About the Lab
Welcome to the Dynamic Environments and Meaning Change Lab. We study how big changes in context can shape how people think about, feel toward, and interact with each other. Our research projects explore the link between "macro-level" structural conditions - networks, organizations, and informational environments - and "micro- level" pieces of social cognition (which we sometimes call "mental representations," "cultural meanings," or "stereotypes").
DEMC Lab projects are often related to at least one of three motivating questions:
- How do macro-level social environments, and changes to these environments, influence meanings people have about groups, objects, or behaviors they encounter in the world around them?
- When and how do social environments cause durable (rather than temporary) changes to mental representations about social identities, exchanges, and interactions?
- Can systematic changes in person-level cultural meanings enable macro-level social change?
By asking and exploring answers to these questions, we aim to build knowledge about the relationship between social structures and the beliefs of inviduals within them -- and vice versa. In doing to, we aim to ask rigorous scientific questions that also have implications for understanding important social issues like discrimination, segregation, polarization, and stigma.