Nuria Tolsá-Caballero

I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. In my research, I explore how higher achievers such as leaders, mentors, and those at a higher ranking may demotivate their beholders. Through the prism of attribution theory, social comparison theory, and the heuristics literature, in one line of research, I investigate how perceptions and beliefs about higher achievers may impact the motivation, effort and performance of their observers. In another line of research, I explore how attributions of effort about higher achievers, such as leaders and mentors, affect their evaluations and selection. I use a multimethod approach, combining observational studies with laboratory and field experiments. My work makes relevant theoretical and empirical contributions to social comparison theory and to achievement motivation theories, suggesting that higher achievers may produce unexpected effects on learning, motivation, and evaluations, with relevant implications for performance and talent retention. 

As a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan, using both psychological and physiological measures, I am leading work to better comprehend the factors that enhance and deter human connectivity, and understand its impact on performance, wellbeing and cooperation within teams and leader-follower interactions. I am also investigating the impact of human connections on leadership emergence. 

My research is interdisciplinary and informed by my industry experience in international development and public policy; beyond the organizational behavior scholarship, my research contributes to the fields of public policy, psychology and behavioral economics. 

Contact: nuriat@umich.edu