Bio

Alice Xingyu Li was previously a Stanford Computational Social Science Fellow and received her Ph.D. in Developmental and Psychological Sciences from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education in 2021. She received her M.A. in Political Science from Stanford University in 2018.

Stanford Advisors

All Publications

  • Moving to wheat-farming regions increases analytic thought, but moving to cities does not: A three-wave longitudinal study. British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) English, A. S., Talhelm, T., Tong, R., Wei, L., Li, X., Ma, J., Yu, H., Zhou, S., Zhang, W., Lin, T., Zhang, M., Hu, L., Cui, P., Hacker, E., Ling, B., Logterman, B., Zeng, Z., Huang, C., Liu, Z. 2025

    Abstract

    Does moving to a new environment change people's cultural thought style? We tracked the cultural thought style of 1462 university students at 18 sites over time after they moved across China for college. We tested their holistic thought, which is more common in interdependent cultures. One logical prediction is that students would think less holistically after moving to big cities and more economically developed areas, in line with modernization theory. However, moving to bigger cities or more-developed areas did not predict decreases in holistic thought. Instead, regions' history of rice versus wheat farming predicted change in thought style. Within just five months, students who moved to wheat-farming prefectures thought less holistically than people who moved to rice-farming prefectures. This fits with the idea that rice farming required more coordination and interdependence than wheat farming. In a follow-up wave three years later, differences widened between students in rice and wheat areas. This three-wave longitudinal study documents the transmission of cultural differences in cognition, even without personal experience farming. The results suggest that China's farming history is still shaping cultural differences in the modern day.

    View details for DOI 10.1111/bjop.70033

    View details for PubMedID 41002145

  • Passion matters but not equally everywhere: Predicting achievement from interest, enjoyment, and efficacy in 59 societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Li, X., Han, M., Cohen, G. L., Markus, H. R. 2021; 118 (11)

    Abstract

    How to identify the students and employees most likely to achieve is a challenge in every field. American academic and lay theories alike highlight the importance of passion for strong achievement. Based on a Western independent model of motivation, passionate individuals-those who have a strong interest, demonstrate deep enjoyment, and express confidence in what they are doing-are considered future achievers. Those with less passion are thought to have less potential and are often passed over for admission or employment. As academic institutions and corporations in the increasingly multicultural world seek to acquire talent from across the globe, can they assume that passion is an equally strong predictor of achievement across cultural contexts? We address this question with three representative samples totaling 1.2 million students in 59 societies and provide empirical evidence of a systematic, cross-cultural variation in the importance of passion in predicting achievement. In individualistic societies where independent models of motivation are prevalent, relative to collectivistic societies where interdependent models of motivation are more common, passion predicts a larger gain (0.32 vs. 0.21 SD) and explains more variance in achievement (37% vs. 16%). In contrast, in collectivistic societies, parental support predicts achievement over and above passion. These findings suggest that in addition to passion, achievement may be fueled by striving to realize connectedness and meet family expectations. Findings highlight the risk of overweighting passion in admission and employment decisions and the need to understand and develop measures for the multiple sources and forms of motivation that support achievement.

    View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.2016964118

    View details for PubMedID 33712544

  • Affirmation prevents long-term weight gain JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Logel, C., Kathmandu, A., Cohen, G. L. 2019; 81: 70–75

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jesp.2018.07.005

    View details for Web of Science ID 000457819200008