About Me
Andre Oliver
I am a Social Psychologist and Post-Doctoral Associate at the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS). After earning my BA and MA in Psychology at San Francisco State University (SF State), I earned my PhD in Psychology from the Graduate Center--City University of New York (CUNY). My passion for leveraging basic research in reducing social inequality stems from my lived experience as a Black man and first-generation college student. Across my academic career, my research has two broad focuses:
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Investigating how social identity shapes people's perceptions and expectations of others.
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Applying social psychological research to affect social equity in domains such as education, criminal justice, and wealth.
This research aims to improve intergroup interactions and reduce the racial and gender disparities in the U.S.
Research
What Mental Representations Tell us about Person Perception
Reverse Correlation Paradigm
In my research, I design experiments to investigate how people's mental representations of specific social categories influences their perceptions and behaviors. For example, I examine how Black men’s expectation to be mentally represented by police officers as criminals negatively impacts their anticipated interactions with police officers as well as how female STEM students’ stereotypical mental representations of STEM professors negatively impact their belonging in STEM domains. Understanding how Black men’s and female STEM students’ identity concerns when interacting with police officers and STEM professors, respectively, impact their interaction expectancies has the potential to inform interventions to improve such interactions.
Using Social Psychological Research to Inform Policy
Interventions to increase Support for Social Equality Policy
My research is also aimed at leveraging social and moral psychology to affect economic policy, policing philosophies, and educational pedagogy, with the goal of reducing social inequality in the U.S. Testing, for example, how race and political ideology interact to affect support for social equity policies. I am also developing interventions that aim to decrease racial disparities in criminal justice, improve intergroup interactions, and increase female representation in STEM fields.
Collaborations
Building Research Partnerships
I actively seek collaborations with fellow researchers and institutions to foster a dynamic research environment and exchange of ideas. By partnering with experts in the field, I aim to engage in impactful research projects and create synergies that advance our collective understanding of social psychology.
Social Equity Research
Discover Insights in Social Psychology
