Intelligent people are usually multiskilled due to their ability to work effectively in several areas by utilizing their maximum cognitive potential. However, intelligence alone is not the only element that enables people to succeed in multiple fields because hard work also plays a significant role in success. Many people can also work effectively in interrelated fields or disciplines due to the similarity in required skills, experience, and experience.
However, a prominent characteristic in many multitalented people is that they can excel in unrelated fields that do not need or involve the same skills. Making a mark in academia or research and standup comedy is a unique accomplishment. The feat is challenging because many people perceive academics as tedious scholars and most comedians as comics with limited academic backgrounds. Some people have the intelligence and skills that make them stand out among their peers as successful comedians and academics. Hillary Anger Elfenbein is a researcher and professor who also performs as a standup comedian.
Hillary Anger Elfenbein is a scholar who worked on several research papers on emotional variations across cultures, the role of emotion in the workplace, and the effects of emotions on negotiations. She is also the John K. Wallace, Jr. and Ellen A. Wallace Distinguished Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, teaching organizational behavior to students. Apart from being a professor and researcher, she also performs as a standup comedian throughout the St. Louis area.
Elfenbein performs under her maiden name Hillary Anger while using the tagline angry feminist wearing pearls. Elfenbein appeared as a guest on a science podcast, “Here We Are,” hosted by comedian Shane Mauss in 2015. She started doing comedy after participating in the podcast. She integrated comic elements into her speech at an event marking her professorship at Washington University.
Elfenbein performs as a standup comedian while entertaining audiences throughout the St. Louis area. However, she is known for researching variations in emotions across different cultures and settings. Her research on emotions in the workplace enhanced existing knowledge and literature on the role of emotions in the workplace and how emotional intelligence influences employees.
Elfenbein wrote another scholarly paper on emotion in negotiation that focused on the effects of emotions in negotiations and developed the subjective value inventory (SVI). The SVI helps understand and predict the impact of emotions after negotiations. Although she wrote multiple research papers on emotions in various settings, the most prominent focus of Elfenbein’s research is the variation of emotions across cultures. Elfenbein postulated that emotions varied across cultures despite the longstanding notion that emotions remained constant in different circumstances.
The established notion regarding emotions was that they are universal and only change when people deliberately attempt to control or regulate their emotions. However, Hillary Elfenbein overturned the notion after developing the dialect theory in her research, “Nonverbal Dialects and Accents in Facial Expressions of Emotion,” published in the journal of emotion review. The Dialect Theory hypothesizes that emotion is a universal language transcending culture and environments. However, emotion involves several dialects that change according to different cultures and regions, like other widely used languages. Although Elfenbein’s work initially received controversy, it became widely accepted and recognized in the research fraternity for introducing a new theoretical framework for understanding emotions. Elfenbein’s research and Dialect Theory also became parts of psychology textbooks due to their significance in understanding and evaluating human cognition and emotional intelligence.
Hillary Anger Elfenbein conducted research in several areas apart from emotions and their effects on humans, including mysteries and ambiguities in many research areas. She identified several gaps in existing research regarding emotions, including the lack of evidence regarding the effects of personalities on negotiations and the relationship between the ability to recognize emotional expressions and the ability to express emotions in a way others can recognize them. Elfenbein also demonstrated through research that people could determine who likes them regardless of their fondness for others. She also helped develop the affective presence concept related to people’s differences regarding eliciting others’ emotions. Elfenbien demonstrated through research that people with high emotional intelligence could be challenging coworkers due to their unintended intrusion into others’ matters.
Hillary Anger Elfenbein received acknowledgment for her research on emotions. Her paper, “Emotion in Organizations: Theory and Research,” published in the Annual Review of Psychology, received the ten-year impact award from the journal. Elfenbein’s paper on emotions in the workplace, highlighting subjective value published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, won the impact award from the Academy of Management. She also received the Detur Prize at Harvard as one of 50 first-year undergraduates while getting a fellowship from the National Science Foundation. Elfenbein also worked as the primary investigator on grants offered by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation. She also received the Reid Teaching Award at Washington University seven times.