Eric chats with Mina Cikara, Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, where she directs the Intergroup Neuroscience Lab. The lab uses social psychological and cognitive neuroscience approaches to study how group membership and prejudice change the course of social cognition, studying phenomena such as schadenfreude, empathy, and dehumanization. Mina’s work has been covered in outlets such as the New York Times and Time Magazine.
In this episode, Eric chats with Mina about her latest work on hate crimes in the US. Specifically, Mina argues that as a minority group grows larger than other minority groups, it faces more negative attitudes and hate crimes. Mina chats about how these findings might contrast with the essentialism literature, where a minority group would be attributed certain fixed traits. She then shares how she sees social psychology progress as a discipline, and what she would like to see in the future. Finally, Mina gives advice for young scholars in the field and discusses how to find an idea worth pursuing.
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Links:
Mina's Paper: https://osf.io/2z3kw/
Mina's Twitter @profcikara
Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
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