RESEARCH INTERESTS
My current research centers on the following three topics.
Dehumanization and psychological essentialism
I'm interested in what it means to 'dehumanize' someone. I'm also interested in the relation between dehumanization and psychological essentialism. There are various notions of dehumanization and essentialism floating around in social psychology. I'm interested in whether certain forms of dehumanization give rise to certain forms of essentialism, and vice versa.
Racial categorization & intergroup cognition
I'm currently working on a paper or two concerning the origins of racial categorization. I'm particularly interested in whether certain domain-specific mechanisms predispose us towards racial thinking. More generally, I'm interested in the different ways in which people conceive of social groups (e.g. as natural kinds versus coalitions), and how these ways of thinking are modulated by contextual factors.
Mindreading/Theory of mind
I'm especially interested in the distinction between introspection and third-person mindreading, and whether there are differences in how these two abilities develop. In exploring this issue, I'm currently running a series of studies with Bill Fabricius and Anne Kupfer.
Dehumanization and psychological essentialism
I'm interested in what it means to 'dehumanize' someone. I'm also interested in the relation between dehumanization and psychological essentialism. There are various notions of dehumanization and essentialism floating around in social psychology. I'm interested in whether certain forms of dehumanization give rise to certain forms of essentialism, and vice versa.
Racial categorization & intergroup cognition
I'm currently working on a paper or two concerning the origins of racial categorization. I'm particularly interested in whether certain domain-specific mechanisms predispose us towards racial thinking. More generally, I'm interested in the different ways in which people conceive of social groups (e.g. as natural kinds versus coalitions), and how these ways of thinking are modulated by contextual factors.
Mindreading/Theory of mind
I'm especially interested in the distinction between introspection and third-person mindreading, and whether there are differences in how these two abilities develop. In exploring this issue, I'm currently running a series of studies with Bill Fabricius and Anne Kupfer.
