I am a social-personality psychologist and my research focuses on how (1) status, (2) emotions, and (3) the self shape interpersonal life. I study these broad areas of research using a variety of methods that include controlled laboratory experiments, ethological observations, and psychophysiological assessments.

I was born and raised in Poway, California. I received my undergraduate and graduate training in social psychology from UC Berkeley. In 2012, I will be joining the psychology department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Primary Interests:

Close Relationships
Culture and Ethnicity
Emotion, Mood, Affect
Group Processes
Helping, Prosocial Behavior
Nonverbal Behavior
Organizational Behavior
Political Psychology
Self and Identity
Social Cognition

Close Relationships
Culture and Ethnicity
Emotion, Mood, Affect
Group Processes
Helping, Prosocial Behavior
Nonverbal Behavior

Organizational Behavior
Political Psychology
Self and Identity
Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

Center for Health and Community
Interactive Map

Journal Articles:

*Kraus, M. W. & *Stephens, N. M. (in press). A road map for an emerging psychology of social class, Social and Personality Psychology Compass.
Anderson, C., Kraus, M. W., Galinksy, A. D., & Keltner, D. (in press). The local ladder effect: Sociometric status and subjective well-being, Psychological Science.
Côté, S., Kraus, M. W., Cheng, B., Oveis, C., van der Lowe, I., Lian, H., & Keltner, D. (2011). Social power facilitates the effect of prosocial orientation on empathic accuracy, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 217-232.
Kraus, M. W., Adler, N., & Chen, T. D.+ (in press). Is the association of subjective SES and self-rated health confounded by negative mood? An experimental approach, Health Psychology.
Kraus, M. W., & Chen, S. (2010). Facial-feature resemblance elicits the transference effect. Psychological Science, 21, 518-522.
Kraus, M. W., & Chen, S. (2009). Striving to be known by significant others: Automatic activation of self-verification goals in relationship contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 58-73.
Kraus, M. W., Chen, S, & Keltner, D. (2011). The power to be me: Power elevates self-concept consistency and authenticity, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 974-980.
Kraus, M. W., Chen, S., Lee, V. A., & Straus, L. D. (2010). Transference occurs across group boundaries. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 1067-1073.
Kraus, M. W., Côté, S., & Keltner, D. (2010). Social class, contextualism, and empathic accuracy. Psychological Science, 21, 1716-1723.
Kraus, M. W., Horberg, E. J., Goetz, J. L., & Keltner, D. (2011). Social class rank, threat vigilance, and hostile reactivity, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1376-1388.
Kraus, M. W., Huang, C., & Keltner, D. (2010). Tactile communication, cooperation, and performance: An ethological study of the NBA. Emotion, 10, 745-749.
Kraus, M. W., & Keltner, D. (2009). Signs of socioeconomic status: A thin-slicing approach. Psychological Science, 20, 99-106.
Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., & Keltner, D. (2011). Social class as culture: The convergence of resources and rank in the social realm, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 246-250.
Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., & Keltner, D. (2009). Social class, sense of control, and social explanation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 992-1004.
Piff, P. K., Kraus, M. W., Côté, S., Cheng, B., & Keltner, D. (2010). Having less, giving more: The influence of social class on prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 771-784.
Stellar, J., Manzo, V.+, Kraus, M. W., & Keltner, D. (in press). Class and compassion: Socioeconomic factors predict responses to suffering, Emotion.

Other Publications:

Chen, S., Boucher, H., & Kraus, M. W. (2011). The relational self: Emerging theory and evidence. In S. J. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, & V. L. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of Identity Theory and Research (pp. 149-175). New York: Springer.
Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D., Galinsky, A., & Kraus, M. W. (2010). Paradoxes of power: Dynamics of the acquisition, experience, and social regulation of social power. In A. Guinote & T. K. Vescio (Eds.), The Social Psychology of Power (pp. 177-208). New York: Guilford Press.
Keltner, D., Van Kleef, G. A., Chen, S., & Kraus, M. W. (2008). A reciprocal influence model of social power: Emerging principles and lines of inquiry. In M. A. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 151-192.
Kraus, M. W., Rheinschmidt, M. L., & Piff, P. K. The intersection of rank and resources: Signaling social class in face-to-face encounters (chapter to appear in S. T. Fiske & H. R. Markus (Eds.), Facing Social Class).

Courses Taught:

Cultural Psychology
Introduction to Psychology
Personality Psychology
Psychology Statistics
Social Psychology

Cultural Psychology
Introduction to Psychology
Personality Psychology

Psychology Statistics
Social Psychology

Michael W. Kraus
Health Psychology Program
University of California, San Francisco
3333 California Street, Suite 465
San Francisco, CA 94143
United States

Phone: (415) 476-7756