Hardin Social Cognition Lab
Rick Cheung
~Rick's CV (pdf file)
Cheung, R. M. & Hardin, C. D. (2010). Costs and benefits of political ideology: The case of economic self-stereotyping and stereotype threat. JESP.
Email: mcheung@brooklyn.cuny.edu
The idea that humans are social creations is more than a century old, but I continue to find myself amazed at the degree to which people understand the world based on their social roles. Most of my work examines how and why people take on the roles assigned to them in interpersonal relationships and by social systems—especially roles that are negative, repugnant, and self-derogating. Specific research questions that interest me include:
- When and why do people understand themselves in terms of ingroup stereotypes, even when the result is self-derogation in status-relevant domains?
- Are such stereotype-threat effects related to one’s ideological understanding of the world?
- When and why is obedience heightened when people are socially marginalized and rejected?
- How do people regulate themselves in the face of distressing social realities? Are people more vigilant of or defensive toward such unwanted realities?
- When are people able to maintain (in)subordination to assigned roles, regulate socially (un)desirable motivations, and (dis)allow ideological deviance?
- Why do people become even more prejudiced when the situation predisposes them to reduce it, and what mediates such reactionary attitudes?
Taken together, my work is animated by the social constructionism perspective, which embraces specific social-psychological theories including shared reality theory and system justification theory. The signature of my work is a focus on how much people are (un)willing and (un)able to self-regulate in the integration of self and society, and my eagerness to experimentally explore these issues in the spirit of McGuireian perspectivism (thanks, Curtis!).
Publication:
Cheung, R. M., & Hardin, C. D. (in press). Costs and benefits of political ideology: The case of economic self-stereotyping and stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. (pdf)