Professor An Woo-kyung of Yale University: "Every Weakness Becomes a Strength... Those Who Discriminate Are Actually at a Disadvantage" [Power K-Women]

First Korean Full Professor in Psychology at an Ivy League University
Overcame Language Weakness by Preparing 40 Hours for 3-Hour Lectures
Shares Childcare Equally with Husband... Also Shares Children's Achievements
Greatest Accomplishment Is 'Confidence to Know When to Give Up'

In the 1980s, one of the top future aspirations for Korean women was to become a ‘hyunmo yangcheo’ (wise mother and good wife). Professor An Woo-kyung, Sterling Professor of Psychology at Yale University, broke this stereotype by pursuing studies in the United States after graduating from college. After earning her Ph.D. and returning to Korea, Professor An wanted to teach at her alma mater but faced opposition. The reason given by the professors at the time was, “There is already one female professor in the department. One woman is enough.”

After leaving Korea and settling in the U.S., Professor An achieved greater accomplishments on a broader stage. In 2003, she became the first Korean to be appointed as a tenured professor in the psychology department at an Ivy League university. She recently received Yale’s ‘Rex Hickson Award,’ given to the professor with the most outstanding teaching based on student evaluations. After publishing her book last year, Thinking 101 (Practice Thinking for a Better Life), it was highly recommended by world-renowned scholars such as Daniel Pink, Gretchen Rubin, and Paul Bloom. While working, Professor An also smoothly managed her family life with her husband, Professor Cheon Myung-woo, who was the first Asian dean at Yale University. Sharing child-rearing responsibilities equally, the couple gave their daughter Professor Cheon’s surname and their son Professor An’s surname.

Professor An cites her greatest achievement in life as the “confidence to know when to give up.” She said, “To properly pursue a goal, it is also important to learn how to give up properly.”

- You completed your undergraduate studies in Korea and then went abroad for further studies, starting your academic career in the U.S. How did that come about?

△ Perhaps because my father was a professor, I was drawn to the academic profession and decided to study abroad. At the time, I should have considered various career options, but being a woman definitely limited my choices. Later, becoming a professor in Korea was almost like “picking stars from the sky.” I was not alone in this. Among my classmates in the psychology department at Yonsei University, there was a friend who completed her Ph.D. at Stanford University but was not appointed as a professor because she was a woman. That friend worked as a part-time lecturer at various schools nationwide. She barely earned enough for gas and tragically died in a car accident on the highway.

- Was the situation different in the U.S. at that time?

△ Having lived in the U.S. for over 40 years, I have never felt disadvantaged because I was a woman in the psychology field. In fact, after being appointed as an assistant professor at Yale, when my fianc? (now my husband) applied for a cognitive psychology professor position, they immediately interviewed him and offered him an assistant professor position as well. In 1996, three universities, including Yale, offered positions for us to work as a couple, and since then, several prestigious universities have had openings for couples as professors.

When you think carefully about gender discrimination, although women who are discriminated against suffer damage, ultimately, the people who discriminate also suffer. If an employer hires a man who is less capable than a woman simply because he is a man, the employer naturally suffers losses. More broadly, society as a whole suffers. The majority of scientists who developed the COVID-19 vaccine were women. If those women had no positions as professors or researchers because they were women, how many more lives would have been lost? This logic applies not only to gender issues but to all prejudices. Racial discrimination remains a major problem in the U.S., and according to calculations by Citigroup, the U.S. has lost $16 trillion (about 22,000 trillion KRW) due to discrimination against Black people and the failure to utilize their talents appropriately. When individuals are not seen as they are because of prejudice or bias and are excluded socially or in relationships, the person holding the prejudice ultimately suffers losses.

- What difficulties did you face while studying and teaching in the U.S.?

△ There was a language barrier. My reading and writing speed was 3 to 4 times slower than others, and it was hard to keep up when discussions in seminars were disorganized. When I became a postdoctoral researcher, I taught for the first time in my life, and I spent 40 hours preparing for a 3-hour weekly lecture. However, every strength can become a weakness, and every weakness can become a strength. Because I lacked confidence in my language skills, I prepared thoroughly for lectures and presentations, even collecting jokes and examples diligently. As a result, I received awards for excellent lectures at the university, and invitations to speak came from outside academia as well. Last month, I gave a lecture on cognitive biases to over 350 lawyers and judges. Although it took a week to prepare, I received feedback that it was the best lecture, which was very rewarding.

- What efforts are needed to prevent strengths from becoming weaknesses?

△ To summarize the bias introduced in my book in one word, it is what is called ‘geunjagam’ (unfounded overconfidence). Among these, the illusion caused by fluency often turns strengths into weaknesses. When you are good at something, you tend to feel you can perform fluently without much preparation, leading to overconfidence and paying the price of being unprepared in real situations. I have often seen people with better overall language skills than me make big mistakes in important interviews because they did not prepare properly.

The first step to avoiding the fluency bias is to fully acknowledge that this problem exists. Even for lectures I have given for 20 to 30 years, I practice alone for 1 to 2 hours right before, raising my voice. Also, it is important to recognize that everything in the world changes in value depending on the situation or degree. No matter how delicious a cake is, it tastes bad when you are full. My strong analytical and critical thinking skills are very helpful in research, but if I apply extreme analysis and criticism to family or friends, it causes big problems. It is good to set simple rules. In my case, I have made it a rule to give my family a compliment whenever I get the chance.

This photo was taken by her husband on the rooftop garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, New York, during a summer visit in 2006 with her family, by An Woo-kyung, Sterling Professor of Psychology at Yale University. The daughter in the photo was 7 years old, and the son was 4 years old. Professor An said, "Going to hear the children's violin performance was more fun than attending a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, and inviting friends from the robot-making team to our home to serve spicy chicken dishes and cleaning the living room covered with sawdust and NASA materials was better than going to a Michelin restaurant." (Photo by Professor An Woo-kyung)

- You raised two children while working in the U.S. Was it difficult?

△ Until the children entered college, I compressed work and parenting into my hobbies and all my social relationships. The children participated in after-school programs, so I could work until 5 p.m., and on weekends, I acted as their driver and watched their activities. We planned vacations around the children, which was more fun than most hobbies.

- Your husband is also a psychology professor. How did you share household chores?

△ I cooked only one dinner on weekdays, and my husband took care of the dishes. For the children’s extracurricular activities, I was responsible for our violin-playing daughter, and my husband was responsible for our son who builds robots. We live in a neighborhood where the children cannot take public transportation alone, so driving them to and from school was a major task. My husband handled mornings, and I handled afternoons. Before having children, a senior female professor at Yale told me that the secret to balancing family and career is ‘marrying the right husband,’ which is true. My husband not only supports my career but genuinely wants me to succeed, making everything possible. Sometimes, I think he wants me to succeed even more than I do.

- Why did you give your children different surnames?

△ Since children inherit genes equally from both parents, I judged it irrational to connect them only to the father’s family by choosing one surname. We could have combined the surnames, but that would have made the name endlessly long, so we just gave one surname each. Both children attended the same schools from kindergarten through college, but their personalities and appearances are so different that many people don’t realize they are siblings. The reactions around us were positive. We told the children they could change their surnames anytime if they wanted, but they chose not to.

- Your book Thinking 101 includes research on the gender wage gap, which is largely due to stereotypes. How should our society change to reduce biased thinking and create a fairer society?

△ When people feel threatened, their tendency to discriminate against others increases. For example, if women think men are taking their jobs, or if people think refugees disrupt social culture and commit crimes, discrimination and exclusion become inevitable. But as I mentioned earlier, we must not forget that those who discriminate also suffer losses. To reduce the sense of threat, I hope for a day when the gap between rich and poor narrows and basic living standards, including healthcare and education, are guaranteed. The happiest countries in the world are not the sunniest or the wealthiest but the Nordic countries with well-developed social security systems. Nowadays, life is more fluid overall, and as people encounter diverse cultures and individuals, I hope the concept of fixed groups will be broken down.

Professor Ahn said, "You should always reassess whether the goals you set match your capabilities, and if the goals are too high and your current life is too painful, you should give up those goals and set more appropriate ones." He added, "Conversely, if your current goals are too small to fully utilize your abilities, even if those goals seem safer, it might be better to give them up and switch to higher challenges." He continued, "However, the problem is that, for whatever reason, giving up what you have been doing requires confidence to take risks," emphasizing, "and it also requires an accurate understanding of who you are." (Photo by Ahn Woo-kyung)

- What do you consider your greatest success so far?

△ It is gaining the “confidence to know when to give up.” The courage to distance myself from people who negatively affect me, and the decisiveness to abandon research projects that seem unlikely to succeed despite much investment. Of course, I don’t give up on everything whenever there is a problem, but when I was younger, I often dragged on uncertain relationships or projects out of anxiety, thinking “maybe.” The opportunity cost of that might have been losing better opportunities. As I experienced small successes in life, I built confidence and came to believe that even if I give up something now, new good things will come. To give up something, you need confidence to take risks and an accurate understanding of who you are. It is difficult. It took me about 10 to 15 years after graduating college to gain that confidence.

- What message would you like to share with female seniors, juniors, and working mothers?

△ There are things people must do and things they want to do. In collectivist societies, especially women seem to have too many things they must do. When I was struggling while preparing my Ph.D., an American friend advised me, “You need to be selfish.” Not selfish in a bad sense, but meaning you should live your life doing what you want, not living by others’ expectations or obligations. At the time, I thought I was quite independent, so it was a shocking statement. So sometimes I reflect on whether what I am doing is because I have to or because I really want to. Sometimes, doing things because I have to eventually makes me want to do them. But for things I really don’t want to do at all, I need the wisdom to smartly organize and let go. That creates more time to do what I want. That is one way to enjoy the process.

Professor An Woo-kyung

is Sterling Professor of Psychology at Yale University. Born in 1963, she graduated from Yonsei University’s psychology department and earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her course “Thinking” is one of the most popular classes at Yale.