WELCOME TO THE SOCIAL AND INTERGROUP PERCEPTIONS (SIP) LAB

The Social and Intergroup Perceptions (SIP) Lab is comprised of faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students interested in the psychology of identity, status, intergroup conflict and oppression. We examine how individuals and groups legitimize and leverage prejudice and discrimination to maintain status, cultural values, and systems that benefit one's own groups often at the expense of others'. We study these forces across a variety of groups and social contexts. Our philosophy is rooted in the belief that the fundamental need to form and maintain group identities can have productive (cooperation) and destructive (conflict, discrimination) manifestations. To best understand these issues one has to examine the universal psychological and situational underpinnings of prejudice.