Webster Vienna Hosts Chopin Visiting Professor, Psychology Expert Marianne Schmid Mast 

By Amanda Cooke 

Webster Vienna Private University (WVPU) hosted Marianne Schmid Mast Nov. 12-14, during which time the renowned expert on organizational behavior presented a series of seminars and lectures on campus.   

Prof. Dr. Marianne Schmid Mast, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, is a distinguished professor of organizational behavior and former president of the Swiss Psychological Association.  

Schmid Mast’s research focuses on social interactions, especially how power dynamics and nonverbal cues shape communication. Her novel use of virtual reality (VR) technology in psychological research offers unique perspectives on social and interpersonal behaviors. Thanks to her long-standing contributions to personality and social psychology, Schmid Mast is a fellow of both the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the American Psychological Association. 

On Nov. 12, the dean presented a student workshop about gender differences in leadership. Schmid Mast examined factors contributing to the gender gap in top leadership roles, despite equal leadership performance by men and women.  

She discussed women’s lower leadership aspirations, career choices that often bypass management paths, and gender differences in negotiation outcomes and assertiveness — qualities essential for leadership. Additionally, Schmid Mast addressed how stereotypes influence leader selection, with prototypical leaders still predominantly perceived as male.  

As new generations seek more participative leadership, where women often excel, she explored how these shifts may support greater female leadership representation in the future. 

On Nov. 13, the psychologist presented a research seminar for faculty and students entitled, “New Frontiers in Psychology Through Technology.” 

New technologies such as VR and artificial intelligence (AI) can help us tackle questions that are otherwise difficult to investigate. Research examples were presented showing that the use of these technologies can help standardize research scenarios and thus increase experimental control while still investigating interpersonal interactions unfold.  

Additionally new technologies allow us to disentangle variables that are naturally correlated to test their independent effects. For instance, women obtain less funding from investors and the question is whether they are less persuasive in their verbal and nonverbal behavior or whether the investors are biased against women as leaders (or both). Using new technologies also makes it possible to automatically code nonverbal social interaction behavior in a potentially less biased manner. 

 
The final event of the week was Schmid Mast’s public lecture, “Machines and Minds: When Machines Teach Us Human Skills.” How can we use new technologies such as VR and AI to teach us what remains inherently human, such as interpersonal skills like empathy, collaboration, leadership and communication?  

The Chopin visiting professor explored why a leader might use an immersive virtual reality setting where participants stand on a plank facing a void to train them in persuasive presentation skills. She posited how making managers fire a virtual version of themselves before firing employees fosters greater empathy. Can we use ourselves as a role model via deep fake videos to train interpersonal skills? Exploring both the possibilities and limitations of new technologies in training interpersonal skills was the focus of this lecture.  

Since 2007, Webster Vienna has hosted the Dr. Elizabeth Chopin Endowed Visiting Professorship, donated by the late Mag. Reinhard Ortner. This professorship was created in honor of Dr. Chopin's long history of service to the university and the community. She served as Director of the Vienna Campus from 1988-1999. The endowment allows Webster Vienna to attract world-renowned professors in the fields of business, international relations, art, media and psychology to lecture and share their professional experiences through public forums.  

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