The Impact of Stereotypes on Individuals with Stigmatized Identities
My research focuses on examining the impact of negative stereotypes and underrepresentation on individuals with stigmatized identities. I also conduct interventions to mitigate the effects of stereotyping to improve individuals' experiences, success, and retention.
How Individual and Environmental Factors Predict Intergroup Perceptions
I examine how social and cultural identities and situational contexts predict intergroup perceptions as well as how interventions can decrease bias.
The Role of Emotions on Attitudes, Behavior, and Well-Being
I study how the experience of specific state emotions impact people's perceptions of social groups, decision-making, and overall affect.
The Impacts of Stereotypes on Individuals with Stigmatized Identities
Experiences of Stereotypes for Individuals with Stigmatized Identities
Women interested in pursuing STEM careers show greater neural vigilance to a minimal gender prime (Wu, Park, & Dasgupta, 2020, Biological Psychology)
Women, POC, and LGBTQ students experience greater discrimination and more negative program experiences in psychology doctoral programs (Wu et al., in prep) and were less optimistic about the COVID-19 pandemic (Syropoulos*, Wu*, Burrows, & Mercado, 2021, Frontiers in Psychology)
Interventions to Mitigate the Effects of Stereotypes for Individuals with Stigmatized Identities
A one-year female mentorship during female engineering students' first year of college had long-term benefits (from beginning of college to one-year post-graduation) for their academic experiences, well-being, success in procuring internships, and retention in STEM (Wu, Thiem, & Dasgupta, 2022, Nature Communications).
A one-year living learning community designed for first-generation students in the biological sciences had benefits for their academic experiences during their first year and second-year retention in their major (Wu et al., revise and resubmit).
Selected Ongoing Projects
Benefits of a 6-week leadership and negotiations academy for underrepresented students in technology and engineering
Impacts of a gender stereotype on 5-10-year-old girls' and boys' performance and emotions on a STEM-related task
Perceived gender stereotypes of a STEM-related task for 3-17-year-olds
How Conversations About Race can Decrease Bias
White parents often avoid honest discussions about race with their children due to beliefs in myths. We address these myths and give advice on how to engage in these conversations (Wu, Sánchez, & Perry, 2022, Current Opinion in Psychology).
When White parents explicitly point out racial prejudice and make accurate attributions of racism in discussions with their children, their children show greater decreases in anti-Black implicit bias (Perry, Wu et al., 2024, Developmental Psychology).
Selected Ongoing Projects
How parents' nonverbal behavior during a parent-child discussion about race predicts their children's change in implicit bias
How Asian Americans' identification as Americans and POC predict empathy of Black individuals
How the race and gender of STEM faculty impact perceptions of excellence
How Individual and Environmental Factors Predict Intergroup Perceptions
The Role of Emotions on Attitudes, Behavior, and Well-Being
The Roles of State Negative Emotions
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, disgust (rather than fear, anxiety, and anger) about the pandemic predicted greater prejudice against Asians (Wu, Syropoulos, Rivera-Rodriguez, Dasgupta, 2023).
Though anger has been the emotion most commonly studied in collective action, we find that fear about a potential Trump presidency predicted greater collective action among women during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections (Wu, Park, & Kwak., in prep).
Adults who show greater emotional coherence between facial behavior and heart rate during a sad film also reported less negative affect and neuroticism in everyday life (Wu, Svoboda, Bae, & Haase, 2021, Emotion).
Selected Ongoing Projects
What are the specific emotions that are elicited during eye-opening experiences and how do eye-opening experiences predict changes in attitudes and behavior?