My research seeks to understand how people process information, particularly threatening information, and how the unique processing of threatening information affects judgments and behaviors. I have developed a theoretical model that integrates threat and social cognitive literature to offer a number of testable insights for various fields of study involving both threat responses and later (but still automatic) evaluative processing. For example, I have current lines of research that explore the unique role of threat in underlying certain types of racial prejudice and bias. 

I am interested in the interplay of affect and social cognition. My research explores how nonconscious affective processes inform attitudes and guide behaviors during social interactions. For example, much of my recent research has explored how automatic threat response and implicit attitudes affect people’s perceptions of the police and how threat-related processes shape behaviors during police-civilian interactions.

I am interested in why prejudice exists, how people portray prejudice, and the impact prejudice has on interactions. More specifically, I am interested in how race impacts police-suspect interactions and how automatic threat responses vary across different variables, such as skin tone, facial features, and racial identity.

I am interested in the development of political ideology, political attitudes, and factors that influence support for or against particular social policies. Specifically, I am interested in how threat and threat perceptions effect political attitudes, support for progressive or reactionary social policy, and how those attitudes and policy decisions form ideology.

Bio coming soon.

Sydney Byk ('2), Josiah Chilcote ('24), Camielle Daise ('25), Thomas Dool, Jude Edelman ('25), Mikey Gipson ('24), Maria Gullesseria ('25), Jamie Guterman ('24), Emily Hadjez ('24), Nicole Haskell ('25), Nye'Dra Holmes ('24), Elisa Kim ('26), Emelia LaCognata ('25), Ben Markham ('26), Caleb Mejia ('25), Luana Cabral Moreira ('25), Sydney Mullen ('24), Franchesca Seminario ('25), Vallentina Skye ('25), Morgan Strickland ('25), Maddie Stults ('24), Emily Tran ('26), Lily Zuehlke ('25)