Isaac Sabat, Texas A&M University

Disclosure Dilemmas: Hidden Benefits of Revealing Not So Hidden Stigmas at Work
Isaac Sabat

Description

Semester: 
Winter 2019
Lecture Time: 
Friday, February 15, 2019 - 1:30pm to 3:00pm
Lecture Location: 

R0220 Ross School of Business

Introduced By: 
Eunbit Hwang

Abstract

This talk will present findings from three sets of studies demonstrating the potential benefits of disclosing hidden stigmas at work. The first examines how vocal cues can differentiate heterosexual and non-heterosexual individuals, and how these distinctions can ultimately lead to job-related discrimination. The second study examines how disclosing a non-heterosexual identity can improve interpersonal outcomes when stigmas become known through indirect cues. The third study meta-analytically examines both the intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits of disclosing/expressing a stigmatized identity, as well as the boundary conditions of these effects. These studies are representative of my general program of research in that they identify subtle forms of workplace discrimination as well as potential strategies that stigmatized targets can engage in to remediate these barriers.

Recording & Additional Notes

Isaac Sabat is an assistant professor in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Diversity Sciences at Texas A&M University. His program of research broadly focuses on understanding and improving the working lives of stigmatized employees. He is particularly interested in examining strategies in which these employees can engage, such as disclosing or acknowledging their identities, to effectively remediate the workplace obstacles that they face. He has conducted various interrelated projects that examine how the effectiveness of expressing one’s identity is impacted by the extent to which stigmas are previously known, visible, or discovered by others over time. This is a novel area, given that disclosures have previously been conceptualized as a dichotomous, all-or-nothing phenomenon. This work has been published in Journal of Business and Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior, and Harvard Business Review.