The Many Selves in Social Structures - Applications to Corporate Strategy, Work-Life Dynamics, and Cross-Class Interactions

How do identities shape and react to the socio-economic landscape? I draw from paradigms in cultural anthropology, organizational behavior, and sociology to dissect how distinct elements of individual identity inform and transform social interactions within corporate, work-life, and social class structures. In my first study, I provide evidence for the role of similarity and dissimilarity in visual (e.g., age, gender) and psychological (i.e., personality) attributes among CEOs on strategic imitation following underperformance. In the second project, I examine how romantic couples' joint preferences for integration or segmentation of their work and home spheres influence their domestic harmony, zooming into the context of remote work. In the final project, I explore how social class disparities among conversation partners influence the amount and type of information about the self, conveyed during the interaction. I address my projects by combining analytical strategies designed for the study of similarities and differences - e.g., spline regression and response surface analysis - with techniques aimed to capture the complexity of individual identity - e.g., surveys, archival data, and natural language processing. My research bridges theoretical and methodological paradigms in the social sciences, underscoring the multiplicity of the self as a critical nexus for interdisciplinary dialogue.