Sheba Aikawa

Sheba Aikawa is currently a Social Psychology PhD student in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. She previously obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the SUNY Albany, and a master’s degree from NYU. Broadly, Sheba’s research explores how having multiple identities (e.g., race, gender) can intersect to impact feelings of trust and inclusion as well as stereotyping and mistreatment across multiple domains (i.e., mental healthcare, academia). Specifically, she is examining what factors promote welcoming spaces and how negative stereotypes may lead to hostile environments for Black women. In her first line of research, she is testing how to engender feelings of trust in mental healthcare for Black people, using targeted health messaging and identity-safety cues.