October 21, 2020
The Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University is excited to welcome Dr. Christopher D. Petsko, its newest Postdoctoral Associate.
Christopher joins the Cook Center after having finished his Ph.D. in social psychology at Northwestern University, where he graduated in June of 2020.
In general, Christopher examines the psychology of social stereotypes: how they get inside our minds, and how they come to influence the impressions we make of each other. As a quick example, some of Christopherâs research has shown that learning that someone is gay (vs. not) can distort the impressions we make of their racial features. For example, when people learn that Latino men are gay, they come to think of these men as seeming âless Latinoâ and even as seeming âWhiterââstereotypically speakingâthan they would otherwise. Findings such as these suggest, perhaps, that oneâs sexual orientation and racial group can work in tandem to influence how one is treated across a range of social contexts: from educational settings, to the workplace, to the criminal justice system.
At Duke University, Christopher will be working primarily with the Cook Centerâs own Dr. Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, who herself specializes in many of the same stereotyping dynamics that Christopherâs research emphasizes. In tandem, Christopher and Ashleigh plan to continue studying intersectional stereotypingâbroadly, how the impressions we make of others often depend on the multiple social groups to which they belongâand as well, to develop a Duke University website that houses resources for emerging women leaders.
Christopherâs research has received attention from the National Science Foundation and has been published in leading journals in his field, including the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and Social Psychological and Personality Science. Later this year, Christopherâs most recent paperâwhich is on the topic of intergroup dehumanization in U.S.âwill be coming out in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. This paper will be the first of (hopefully) many in which Christopher gets to acknowledge his affiliation with the Cook Center.
At Northwestern University, Christopher developed and taught his own undergraduate seminar on the topic of Stereotyping and Prejudice; at Duke, Christopher teaches Negotiation in the Fuqua School of Business (where he also holds an appointment).
With the support of the Cook Center, Christopher plans to continue working on projects of relevance to broad social issues and to public policy. More information on Christopher, including where to contact him, can be found here.
