Dynamic Environments and Meaning Change Lab

Welcome!

Simulation GIF

Welcome to the Dynamic Environments and Meaning Change Lab. We study the impact of social networks and informational environments on the ways that people think about and interact with each other. Projects that members of the DEMC Lab work on explore the link between "macro-level" structural conditions (i.e., networks, institutional contexts, and informational settings) and "micro-level" cognitive/social psychological phenomena (e.g., mental representations).

While DEMC Lab projects vary in scope, they are often unified by three central questions:

  1. How do macro-level social environments - and changes to these environments - impact the meanings that individuals have about objects or behaviors they observe in the world around them?
  2. When might social environments produce durable changes to features of social cognition, or how people make sense of and interact with people, objects, and situations they encounter?
  3. Can systematic changes in micro-level cultural meaning lead to changes in macro-level social structure?

By asking and exploring answers to these questions, the DEMC Lab aims to build knowledge about the impact of social structures on invidual-level beliefs and behaviors and vice versa. We aspire to ask rigorous basic science questions with implications for understanding the levers related to important social issues like gender discrimination, racial segregation, political polarization, and identity-based stigma.