Research Projects

Our lab is primarily concerned with developing and testing theories that inform current social problems, particularly inequality and prejudice, in the hopes of bringing attention to these problems and working towards feasible solutions. Below are some of our main past and present research interests.

Proving you belong: Defending a threatened identity

Identity denial occurs whenever one of our important group memberships is called into question because we differ from the prototypical image of that group (Cheryan & Monin, JPSP, 2005). I found in a series of studies that Asian Americans were perceived as less American than their White American peers and that they realized that this was the case, despite their own contention that they were no less American. Asian Americans responded by attempting to prove their American identity by displaying knowledge of ingroup culture (such as American television shows).

Having one’s identity threatened as a result of deviating from the prototypical group member can also occur to those who find that their skills or attributes fall short in some important domain. With colleagues, I examined men’s reactions when their masculinity was threatened because their strength did not measure up to that of their male peers (Cheryan, Cameron, Katagiri, & Monin, under review). Men who were told that they were weak exaggerated their height (by three-quarters of an inch), claimed more past relationship partners, and stated they were handier than men who thought they were of average strength. They also expressed less interest in receiving gift certificates to clothing stores than men who thought their strength was average.

Refusing to belong: Distancing from an alienating stereotype

Why do women consider a future in computer science to a lesser extent than men (Dryburgh, 2000; Hess & Miura, 1985; Cheryan & Plaut, in progress)? Might this be because the powerful image of the male “computer geek” makes women feel like they do not belong in the field? With colleagues, I found was that there was a clear stereotype of computer science students as people who, for example, “stay up late coding and drinking energy drinks” and have “no social life” (Cheryan, Plaut, Davies, & Steele, under review). I then manipulated the image associated with computer science majors by having participants read one of two fabricated newspaper articles: Study finds computer science continues to be dominated by “geeks” or Study finds computer science no longer dominated by “geeks.” Women who read the former article reported that they had considered majoring in computer science to a lesser degree than women who read the latter article, whereas the articles did not affect men’s desire to pursue the field of computer science. The desire to participate in certain groups is influenced by the group’s public image. Attracting more women into computer science may therefore necessitate downplaying its geeky stereotype and replacing it with a more diversified image.

Stereotype threat and positive stereotypes

While at Northwestern, I studied the effects of making positive stereotypes salient on task performance. Asian Americans are stereotyped as being above average in math ability; I found that blatantly activating ethnic identity among Asian American women caused them to falter under pressure and perform worse on a math test than when that identity was not activated. Ironically, making the expectations prominent by reminding them of their ethnic group put pressure on the participants to perform, which interfered with their ability to successfully complete the challenging math problems (Cheryan & Bodenhausen, Psych Sci , 2000).

If you are a student or recent graduate and are interested in joining our lab, send an e-mail to scheryan@u.washington.edu.