Overall, the work highlights the heterogeneity of experiencing mixed-race identity and the crucial importance of social feedback in shaping belonging.
Treating “mixed-race” as one category may overlook meaningful differences in lived experience.
We find that while Border and Protean identifiers show similar identification levels, they differ meaningfully in identity integration and self-concept clarity, and that validation of one’s Mixed identity plays a crucial role.
Across two large UK & US samples (N = 1,177), we examine how mixed-race individuals self-categorize (Border, Protean, Singular, Transcendent) and what these choices mean for their identification patterns, perceived similarity, discrimination experiences, and identity structure.
Our paper **What it Means to be ‘Mixed’: Social Identity Typology in Persons with Multiple Racial-Ethnic Group Memberships** is now out! It forms a key part of Anna Huang’s dissertation, showcasing her brilliant work on mixed-race identity.
https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/cdp0000792
New Publication!
https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/cdp0000792
You beat me to posting about our own paper 😅
Really appreciate the shoutout!"
𝗛𝘂𝗴𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗝𝗼𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸!
This is just the start— keep an eye out for more standout contributions from her in the future.
(5/5)
The takeaway:
Classic models of social identification don’t fully capture the experiences of stigmatized groups: Identification isn’t tied to positive group evaluation — people can strongly identify even with negatively viewed groups.
Time for more inclusive, context-sensitive theorizing (!)
(4/5)
What explains this diversity?
Both group-level factors (e.g., socioeconomic position, group entitativity) and individual belief systems (e.g., perceived permeability, legitimacy) shape social identification.
Social identity is both 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 and 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭.
(3/5)
The study asks: How do people from different stigmatized groups identify with their ingroups?
Across 18 groups in the U.S., we found that the widely used multicomponent ingroup identification model doesn’t fit these groups particularly well — identity structures vary substantially.
(2/5)
Very proud to share another first first-authored paper from our lab — led by Joelle Flöther and now published in 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘧 & 𝘐𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘺!
𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽𝘀
Open Accces: doi.org/10.1080/1529...
(1/5)
Huge thanks to co-author @yarrowdunham.bsky.social — and congratulations again to first author Feline!
We aimed to study effects of linguistic abstractedness, but different types of group labels (adjectives vs. nouns) didn’t significantly influence children’s group attitudes — behavior spoke louder than words.
However, children didn’t extend those attitudes to unfamiliar group members. They seem to notice social patterns but remain cautious about generalizing — showing early nuance in how they think about groups.
We found that children form attitudes about social groups based on how group members behave — even when those behaviors don’t perfectly match group membership.
This is Feline’s first first-author publication — CONGRATULATIONS!
🎉 Excited to share our new paper “Children infer social group attitudes from evaluative behavioral information but do not extend them to unfamiliar group members.” in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology:
🔗 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106401
The June 2025 special issue of Social Cognition -- Tutorials on Novel Methods and Analyses in Social Cognition, Part 1 -- was guest edited by Jimmy Calanchini, Juliane Degner, and Colin Smith, with support from Bertram Gawronski.
The introduction is linked here: doi.org/10.1521/soco....
I raise some overdue (and slightly uncomfortable) questions about ecological validity, downstream consequences, and individual and cultural differences.
It’s not comprehensive—but hopefully a step toward deeper conversations about how to move the field forward.
After years of thinking (and occasionally obsessing) about STIs, I finally put it all on paper.
Part critique, part love letter, the piece revisits a few selected issues in STI research—not everything, but some things that might be worth a closer look.
🎉 New paper in Social and Personality Psychology Compass 🎉
𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀: 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.
🔗 https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.111
Happy to have found a home for this research in the British Journal of Social Psychology: doi.org/10.1111/bjso...
🎉 Excited to announce our new paper: 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐝? 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐬,
co-authored with my wonderful colleagues Joelle Flöther (not on bluesky) and Iniobong Essien @iniobong.bsky.social ! 🎉
4/4
This paper is an incredible accomplishment for an early career-researcher!
Check it out!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
3/4
With its solid theoretical foundation, the paper allows to derive research questions and hypotheses that will guide future research for years to come.
Added plus: The paper also provides THE most comprehensive literature review of existing research on Mixed identities.
2/4
The paper delves into the complexities of the social identification processes for Mixed individuals, examining how individual and contextual factors may shape their self-categorization and social identification.
🧵1/4
Excited to celebrate Anna Huang‘s first first-authored paper just published in EJSP. 🥳
In this theoretical article, Anna explores how Social Identity Theory (SIT) and Self-Categorization Theory (SCT) apply to individuals with Mixed racial-ethnic identities.
2/4
The paper delves into the complexities of the social identification processes for Mixed individuals, examining how individual and contextual factors may shape their self-categorization and social identification.
Yet there is a handful of studies in which spontaneous trait inferences from (unambiguous) behaviors were moderated by stereotype congruency. We aimed at investigating the underlying mechanism of this effect - but were unable to find it…
Thrilled to start posting here by sharing two fantastic website articles summarizing our latest publications.
Both papers are the FIRST first-author papers of our talented PhD students, @mangelsjana.bsky.social and @cw-sander.bsky.social
Happy to see that their research is making waves! 🌊