Sarah Townsend is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kellogg Team and Group Research Center. She received her B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research primarily focuses on socially and culturally constructed ideologies, such as the American Dream and meritocracy. She studies how these beliefs shape interpersonal interactions, product choice, and group identification. In addition, she uses a multi-method approach that includes behavioral observation and physiological responses (specifically, hormonal and cardiovascular responses) to examine these how ideologies influence emotion and motivation.