IPC Research

We aim to understand the ways in which social factors interplay with perception, cognition, and behavior. Our broad research interests include the accuracy of spontaneous social judgments from "thin slices" (brief observations) of behavior, the cognitive and behavioral effects of stereotyping, nonverbal and verbal communication in real-life settings, and the role of social and structural group memberships in interpersonal relations. We examine these phenomena at multiple levels of analyses ranging from the neurological and physiological to sociocultural.

Please use the links on the left to find out more about some of the research we're doing!

Thin slices

One of the major research directions that lab pursues is the accuracy of spontaneous social judgments from "thin slices," or very brief observations, of behavior. Research in the lab has demonstrated that judgments made on the basis of thin slices of behavior can be quite accurate. At present, we are investigating the neurological, cognitive, and affective underpinnings of this phenomenon. We are also investigating the generalizability of the phenomenon across different domains, situations, and cultures. In addition, we have been examining how well people make such judgments with minimal information, as exemplified by the figural outline of the person below.

Social Identity & Behavior

One general line of research our lab focuses on involves the impact of sociocultural group membership on various intra-individual and interpersonal processes. This work has found that group memberships have pervasive effects on thought, behavior, and mood, and thus represent an important factor to be considered in order to better understand all dyadic and group-level interactions. Below we briefly discuss two major foci of our work: stereotype susceptibility and dyadic interactions of differential status groups.

Stereotype susceptibility

Stereotypes, the categories people use to organize their social world, have been found to exert powerful effects on the cognition and behavior of stereotyped individuals. Our research extends this broad finding by examining the effects of stereotypes across multiple levels, with the realization that individuals simultaneously belong to multiple sociocultural group categories which may be associated with positive or negative stereotypes, depending on the situation. Thus, for instance, an Asian American woman possesses at least two distinct identities, each associated with different and sometimes conflicting domain-specific stereotypes. As an Asian American she is stereotyped to possess superior quantitative skills; as a woman, on the other hand, she is stereotyped to possess poorer quantitative skills. The opposite is true in the domain of qualitative skills. Our research has shown that the subtle activation of these identities produces stereotype-consistent behavior, such that both positive and negative identity-relevant stereotypes differentially affect cognition and behavior. We refer to this process as stereotype susceptibility, and we are now beginning to examine it in other domains, with a broad range of racial and ethnic identities, and across the lifespan.

Dyadic interactions of differential status groups

This line of research also examines the ways in which social group memberships impact cognition, affect, and behavior, but does so at both the intraindividual and interindividual levels. In particular, this work examines the influence of social identity group memberships (such as race and gender) on 1) psychological processes during dyadic interactions between members of different groups; 2) perceptions of, reactions to, and behavior with other group members who either conform to or contradict group norms and stereotypes; and 3) the academic achievement of group members in the face of relevant social stereotypes. Further, this research considers the perspectives of both members of low status, stigmatized groups and members of high status, nonstigmatized groups. The larger aim of research program is to contribute to a comprehensive examination of interactions between members of stigmatized and nonstigmatized groups, as well as to highlight the qualitative experiences of members of stigmatized social groups.

Emotion & Nonverbal Behavior

While the research interests of the lab in nonverbal communication are very diverse, currently we are focusing on three lines of research that attempt to understand the way emotions are presented and understood nonverbally, as well as their effects on interpersonal outcomes. We have briefly summarized these projects as follows Ingroup/Outgroup Recognition of Emotion, Mixed Messages, and Social Function of Emotion Displays.

Ingroup/outgroup recognition of emotion

At a broadest level, this line of research involves individual and cross-cultural differences in the communication and regulation of emotion. One recent project in this field was a large-scale meta-analytic review of the universality of emotion recognition, specifically the notion of an ingroup advantage of emotion recognition. Interestingly, this review found that happiness and anger showed the smallest ingroup advantage, suggesting an evolutionary role in emotion recognition. An experimental follow-up to this review conducted with a colleague in India examined specifically the effect of exposure to other cultures on the ingroup advantage.

Mixed messages

Mixed messages are messages in which two or more channels of communication (e.g. verbal content and tone of voice) are in conflict. We have studied these messages in terms of how they affect productivity, creativity, and satisfaction in the workplace, as well as how they affect cognitive processes such as facial memory. Interestingly, results from this work are often counterintuitive. For example, mixed messages tend to elicit greater levels of productivity, satisfaction, and facial memory. Our current work focuses on determining the meta-message, or gestalt, that may be conveyed by specific types of messages. Specifically, we are investigating how mixed and consistent messages are used to express different levels of politeness and impoliteness.

Social function of emotion displays

We have recently been studying the interactional function played by the fear and anger expressions. Specifically, we are interested in how the specific forms these expressions take relate to the way people who show them are perceived by others. Currently we are looking at the implicit associations that may exist between the fear and anger expressions and constructs of youth and maturity. We are also planning to study the physiology of emotional expression recognition and how it can help us better understand the processing and categorization of these expressions.

Social & Cultural Neuroscience

Currently under construction. We'll reveal soon!

Social Vision

We are interested in the way that social factors such as  our identities, goals, stereotypes, motivations, desires, beliefs, and personalities influence and interact with the basic vision and perception of others. At multiple levels of analysis, we have been examining how higher-order social factors and  lower-level  construal processes work in concert to drive our interpretations of the social world. One important aspect of this research is uncovering the many interactions between the bottom-up visual and perceptual processes driving construal and the top-down social cognition that guides and constrains these.

For overviews of recent work in this area:

“THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL VISION” edited by R. B. Adams, Jr., N. Ambady, K. Nakayama, & S. Shimojo.
Oxford University Press: New York (forthcoming).

Freeman, J.B., Ambady, N., Rule, N.O., & Johnson, K.L. (in press). Will a category cue attract you? Motor output reveals dynamic competition across person construal. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General [read the paper!]

Chiao, J. Y., Heck, H. E., Nakayama, K., & Ambady, N. (2006). Priming race in biracial observers affects visual search for Black and White faces. Psychological Science, 17, 387-392. [read the paper!]