Nathanael J. Fast Assistant Professor, Management and Organization   Marshall School of Business University of Southern California 701 Exposition Blvd., HOH 404 Los Angeles, CA 90089 Email: nathanael.fast@marshall.usc.edu Phone: (213) 740-1047 CV

---

Background

I am an assistant professor of Management and Organization at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. I received my PhD in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University in 2009. My research examines the psychology of power and influence, focusing on two main areas: (1) How are people transformed by power, and how do these transformations help and hinder performance? (2) What are the mechanisms that cause certain people, ideas, and practices to have disproportionate influence on the cultures of groups and organizations?

Research Interests

 

Power and Influence; Leadership; Decision Making; Self-Image Maintenance; Cultural Emergence and Transmission.

 

 

Selected Publications

• Fast, N. J., & Chen, S. (in press). When the boss feels inadequate: Power, incompetence, and aggression

. Psychological Science.

• Fast, N. J., Heath, C., & Wu, G. (2009). Common ground and cultural prominence: How conversation reinforces culture

. Psychological Science, 20, 904-911.

• Fast, N. J., Gruenfeld, D. H., Sivanathan, N., & Galinsky, A. D. (2009). Illusory control: A generative force behind power's far-reaching effects

. Psychological Science, 20, 502-508.

• Morrison, K. R., Fast, N. J., & Ybarra, O. (2009). Group status, perceptions of threat, and support for social inequality

. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 204-210.

 

Manuscripts Under Review

• Fast, N. J., & Tiedens, L. Z. (under review). Blame contagion: The automatic transmission of self-serving attributions. Revise and resubmit at Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

 

Selected Media Mentions

• Newsweek, Forget talent, it's the human need to connect that drives the selection of our cultural icons




• ABC News, Psychology study suggests human desire to find common ground drives fame




• New Scientist, How celebrities stay famous regardless of talent




• Canwest News Service, Celebrity status has little to do with talent




• Florida Today, There's an ugly side to pop culture

• Yahoo! News, How celebs stay in the limelight regardless of talent

• Stanford GSB News, Seeking common ground in conversations can stifle innovation and reward the wrong people

• The Washington Post, Between hubris and vision

• TIME, Why powerful people overestimate themselves

• Science Daily, Power and the illusion of control

• CNN, Do chief executives have delusions of grandeur?

• Stanford GSB News, The thought of acquiring power motivates people to act

• The FINANCIAL, Power and the illusion of control