Research Overview

My research investigates how diverse backgrounds shape workplace dynamics in global contexts, with three main streams: 1. Multicultural experiences, 2. Leadership, and 3. Generative AI.

Across these areas, I investigate how individual differences and diverse backgrounds influence perceptions, interactions, and outcomes. My dissertation, consisting of three interconnected papers, examines how returnees' international experiences affect how colleagues and friends at home perceive and interact with them. In leadership research, I explored how individual characteristics moderate the relationship between leadership positions and well-being. My work on Generative AI focuses on gender differences in evaluations of AI usage.

Through experimental, survey, and archival studies, I seek to help organizations and individuals better understand and leverage diversity in our increasingly diverse and interdependent world.

Multicultural Experiences

Feng, Z., Chang, J. W., & Newark, D. (2025). Are you still one of us? When living abroad undermines perceived home country identification and trust from compatriots. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2025.104819
Feng, Z. The Dark Side of "Becoming a Local" Abroad upon Return: Foreign Cultural Adoption and Social Categorization in the Home Country. (Data collection)
Feng, Z., & Maddux, W. Envied and Averted: How Returnees' Multicultural Experiences Lead to Compatriots' Identity Threats. (Field data collection)
Feng, Z. When Homecoming Hurts: A Dual-Mechanism Theory of Compatriot Reactions to Returnees. (Theory paper)

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Leadership

Feng, Z., Netchaeva, E., & Yao, J. (Equal authorship) Leadership roles, individual differences, and physical health outcomes. (Under review)

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Generative AI & Diversity

Feng, Z. & Morozova, D. Different concerns, different choices: The psychology behind the gender gap in GenAI adoption. (Data collection)

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