Stanford, California 94305
United States of America

  • Phone: (650) 725-6939
  • Fax: (650) 725-9932

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