Department: Psychology
Social Concepts Lab
Racial inequality: Recent research has demonstrated that both racial representation (i.e., the racial identities of those within a given domain) and diversity rationales (i.e. why an institution values diversity) play an important role in signaling whether underrepresented students feel valued in academia, but little research has examined how these factors shape underrepresented students’ perceptions on how they will be perceived by others (i.e. meta-perceptions) and whether those meta-perceptions influence underrepresented students’ experiences in academia (e.g. imposter syndrome). I will test whether racial representation (i.e. diverse or majority white) and diversity rationales (i.e. instrumental, which values educational benefits gained through diversity, vs. moral, which values justice), influence racially underrepresented students’ perceptions about how others perceive their success and whether one decides to apply to a given PhD program.