Advancing the academic and public understanding of key societal challenges.

The Social Interaction area of research focuses on understanding emotion and social behaviour through affective computing processes.

My research involves developing and evaluating interventions designed to promote more positive intergroup relations in schools, communities and workplaces. In particular, I focus on interventions that bring together people from different social groups (for example on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexuality), or which help to increase people’s interest and confidence in engaging with people from different backgrounds.

Danielle is an applied social psychologist with a specific focus on intergroup relations, intergroup conflict and social change. As an applied researcher these theoretical constructs are examined within real-world contexts, particularly those found within divided communities. Current projects explore the impact of intergroup contact experienced through various contact-based initiatives on the promotion of positive intergroup relations. She is currently leading the evaluation of the European Union’s PEACE IV Children and Young People programme and the Collaboration and Sharing in Education Project (CASE) delivered by the Education Authority and Léargas.

My research investigates the development of social cognition with a particular emphasis on how children and adults categorize others into social groups, and how these categories then guide further inferences and behaviour. I am also interested in children's reasoning about language and accent as social categories that influence multiple aspects of person perception and social evaluation.

Dr. Baysu is a social and political psychologist. Her research focuses on the social psychology of cultural diversity, immigration and integration, educational success of immigrants and minorities, intergroup relations, identity politics and political participation of minorities. In 2018, she received a grant from Jacobs Foundation as the Principal Investigator in the project “Cultural diversity approaches in schools and their implications for student achievement and adjustment”. She was also awarded with Advanced Research Center Distinguished Visiting Fellowship of City University of New York where she worked for 6 months as a Visiting Professor. Please check her latest research at https://bold.expert/stereotyping-affects-school-engagement/

My research focuses on understanding and reducing intergroup biases, with a specific focus on gender biases in organisational and academic contexts. I am particularly interested in analysing the interpersonal mechanism through which women are negatively influenced by existing implicit and explicit gender stereotypes in social interactions such as job interviews and negotiations. My research also seeks to understand and reduce potentially negative attitudes towards gender equality initiatives in masculine domains.

My research lies at the intersection of social, political, and peace psychology. It broadly focuses on the psychological processes of intergroup conflicts and their resolution, group-based violence, national and ethnic identity, transitional justice, as well as civil resistance and social change. In collaboration with colleagues from different parts of the world, I am currently investigating the long-term impact of historical collective trauma on contemporary conflicts from both victim and perpetrator perspectives. In another cross-national project, I am conducting qualitative and quantitative studies to understand political resistance in repressive contexts. I have a particular interest in contextualizing psychological research and extending it to underrepresented regions and marginalized groups. My research draws on theories from various disciplines, such as political science, international relations, and health psychology. It utilizes multiple methods, including surveys, experiments, field experiments, archival analyses, and interviews.

My interests include social and communicative interactions, social signal processing and affective computing, laughter and humour, cognition and emotion, cross-cultural emotion perception, the evolution of human communication and language, embodied conversational agents, risk perception and communication, opinion dynamics, and agent-based modelling.

Magdalena is a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast and a research fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She earned her PhD in 2014 from the University of Clermont Auvergne. Her research focuses on production, perception, and social functions of facial expressions, in particular smiles and laughter.

Dr McNeill's research focuses on the intersection of communication and conflict. This research has covered the communicative function of identifying as a victim of conflict, the role of political apologies, and the role of accents in communicating group identity. It has also examined how we communicate online about pandemics, conflicting nutrition information and political issues. He employs a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, but particularly enjoys applying rhetorical and discursive psychology to the analysis of social problems.

My research focuses on young people and their social experiences, investigating how they relate to educational and psychosocial outcomes, both concurrently and over time (longitudinally). Presently, I am working as part of the Kids in Context team led by Dr Jocelyn Dautel. My current project, titled ‘Communicating ‘Truth:’ Consumption and transmission of polarized information amongst young people in a divided society’, is an exciting mixed-method project funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, which focuses on transmission of polarized information among young people in Northern Ireland.

Phoebe works as a Research Fellow in the School on a Royal Society of Chemistry-funded project exploring presence, perceptions, and engagement with LGBTQ+ inclusion symbols in STEM departments in the UK and US. Her research interests primarily focus on social health, particularly with respect to loneliness, inclusion, and wellbeing, using quantitative, qualitative, and evidence synthesis methods.

My primary research interest is social cognitive development. More specifically, children’s development of empathy and theory of mind. I use a variety of methods to examine social cognition, but primarily take a mixed methods approach. Currently, I am working as a postdoctoral fellow under Dr. Jocelyn Dautel with the Developing Beliefs Network to examine children’s understanding and development of ethno-religious identity and intergroup relations in historically divided societies. My other research areas of interest include psychology of the arts, contextual influences on development, and embodied cognition.

Caitlin is currently working within the Kids in Context team under Dr. Jocelyn Dautel as a research assistant across two projects.  One is a Templeton World Charity Foundation funded project, titled 'Communicating Truth: Consumption and transmission of polarized information amongst young people'. This project uses mixed-methods to investigate polarized information transmission, epistemic vigilance and truth-seeking amongst youth in Northern Ireland.  The second project, as part of the Developing Belief Network, examines children's reasoning about ethno-religious categories in the context of historically divided Northern Ireland.  She is particularly interested in understanding children and young people's development, social experiences and psychosocial outcomes using mixed-methods.