The University of Chicago
Department of Psychology
5848 South University Avenue
Chicago, IL, 60637
Debbie Ma
Background
I am currently a doctoral candidate in the Social Psychology program. My research relates to the psychological phenomenon of stereotyping and prejudice. Along with my advisors Joshua Correll and Bernd Wittenbrink, I examine how factors internal to individuals, such as psycho-physiological states (e.g., fatigue and arousal), and features of the external world (e.g., context and category labels) affect how individuals construe and respond to people from different racial groups. Although my work is theoretically general, my first line of research is situated within the context of law enforcement. Here, I investigate how training can improve accuracy in shoot decisions and how fatigue and arousal may undermine the benefits of training. In a second line of research, I examine how external cues like shifts in context or category labels alter people's attitudes and behavioral intentions toward others. In this research, I have shown that context can dramatically shift our attitudes toward other people and that category labels can fundamentally change the identities people ascribe to others (e.g., Devos & Ma, 2008). The goal of this research is to understand the forces that influence judgment of and behavior toward other group members, in order to develop specific strategies that undercut the use of race in decision-making when it is irrelevant. This work may have far-reaching implications (e.g., the development of realistically implementable techniques for police officer training and other professionals dealing in high-stakes decision-making).
I am originally from Denver, Colorado and earned a B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2003. Before matriculating at The University of Chicago, I also completed a M.A. in English Literature from the University at Buffalo.
Website: www.psych.uchicago.edu/~debbiema
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