01 — Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

I am currently working on some projects assessing how people view sexual harassment claims. I am interested in potential barriers victims with different social identities (e.g., sexual minorities, race, gender minorities) may face when coming forward with sexual harassment claims. Why might someone view one sexual harassment claim as less legitimate than another? How might intersectionality and victim identity relate to these differences?

02 — Understanding Meta-Stereotypes

Metaperceptions tend to refer to beliefs people have about other people’s attitudes. Some of my current work is specifically assessing how the stereotypes people believe others have about their social groups (i.e., meta-stereotypes) impact behaviors. For example, how do the stereotypes a White American believes Black/African Americans have about White Americans impact that White American’s own attitudes and behaviors? My hope is to better understand how these meta-stereotypes can harm prejudice reduction methods (e.g., perspective-taking).

03 — Understand Political Attitudes and Behaviors

I am currently working on research examining how people view political deviants. Specifically, I am assessing if people perceive political extremists differently than political moderates. So far, the answer is YES. But why might this be and is this always true? Some of my other research has assessed how social norms and perceptions of political values impact our own political behavior. I plan to continue this work and better understand how political attitudes and morals can increase and decrease when people are willing to discuss political topics.

04 — Inventions Aimed at Improving Intergroup Relationships

Although understanding prejudice and attitudes is important, I am very interested in attitude change and creating scaleable methods to reduce prejudice and discrimination. I am currently working on research that applies perspective-taking to prejudice/discrimination research. My hope is to better understand when and why perspective-taking helps versus hinders intergroup interactions. I also work with collaborators around the world who are testing psychological interventions aimed at attitude and behavior change in applied settings.