Thesis title: Towards Effective leadership in organizations: Psychophysiological studies of the influence of organization hierarchy on gaze cuing and emotional contagion
This work concerns the behavioral and psychophysiological correlates of leadership in organizations. These issues have been studied using multiple behavioral and neuroscientific techniques including eye tracking, experience sampling, recording of cardiac and electrodermal activity and infrared thermal imaging. In specific, during his PhD, Mr Donato Ferri has investigated how an individual’s position within a company hierarchy (i.e. being a manager or “leader” vs being a staff or “follower”) modulates one’s tendency to follow the gaze of a high-status target (Study 1), their sensitivity to emotional contagion (Study 2a) and their tendency to influence other people’s emotional states (Study 2b).