Judgement biases affect the world in very meaningful ways, often making the difference between who gets "in" and who stays "out" (e.g. electoral outcomes; Todorov, Mandisodza, Goren, & Hall, 2005). In addition, biases can be observed at regional levels, predicting discriminatory outcomes such as the use of lethal force in police forces (Hehman, Flake, & Calanchini, 2018). I am interested in understanding how bias operates and why it remains persistent in most societies. In my current research, I am investigating a potential perceptual origin of social judgement biases.

Cleck to see my recent publication in this area.

In a globalized world, finding effective ways to reduce intergroup inequalities and judgement biases has never been a more pressing issue. I am especially interested in testing strategies to reduce biases using novel methodologies for assessing discriminatory behaviour in various domains (e.g. attractiveness-based biases; Axt, Nguyen, & Nosek, 2018; Axt & Lai, 2019). Currently, I am working on a contest study that aims to find the most effective strategies for reducing discrimination in judgement (similar work; Lai et al., 2014; Lai et al., 2016).

Recent research has been questionning whether implicit attitudes reflect characteristics of the individuals, or rather of their social environment (Payne, Vuletich, & Lundberg, 2017). Much research on implicit bias and policy-making falls in line with this hypothesis, showing that changes in policies can be linked to meaningful changes in regional-level biases (e.g. Gawronski, Ledgerwood, & Eastwick, 2020; Ofosu, Chambers, Chen, & Hehman, 2019; Payne & Vuletich, 2018). In future research, I am interested in further understanding the nature of the relationship between policy-making and bias, specifically in the context of bias reduction.

Cleck to see my recent publication in this area.