FOR CENTURIES, artists and scientists alike have recognized that our internal representation of the world is not veridical. Rather, human perception, evaluation and behavior hinge on goals and motivations, and the strength or salience of these goals can shift from one moment to the next.
HUMANS ARE remarkably sensitive to the social world, including the relationships that bind them to some people and turn them against others. At the flip of a coin, people divide the social world into us and them, transforming seemingly trivial features of the social context into overt discrimination.
OUR LAB explores how social concerns--from group membership to morals--shape the perceptions, cognitions and evaluations that drive behavior, and the underlying neural mechanisms that mediate these processes. It is our hope that understanding these basic processes will contribute to our understanding of issues that range from the rudiments of social perception to intergroup discrimination and hate.