Research Labs in Social Psychology

The Social Psychology Program at CU hosts active research in a broad range of areas including stereotyping and prejudice, judgment and decision making, health, relationships, evolutionary psychology, and social neuroscience.

Specific labs include:

CU Change Lab

At the CUChange lab seek to conduct transdisciplinary research to explore the social, psychological, physiological, and genetic factors that are linked with health behavior. We believe that a better understanding of the full range of influences on health behavior will allow better tailoring of behavioral interventions to increase health behavior and decrease morbidity and mortality.

CU Social Neuroscience Lab

The CU Social Neuroscience Lab addresses social psychological issues using a multi-level perspective that integrates psychological and physiological measures. We focus in particular on issues related to prejudice, stereotyping, attitudes, emotion, and face perception using psychophysiological and neuroscience measures. The lab is housed in the psychology building and is equipped for the collection of event-related brain potentials (ERPs), facial electromyography (EMG), heart rate, and skin conductance. Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are conducted in collaboration with the Brain Imaging Center at the CU Health Sciences Center in Denver.

CU Stereotyping and Prejudice (CUSP) Lab

The CUSP lab is composed of social psychologists with common interests in a broad array of research questions relating to stereotyping, prejudice, and intergroup relations. Our research explores issues concerning factors that influence the development and expression of valenced beliefs about social groups. It also encompasses work on the consequences of these beliefs for both intergroup relations and public policy issues. Fundamental to our work is a deep concern about the multifaceted nature of group perceptions and the ways in which explicitly expressed beliefs or sentiments may or may not be consistent with those assessed at the implicit, automatic, or more spontaneous level. We are also interested in the ways in which the social positions occupied by perceivers, such as whether they are or are not members of dominant, majority groups in society, influence group stereotypes and sentiments. And finally, we are interested in naive theories or ideologies that perceivers espouse about the different ways in which intergroup hostility might be reduced.

Emotion Decision Judgment and Intuition (EDJI) Lab

The EDJI laboratory investigates the interplay between Emotions, Decisions, Judgments, and Intuitions. The lab's theoretical and methodological base lies in the fields of social and cognitive psychology, with an emphasis on the interdisciplinary field of judgment and decision-making. The JEDI lab is concerned with understanding and improving everyday experience, thought, and behavior.

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