Brian Lowery

Brian Lowery
Professor, Organizational Behavior
Contact Info
BrianLowery
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Academic Area: 
Organizational Behavior

Additional Administrative Titles

  • Director, Executive Program in Leadership: The Effective Use of Power
  • Director, Interpersonal Dynamics Weekend Lab – New York: Leadership from the Inside Out
  • Director, Interpersonal Dynamics Weekend Lab – Paris: Leadership from the Inside Out
  • Co-Director, Interpersonal Dynamics for High-Performance Executives

Research Statement

Professor Lowery's research seeks to extend knowledge of individuals' experience of inequality and fairness. His work suggests that individuals distinguish between inequalities framed as advantage as opposed to disadvantage. This finding affects how individuals perceive inequality and the steps they take, if any, to reduce it. Thus, his work sheds light on intergroup conflict and the nature of social justice.

Bio

Brian Lowery is a Professor of Organizational Behavior and a social psychologist by training. He received his doctorate from UCLA in 2001 with a minor in statistical methods.

Professor Lowery works to change the way people interact with each other in the world. At the GSB, he is currently driving an initiative to shape enlightened and purposeful leaders for a diverse society, and in so doing, to define the meaning and nature of leadership itself. He is a proponent of University collaborations and is actively looking to develop the GSB’s capacity to serve Stanford departments’ needs in facilitation, coaching, experiential learning design, and leadership development.

In the classroom, Professor Lowery translates basic knowledge about human interactions into lessons for aspiring leaders. He oversees the Leadership Fellows Program for second-year MBAs and teaches introductory organizational behavior courses for both master’s and doctorate level students.

Professor Lowery’s research has two major threads. The first thread examines the operation of racial attitudes below the threshold of consciousness. The second thread, which he pursues through the work of the Lowery Lab, focuses on how people perceive inequality. Underlying both lines of work is the assumption that individuals may unintentionally exacerbate existing inequity, despite supporting the ideal of a just and fair society. This research has been published in major scholarly journals such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Law and Human Behavior.

Academic Degrees

  • PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, 2002
  • MA, University of California, Los Angeles, 1998
  • BS, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 1996

Academic Appointments

  • At Stanford University since 2002

Awards and Honors

  • Hank McKinnell-Pfizer Inc. Faculty Fellow, 2017-2018
  • Graduate School of Business Trust Faculty Fellow, 2014-2015

Publications

Journal Articles

Naomi Fa-Kaji, Brian Lowery. Academy of Management Proceedings. July 9, 2018, Vol. 2018, Issue 1.
L. Taylor Phillips, Brian Lowery. Safe Journals. May 1, 2018, Vol. 27, Issue 3, Pages 156-162.
Sora Jun, Brian Lowery, Lucia Guillory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. December 1, 2017, Vol. 43, Issue 12, Pages 1615-1629.
L. Taylor Phillips, Brian Lowery. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. November 2015, Vol. 61, Pages 12-18.
Eric D. Knowles, Brian Lowery, Rosalind M. Chow, Miguel M. Unzueta. Perspectives on Psychological Science. November 17, 2014, Vol. 9, Issue 6, Pages 594-609.
Rossalind M. Chow, Brian Lowery, Caitlin M. Hogan. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. March 1, 2013, Vol. 39, Issue 3, Pages 332-345.
Brian Lowery, Rosalind M. Chow, Eric D. Knowles, Miguel M. Unzueta. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. February 2012, Vol. 102, Issue 2, Pages 323-336.
Brian Lowery, Daryl A. Wout. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. June 2010, Vol. 98, Issue 6, Pages 956-966.
Eric D. Knowles, Brian Lowery, Rebecca L Schaumberg. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. March 2010, Vol. 46, Issue 2, Pages 420–423.
Eric D. Knowles, Brian Lowery, Rebecca L. Schaumberg. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. July 2009, Vol. 45, Issue 4, Pages 965-969.
Brian Lowery, Roaslind M. Chow, Jennifer Randall Cosby. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. February 2009, Vol. 45, Issue 2, Pages 375-378.
Eric D. Knowles, Brian Lowery, Caitlin M. Hogan, Rosalind M. Chow. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2009, Vol. 96, Issue 4, Pages 857-869.
Brian Lowery, Miguel M. Unzueta. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. November 2008, Vol. 44, Issue 6, Pages 1491-1497.
Miguel M. Unzueta, Brian Lowery, Eric D. Knowles. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. January 2008, Vol. 105, Issue 1, Pages 1–13.
Rosalind M. Chow, Brian Lowery, Eric D. Knowles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2008, Vol. 44, Issue 4, Pages 1073–1081.
Brian Lowery, Naomi I. Eisenberger, Curtis D. Hardin, Stacy Sinclair. Basic and Applied Social Psychology. December 2007, Vol. 29, Issue 2, Pages 151-157.
Brian Lowery, Eric D. Knowles, Miguel M. Unzueta. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. September 2007, Vol. 33, Issue 9, Pages 1237-1250.
Brian Lowery, Miguel M. Unzueta, Eric D. Knowles, Phillip Atiba Goff. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2006, Vol. 90, Issue 6, Pages 961-974.
Stacey Sinclair, Brian Lowery, Curtis D. Hardin, A. Colangelo. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2005, Vol. 89, Issue 4, Pages 583-592.
Brian Lowery, Sandra Graham. Law and Human Behavior. October 2004, Vol. 28, Issue 5, Pages 483-504.

Teaching

Degree Courses

2019-20

The Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program plays an integral role in the GSB leadership curriculum by bringing together a group of talented second years to support the leadership development of the first-year class. OB330, an 8 unit two-quarter MBA2...

This course is the continuation of Leadership Fellows I, an 8-unit course that begins in Autumn Quarter. During this quarter Fellows will continue to deepen their coaching and mentoring skills, and will focus exclusively on in-depth 1:1 coaching...

2018-19

This course introduces you to the structures and processes that affect group performance and highlights some of the common pitfalls associated with working in teams. Topics include team culture, fostering creativity and coordination, making group...

The Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program plays an integral role in the GSB leadership curriculum by bringing together a group of talented second years to support the leadership development of the first-year class. OB330, an 8 unit two-quarter MBA2...

This course is the continuation of Leadership Fellows I, an 8-unit course that begins in Autumn Quarter. During this quarter Fellows will continue to deepen their coaching and mentoring skills, and will focus exclusively on in-depth 1:1 coaching...

2017-18

This course introduces you to the structures and processes that affect group performance and highlights some of the common pitfalls associated with working in teams. Topics include team culture, fostering creativity and coordination, making group...

The Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program plays an integral role in the GSB leadership curriculum by bringing together a group of talented second years to support the leadership development of the first-year class. OB330, an 8 unit two-quarter MBA2...

This course is the continuation of Leadership Fellows I, an 8-unit course that begins in Autumn Quarter. During this quarter Fellows will continue to deepen their coaching and mentoring skills, and will focus exclusively on in-depth 1:1 coaching...

Executive Education & Other Non-Degree Programs

Service to the Profession

Member

  • American Psychological Society
  • Society for Personality and Social Psychology
  • Academy of Management
  • Society of Experimental Social Psychology

Insights by Stanford Business

July 27, 2016
One scholar shows how you can gain more power, and why you should be leery.
August 27, 2015
Research shows that white Americans, when faced with evidence of racial privilege, deny that they have benefited personally.
November 1, 2009
Research shows that implicit racial prejudices corresponded with a reluctance to vote for Barack Obama and with opposition to his health care plan.
January 1, 2008
Concern about group position and well-being can tilt peoples' opinions against affirmative action policies, even if they want to help minorities.
January 1, 2008
Negative racial stereotypes affect even the most well-intentioned people, but research shows we can also be influenced for the better.

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