Research

How do people make sense of an increasingly diverse and often inequitable social world? The Diversity and Social Processes Lab conducts multiple lines of research examining this question. In general, the lab seeks to advance our understanding of how diversity, inequality, and discrimination shape individuals’ attitudes and relations with people from other social groups, basic social cognitive processes, policy preferences, and support for collective action.

Some research questions we are currently investigating include:

• • • How do members of different social groups relate to one another, particularly in psychologically difficult environments in which individuals may feel that their identities are under threat (e.g., in the context of growing diversity or salient intergroup inequality)?
    • What factors influence when/if members of one stigmatized group perceive other stigmatized group members as potential allies or as potential competitors?
    • How does exposure to information about diversity affect categorization processes, attitudes, political ideology, and policy preferences?
    • How do category- and feature-based stereotyping work together or independently to affect social judgment and persuasion?
    • How do people manage multiple intersecting identities (e.g., possessing both advantaged and disadvantaged identities)?
    • When and why do people engage in different actions meant to reduce social inequality?

Select Working Papers

To get a sense of some of the newest research from the lab, you can find links to a few working (not peer-reviewed) papers below.