Research Labs in Social Psychology

The Social Psychology Program at CU hosts active research in a broad range of areas including stereotyping and prejudice, judgment and decision making, health, relationships, evolutionary psychology, and social neuroscience.

CU Change Lab

At the CUChange lab we seek to conduct transdisciplinary research to explore the social, psychological, physiological, and genetic factors that are linked with health behavior. We believe that a better understanding of the full range of influences on health behavior will allow better tailoring of behavioral interventions to increase health behavior and decrease morbidity and mortality.

Supervising Faculty: Angela Bryan
Lab web page: CU Change Lab 

CU Social Neuroscience Lab

The CU Social Neuroscience Lab addresses social psychological issues using a multi-level perspective that integrates psychological and physiological measures. We focus in particular on issues related to prejudice, stereotyping, attitudes, emotion, and face perception using psychophysiological and neuroscience measures. The lab is housed in the psychology building and is equipped for the collection of event-related brain potentials (ERPs), facial electromyography (EMG), heart rate, and skin conductance. Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are conducted in collaboration with the Brain Imaging Center at the CU Health Sciences Center in Denver.

Supervising Faculty: Tiffany Ito
Lab web page: CU Social Neuroscience Lab

CU Stereotyping and Prejudice (CUSP) Lab

The CUSP lab is composed of social psychologists with common interests in a broad array of research questions relating to stereotyping, prejudice, and intergroup relations. Our research explores issues concerning factors that influence the development and expression of valenced beliefs about social groups. It also encompasses work on the consequences of these beliefs for both intergroup relations and public policy issues. Fundamental to our work is a deep concern about the multifaceted nature of group perceptions and the ways in which explicitly expressed beliefs or sentiments may or may not be consistent with those assessed at the implicit, automatic, or more spontaneous level. We are also interested in the ways in which the social positions occupied by perceivers, such as whether they are or are not members of dominant, majority groups in society, influence group stereotypes and sentiments. And finally, we are interested in naive theories or ideologies that perceivers espouse about the different ways in which intergroup hostility might be reduced.

Supervising Faculty: Tiffany Ito, Evava (Eva) Pietri
Lab web page: CUSP Lab

Emotion Decision Judgment and Intuition (EDJI) Lab

The EDJI laboratory investigates the interplay between Emotions, Decisions, Judgments, and Intuitions. The lab's theoretical and methodological base lies in the fields of social and cognitive psychology, with an emphasis on the interdisciplinary field of judgment and decision-making. The JEDI lab is concerned with understanding and improving everyday experience, thought, and behavior.

Supervising Faculty: Leaf Van Boven
Lab webpage: EDJI Lab

Evolution and Social Cognition (ESC) Lab

How do people decide whom to help, whom to harm, whom to befriend, and whom to avoid? In the Evolution and Social Cognition Lab, we try to shed light on these perennial social-psychological topics by integrating principles from cognitive and evolutionary psychology. To do so, we use a theoretical approach in which we consider how psychological mechanisms process inputs from the environment to adaptively regulate social emotions and behavior.

Supervising Faculty: Eric Pedersen
Lab webpage: ESC Lab

Social Interventions and Attitudes Lab

An overarching goal of the Social Intervention and Attitudes lab is to investigate how basic processes in social cognition and attitudes influence various domains pertinent to real-world issues. The lab aims to do theoretically impactful work while also developing new and scalable interventions. Much of our current research focuses on reducing biases in STEM and exploring who acts as an ingroup member and fosters belonging among women with multiple marginalized identities (e.g., Black and Latina women).

Supervising Faculty: Evava (Eva) Pietri
Lab webpage: SIA Lab

Social Perception Lab

The Correll Social Perception lab examines the influence of social categories (such as race and gender) on our perceptions of others. We examine questions like: Why do people have more trouble recognizing members of another race? Do members of other groups evoke a sense of threat? Does interpersonal contact with members of other groups alter the way we think about and act toward them?

Supervising Faculty: Joshua Correll
Lab webpage: Social Perception Lab

Social Psychoneuroimmunology (SPNIL) Lab

Who gains or loses status and why? How do these changes or perceived changes in status impact stress and health? The CU Boulder Social Psychoneuroimmunology* Lab (SPNIL, pronounced “Spineli”) broadly focuses on behavior, stress, and health outcomes within social hierarchies. Using an approach that combines social endocrine and psychoneuroimmunology methodology, we also examine biological determinants of status-seeking social behavior with a particular emphasis on causal mechanisms linking biology to behavior. Ultimately, SPNIL research aims to uncover psychosocial and biological determinants of resilience to social disparities in stress and health.

Supervising Faculty: Erik L. Knight
Lab webpage: Social PNI Lab