GRADUATE RESEARCHERS

Melissa McManus

mmcmanus@psych.umass.edu

In the United States, there are two primary schools of thought for the reduction of prejudice: multiculturalism (an ideology that suggests we should acknowledge and celebrate racial and ethnic differences) and colorblindness (an ideology that suggests we should ignore racial and ethnic differences and instead acknowledge individuality).  These ideologies suggest that either noticing  race (multiculturalism) or not noticing race (colorblindness) will lead to less prejudice and discrimination. My research focuses on how these ideologies may (or may not) influence how perceivers automatically notice race and subsequently how noticing or not noticing race may influence perceivers' implicit stereotyping of others. I'm also interested in the other factors that may affect how these ideologies work, such as one's own race, explicit prejudice, or political beliefs.

I'm also involved in a collaboration that looks at women's participation in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math); this research is currently looking at what factors might influence girls' interest in science at the junior high school level, as well as the influence of the peer-group on womens' interest and performance in Engineering at the university level.

Outside of research, I love baking, crafting, and event planning and am a beginning runner.

Jane Stout

jgstout@psych.umass.edu

http://blogs.umass.edu/jgstout

My work focuses on the way that subtle cues in the social environment can signal to an individual that, because of the social group to which they belong, s/he may not "fit" in that environment. This poor sense of belonging, which is based on one's social identity is termed social identity threat. I look at the pernicious effects of social identity threat on motivation and achievement as well as interventions and strategies that people might use to promote engagement and confidence in identity threatening achievement contexts.

Kumar Yogeeswaran

kumar@psych.umass.edu

http://people.umass.edu/kyogeesw

At the broadest level, my research interests lie in the realm of intergroup relations. This interest is fuelled by the desire to understand how people’s membership in particular groups (e.g. ethnic, racial, or national groups) shape their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors toward others as well as their own self-conceptions. For my research, I use different methods including reaction time measures, self-report measures, and electrophysiological measures.

My primary research examines Americans’ perceptions of diversity—its antecedents and consequences. Recent research demonstrates that Americans of all races perceive White individuals as more authentically American than ethnic minorities born and raised in the United States. Based on these findings, I am interested in two broad questions:
(a) Do race-based stereotypes about who is authentically American influence people's behaviors and judgments toward individuals who are not White?
(b) If race-based stereotypes about who is authentically American lead to discriminatory behavior, what are conditions that strengthen versus weaken these stereotypes?

Outside my primary line of work, I am involved in research investigating: (1) the relationship between intergroup emotion and implicit prejudice using Event-Related Brain Potentials (in collaboration with Dr. Nilanjana Dasgupta and Ariel Pressman); (2) the role of implicit stereotypes in the legal domain (in collaboration with Dr. Jerry Kang & Dr. Gary Blasi at the UCLA Law School); and (3) the effect of threat and anxiety on intergroup relations (in collaboration with Dr. David Butz at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst).

Levi Adelman

ladelman@psych.umass.edu

The United States is a nation of immigrants from different parts of the world. Over the course of its history, this country has seen several attempts to integrate people of different ethnic backgrounds as a way of fostering harmonious intergroup relations within society. For my honors thesis (in collaboration with Kumar Yogeeswaran and Dr. Nilanjana Dasgupta), I am interested in studying how people perceive and respond to different expressions of ethnic identification and the psychological mechanism behind such effects.