Social Cognition Lab at Notre Dame

Planning Team

Alexandra F. Corning, PhD
Michaela Bucchianeri, MA

Rae Lundy, MA

Spring 2009 Team Members

Brandon Buchanan

Noelle Crooks

Meaghan Jennings

Nga Chu Man

Gawain Patterson

Cari Pick

Lab Location and Contact Information
The Lower Level of Haggar Hall @ the University of Notre Dame	574.631-0971 Email the Lab

Do some people you know seem to label people and events as discriminatory far too frequently? Or, maybe sometimes you feel others are not properly interpreting the discrimination that is so obviously taking place right before them? It is possible, and probably quite appealing to imagine, that you are always correct in your interpretations and it is everyone else who has processing problems! The fact of the matter though is that many, if not most, displays of prejudice nowadays are cloaked in subtlety and nuanced enough so as to invite a variety of interpretations. (And, of course, behaviors that are devoid of prejudice certainly contain their own potential for misinterpretation.)

Social cognition, broadly defined, is the study of how people process social information. In our lab, we are interested specifically in how it is that people come to their unique conclusions about whether or not discrimination has taken place in ambiguous social interactions. What personality features and what conditions of the situation lead people to one conclusion or another? Who is more likely to jump to a conclusion quickly? How changeable are people's judgments once formed? These are the types of questions we examine in our work on the perception of discrimination.

Some of Our Studies