My current research projects attempt to understand the following questions:

Politics and Race Projects:

How does the political diversity of political outgroup members’ friends affect potential interactions? 

In collaboration with Dr. Daryl Wout and Grace Flores-Robles, we attempt to extend research on racial diversity in friendship networks (Wout et al., 2010; Wout et al., 2014; Green et al., 2020) to political diversity in friendship networks. We have completed three studies replicating the racial diversity effects of increasing positive meta-perceptions and friendship interest. In the third study, we also found that political diversity in friendship networks also led to improved perceptions of their interaction partner, an increased learning goal orientation, believed that their partner was more interested in learning about them, and lessened dehumanization of their interaction partner, primarily among White Liberals and White Conservatives in the United States. My co-authors and I have a revise and resubmit at Social Psychological and Personality Science for this research. We are aiming to resubmit the manuscript by the middle of March.

How does the racial identity of a potential interaction partner affect potential interracial interactions? 

Dr. Daryl Wout and I are also conducting research with similar DVs in the racial domain. Across three studies, we will investigate how Asian Americans experience intraminority safety when faced with the prospect of interacting with another racial minority group (Blacks, Hispanics) or Whites. We have collected data for a study with Asian-American participants. We are in process of setting up a follow-up study with East Asian-American participants.

Disability/Other Marginalized Groups Projects:

How do articles published in major psychological journals include or discuss disability?

I and some other members of the Disability Advocacy and Research Network (DARN) are researching how disability is either discussed or mentioned in articles published in major psychological journals. We plan on submitting our results for the 2025 SPSSI conference.

How can intraminority relations between White disabled people and nondisabled racial minorities be improved?

I am in the early stages of writing an integrative review article on intraminority relations between White disabled people and nondisabled racial minorities. I am primarily interested in how shared experiences of discrimination, in the absence of specific shared identities, could improve intraminority relations and facilitate a common ingroup identity of shared disadvantage, in line with Cortland et al. (2017). To facilitate this article, I and Dr. Daryl Wout are planning a correlational pilot study, with White and Black participants, investigating how person factors and broad political variables correlate with variables related to either cooperation or conflict with persons with disabilities, similar to a more simplified version of the diagram in Craig & Richeson (2016). This initial study is meant to be broader than the proposed line of research, to facilitate flexibility in how the line of research develops. While there are numerous topics I am considering investigating in this research, I am particularly interested in issues related to eugenics.

How can institutional policies and practices be changed to provide more appropriate care for White disabled people who have acute or chronic pain?

With Dr. Kara Ayers and Dr. Lakeya McGill, I am also working on a review article on how to improve the treatment of White disabled patients’ pain. Specifically, the review will focus on how healthcare providers perceive pain among White disabled people, with a focus on how institutional factors influence and interact with group and interpersonal factors, and contribute to providers misperceiving or undertreating White disabled patients’ pain. We will also discuss how White disabled patients’ pain might be perceived similarly or differently to nondisabled and disabled racial minority patients by providers in the healthcare system.

Do sexual (LGBTQ+) and gender (transgender, non-binary, etc.) minorities face similar challenges to other marginalized groups (racial minorities, women, etc.) in STEM and academia more broadly?

I also have a support role on another research project that found that sexual (LGBTQ+) and gender (transgender, non-binary, etc.) minorities had higher levels of epistemic exclusio, increased stress, and greater intentions to leave their PhD programs, regardless if the PhD was in STEM or in academia more broadly. We have a revise and resubmit for this paper at Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy. We are aiming to resubmit the manuscript by the end of March.