Conflict and Well-being (CoWell) Lab

Principal Investigator: Zhixu (Rick) Yang

At the Conflict and Well-being (CoWell) Lab (cowelllab.org), we investigate how people experience and navigate conflict across multiple levels, with the aim of improving worker and organizational well-being.

• At the intrapersonal level, we study how people manage multiple goals at work and in life. We examine how people mentally perceive their goals as conflicting or facilitating, their preferences and strategies for pursuing multiple goals and managing goal conflict (e.g., multitasking, prioritizing), and how these processes relate to goal pursuit and well-being outcomes.

• At the interpersonal level, we examine how people reason through and communicate during interpersonal conflict, including business negotiations and sociopolitical disagreements. We focus on wise reasoning—intellectual humility, taking an observer’s viewpoint, perspective taking, recognition of uncertainty and change, and seeking compromise—and its role in helping people approach conflicts constructively and maintain positive relationships despite differences.

• At the intergroup level, we study how minoritized groups experience mistreatment and dehumanization. In particular, we examine how Asian and Asian American workers are perceived and treated as robotic or machine-like (i.e., mechanistic dehumanization), and how these experiences relate to their well-being and career outcomes. We also examine other groups’ work experiences, including those of LGBTQ+ employees, and culturally sensitive workplace practices, with the broader aim of fostering more inclusive and humanizing workplaces.

Our research uses a range of methods—including psychometric, dyadic, longitudinal, experimental, person-centered, qualitative, and mixed approaches—carefully chosen to ensure rigor and relevance for each research question.

We welcome collaboration from graduate and undergraduate students, research assistants, and organizational or community partners who share our interest in transforming conflict to improve worker well-being. If you are interested in joining the lab or collaborating, please check out our lab website (cowelllab.org) and contact us at zhixu.yang@baruch.cuny.edu.