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Anyi Ma

Associate Professor | Management and Human Resources
4250C Grainger Hall

About

Anyi Ma is an Associate Professor in the Management and Human Resources Department at the Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Broadly, she studies agency from two directions.

The first is how perceptions of agency shape women's leadership opportunities, when traits like ambition and dominance constrain women, when they become sources of advantage, and how those penalties shift across cultural contexts.

The second is what happens when people lose a sense of personal control, how they compensate by seeking predictability, in ways that shape stereotyping and ambiguity intolerance to how managers treat the people who report to them.

She teaches introduction to organizational behavior and negotiations course to MBA students and undergraduates.

Selected Accepted Journal Articles

Feng, Z. & Ma, A. & Dwivedi, P. & Liu, F. (2025). Fostering Competence Perceptions Weaken the Dominance Penalty for Women in Leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology

Selected Published Journal Articles

Sheetal, A. & Ma, A. & Infurna, F. (2024). Psychological Predictors of Socioeconomic Resilience Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Machine Learning American Psychologist

Ma, A. & Paek, J. & Liu, F. & Kim, J. (2024). Threats to personal control fuel similarity attraction Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Ma, A. & Ponce de Leon, R. & Rosette, A. (2024). Asking for less (but receiving more): Women avoid impasses and outperform men when negotiators have weak alternatives. Journal of Applied Psychology

Ma, A. & Savani, K. & Liu, F. & Tai, K. & Kay, A. (2023). The mutual constitution of culture and psyche: The bidirectional relationship between individuals’ perceived control and cultural tightness–looseness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Madan, S. & Ma, A. & Pandey, N. & Rattan, A. & Savani, K. (2023). Support for increasing low-wage workers’ compensation: The role of fixed-growth mindsets about intelligence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Chakraborty, S. & Ma, A. & Swinney, R. (2023). Designing rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns for strategic (but distracted) contributors Naval Research Logistics

Ma, A. & Rosette, A. & Koval, C. (2022). Reconciling female agentic advantage and disadvantage with the CADDIS measure of agency. Journal of Applied Psychology

Fath, S. & Ma, A. & Shelby Rosette, A. (2022). Self-views of disadvantage and success impact perceptions of privilege among White men Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Ma, A. & Tang, S. & Kay, A. (2019). Psychological reactance as a function of thought versus behavioral control Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Ma, A. & Axt, J. & Kay, A. (2019). A control-based account of stereotyping Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Ma, A. & Yang, Y. & Savani, K. (2019). “Take it or leave it!” A choice mindset leads to greater persistence and better outcomes in negotiations Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Ma, A. & Landau, M. & Narayanan, J. & Kay, A. (2017). Thought-control difficulty motivates structure seeking Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Ma, A. & Kay, A. (2017). Compensatory control and ambiguity intolerance Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Rosette, A. & Koval, C. & Ma, A. & Livingston, R. (2016). Race matters for women leaders: Intersectional effects on agentic deficiencies and penalties The Leadership Quarterly

Practitioner-Oriented Publications

Ma, A. & Paek, J. & Liu, F. & Kim, J. (2024). Research: Why Forming Diverse Teams Is Harder in Uncertain Times Harvard Business Review

Madan, S. & Ma, A. & Rattan, A. & Savani, K. (2023). Research: A Growth Mindset Can Boost Support for Increasing the Minimum Wage Harvard Business Review

Ma, A. & Fath, S. & Rosette, A. (2022). Research: People Can Learn to Recognize Their Racial Privilege Harvard Business Review

Ma, A. & Yang, Y. & Savani, K. (2020). How to Respond to “Take It or Leave It” Harvard Business Review

Editorial and Reviewing Activities

Organization Science – Since September 2025
Editorial Board Member

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition – Since September 2025
Editorial Board Member

WSB Stories

What Do Our Clothes Communicate to Others? More Than We Might Think.

Dressed in an elegant gown and sparkling glass slippers, Cinderella went to the ball—and found herself a prince. This much-loved fairytale highlights what researcher Neil Hester calls “the transformative power…
Anyi Ma, assistant professor of management an human resources, speaks to an audience

Assistant Professor Anyi Ma’s Research Featured in Harvard Business Review

In tough times, we often want to surround ourselves with the familiar—but that same impulse can sometimes extend negatively into the workplace, suggests new research by Anyi Ma featured in…
Grainger Hall exterior

Growth Mindset Research from WSB’s Anyi Ma Featured in Harvard Business Review

New research by Anyi Ma on the growth mindset and minimum wage was featured recently in Harvard Business Review. In a piece titled “A Growth Mindset Can Boost Support for…

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