Business School

Dr Justin Brienza

Senior Lecturer
School of Business
+61 7 334 68141
Room 308, Colin Clark (39) St. Lucia Campus
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Researcher biography

Justin joined UQ Business School in 2020, after teaching at the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada. His teaching is focused on Organisational Behaviour, Manager Skiils and Communication, and Wise Leadership. Justin earned his Honors Bachelor of Science with a double degree in Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence and Psychology at the University of Toronto, and his Masters and PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Waterloo.

Justin's principle research interest is in understanding how people reason through complex social problems, with interest in reducing bias and developing and practicing wisdom and balance. Justin's work has been published in prestigious scientific journals such as Nature Human Behaviour, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Journal of Intelligence, Nature Communications, Social and Personality Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, as well as the latest edition of the renown Cambridge Handbook of Wisdom. These studies have examined wisdom at interpersonal, group, organizational, and societal levels, in topics such as cooperation, social economic status, teamwork, intergroup bias, and leadership. Ongoing projects include studies on the dynamics of wise leadership, training for wisdom (Business and Army Leadership), media attention and science denialism, prejudice in artificial intelligence, self-sabotage, and gender pay-gap denialism.

Justin has presented his research at international conferences such as the Academy of Management, International Association of Conflict Management, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and was presented with the Kellogg School of Management's Dispute Resolution Center Scholar Award. Justin serves as peer reviewer for journals such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Social Psychological and Personality Science, Journal of Intelligence, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and Journal of Cognitive Development. Justin's work has been featured in popular media outlets such as TIME, NewsWeek, and Sciencemag.com, and one of his articles is in the top 10 most upvoted social psychology papers on Reddit.

***Applications for HDR/PhD student supervision are welcome***

Courses taught:

MGTS1601: Organisational Behaviour

MGTS2606: Manager Skills/Contemporary Business Communication and Organisation

MGTS7618: Wise Leadership

RBUS6933: Research Design for Honours

Publications

Book Chapters (2)
Journal Articles (16)
Conference Papers (2)
Research Report (1)

Book Chapters

Amirzadeh, Mahsa, Ashkanasy, Neal M., Harati, Hamidreza, Brienza, Justin P. and Baumeister, Roy F. (2022). Can Social Rejection Change Employees' Value Priorities? The Mediating Roles of Emotional Distress and Emotional Numbness. Emotions and Negativity. (pp. 63-85) Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Group. doi: 10.1108/s1746-979120210000017010
Oakes, Harrison, Brienza, Justin P., Elnakouri, Abdo and Grossmann, Igor (2019). Wise Reasoning : Converging Evidence for the Psychology of Sound Judgment. The Cambridge Handbook of Wisdom. (pp. 202-225) Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781108568272.011

Journal Articles

Brienza, Justin P., Dorfman, Anna and Bobocel, D. Ramona (2024). Mind the gap: wise reasoning attenuates gender pay gap scepticism in men. European Journal of Social Psychology, 54 (1), 237-250. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.3009
Yang, Zhixu (Rick), Kung, Franki Y. H., Brienza, Justin P. and Chao, Melody M. (2024). Bridging social divides: The role of wise reasoning in improving intergroup relations. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 10 (1), 69-81. doi: 10.1037/tps0000389
Schaerer, Michael, Plessis, Christilene Du, Nguyen, My Hoang Bao, Aert, Robbie C.M. Van, Tiokhin, Leo, Lakens, Daniel, Clemente, Elena Giulia, Pfeiffer, Thomas, Dreber, Anna, Johannesson, Magnus, Clark, Cory J., Uhlmann, Eric Luis, Abraham, Ajay T., Adamus, Magdalena, Akinci, Cinla, Alberti, Federica, Alsharawy, Abdelaziz M., Alzahawi, Shilaan, Anseel, Frederik, Arndt, Felix, Balkan, Binnur, Baskin, Ernest, Bearden, Carrie E., Benotsch, Eric G., Bernritter, Stefan, Black, Sheila R., Bleidorn, Wiebke, Boysen, Andrew P., Brienza, Justin P. ... Zolopa, Camille S. (2023). On the trajectory of discrimination: A meta-analysis and forecasting survey capturing 44 years of field experiments on gender and hiring decisions. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 179 104280, 104280. doi: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2023.104280
Dixon, Lucas J., Hornsey, Matthew J., Hartley, Nicole, Chapman, Cassandra M. and Brienza, Justin P. (2023). The psychology of attraction to multi‐level marketing. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 57 (3), 1213-1235. doi: 10.1111/joca.12526
McKenna, Bernard, Brienza, Justin P. and Intezari, Ali (2023). Tribal games: Tribalist foundations of Trump supporters. Critical Sociology, 49 (4-5), 625-645. doi: 10.1177/08969205221135037
Kung, Franki Y. H., Brienza, Justin P. and Chao, Melody M. (2023). Mixed reactions to multicultural (vs. colorblind) diversity approach signals: a lay theories of culture perspective. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 29 (1), 162-178. doi: 10.1037/xap0000409
Namvar, Morteza, Intezari, Ali, Akhlaghpour, Saeed and Brienza, Justin P. (2022). Beyond effective use: integrating wise reasoning in machine learning development. International Journal of Information Management, 69 102566, 102566. doi: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2022.102566
Lapka, Samantha P., Kung, Franki Y. H., Brienza, Justin P. and Scholer, Abigail A. (2022). Determined yet dehumanized: people higher in self-control are seen as more robotic. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 14 (2), 117-129. doi: 10.1177/19485506221093109
Brienza, Justin P., Kung, Franki Y. H. and Chao, Melody M. (2021). Wise reasoning, intergroup positivity, and attitude polarization across contexts. Nature Communications, 12 (1) 3313, 3313. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23432-1
Grossmann, Igor, Weststrate, Nic M., Ardelt, Monika, Brienza, Justin P., Dong, Mengxi, Ferrari, Michel, Fournier, Marc A., Hu, Chao S., Nusbaum, Howard C. and Vervaeke, John (2020). The science of wisdom in a polarized world: knowns and unknowns. Psychological Inquiry, 31 (2), 103-133. doi: 10.1080/1047840X.2020.1750917
Grossmann, Igor, Weststrate, Nic M., Ferrari, Michel and Brienza, Justin P. (2020). A common model is essential for a cumulative science of wisdom. Psychological Inquiry, 31 (2), 185-194. doi: 10.1080/1047840X.2020.1750920
Brienza, Justin P., Kung, Franki Y. H., Santos, Henri C., Bobocel, D. Ramona and Grossmann, Igor (2018). Wisdom, bias, and balance: toward a process-sensitive measurement of wisdom-related cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115 (6), 1093-1126. doi: 10.1037/pspp0000171
Grossmann, Igor and Brienza, Justin P (2018). The strengths of wisdom provide unique contributions to improved leadership, sustainability, inequality, gross national happiness, and civic discourse in the face of contemporary world problems. Journal of Intelligence, 6 (2) 22, 22-17. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence6020022
Brienza, Justin P. and Grossmann, Igor (2017). Social class and wise reasoning about interpersonal conflicts across regions, persons and situations. Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences, 284 (1869), 20171870. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.1870
Brienza, Justin P. and Bobocel, D. Ramona (2017). Employee age alters the effects of justice on emotional exhaustion and organizational deviance. Frontiers in Psychology, 8 (MAR) 479, 1-15. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00479
Grossmann, Igor, Brienza, Justin P. and Bobocel, D. Ramona (2017). Wise deliberation sustains cooperation. Nature Human Behaviour, 1 (3) 0061, 1-6. doi: 10.1038/s41562-017-0061

Conference Papers

Harati, Hamidreza, Ashkanasy, Neal M., Brienza, Justin Peter and Aslani, Soroush (2022). The effect of negative feedback types on task performance. 82nd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Seattle, WA, United States, 5-9 August 2022. Briarcliff Manor, NY, United States: Academy of Management. doi: 10.5465/ambpp.2022.13944abstract
Brienza, Justin P., McKenna, Bernard and Intezari, Ali (2022). Perceptions of leader wisdom and follower resilience in crises. Society for the Study of Human Development 2021-2022 Conference Series, Online, 4-5 April 2022. Gainesville, FL, United States: Society For The Study Of Human Development.

Research Report

Collins, Michael, Brienza, Justin and O'Quinn, Richard (2021). Centre for Australian Army Leadership Research Report 1-2021. Brisbane, Australia: The University of Queensland, Business School. doi: 10.14264/3640893