PhD Studentship in Investigating Different Form of Awareness of Automatic Stereotypes and Prejudice

One of social psychology’s most prominent contributions to debates around equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) has been the idea that people may hold “unconscious biases”, i.e., that they might be prejudiced without knowing it. In contrast to such presentations, research from our lab has consistently shown that people can predict their scores on the most commonly used measure of “implicit bias”, the Implicit Association Test (IAT, Greenwald et al., 1998). But how widely applicable are these results? How aware are people of their automatic stereotypes? And what consequences would it have to shift portrayals of implicit bias away from “unconscious”?

The PhD Project:

The purpose of the present project is to dive deeper into our understanding of the interplay of awareness, automatic thinking, and implicit measures. Based on our more recent findings (e.g., see Hahn & Goedderz, 2020; Goedderz & Hahn, 2024; see below), we are interested in a variety of questions, such as:

• What is the difference between feeling a bias (introspective awareness) and accurately assessing its strength compared to others (social calibration)?
  See our model proposed in Goedderz and Hahn (2024) as well as Hahn and Goedderz (2020) for more details on this distinction.
• What are the implications for public discourse if biases are viewed as unintentional but not entirely unconscious?
• How can our findings be extended to other measures and targets?

Applicants will be asked to develop their own proposal along these lines in collaboration with the supervisor (Adam Hahn), which will then be submitted as an application to the ESRC South-West Doctoral Training Partnership. If successful, the applicant will join a team of international researchers with their own developed questions on awareness and implicit measures. The successful applicant will be part of Adam Hahn’s lab at the University of Bath, which is specialized in the social-cognitive underpinnings of stereotyping and prejudice, as well as attitudes more generally. The position will also be part of a vibrant group of social psychologists at the University of Bath, including Greg Maio, Lukas Wolf, Mitch Callan and many others, along with many PhD students and postdocs.

Papers to read for further information:

https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2020.38.supp.s115

https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241254447

Suggested additional reading:

https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/frwcy

https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221120703

Applicant Qualifications:

We seek individuals who are passionate about advancing their expertise in social psychology related to this proposal. You may apply with either an excellent undergraduate degree (first or upper second-class degree if from a UK institution) or a master’s degree in psychology or similar. Additional expected qualifications include excellent quantitative training, as well as demonstrated interest in research on stereotyping and prejudice, attitudes, and quantitative methodology.

The ultimate success of the application will be determined by the ESRC South-West Doctoral Training Partnership and will depend on the quality of the project the applicant develops. For informal inquiries please contact Dr. Adam Hahn (ah2763@bath.ac.uk).

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