Patricia Grace Devine is a professor of
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
, where she was the psychology department chair from 2009 to 2014. She was also the 2012 president of the
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
The Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) is an academic society for personality and social psychologists focused on promoting scientific research that explores how people think, behave and interact. It is the largest organization o ...
.
She is an experimental
social psychologist
Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the rela ...
who specializes in
prejudice
Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification of another person based on that person's per ...
,
stereotypes, and intergroup relations. She received her
PhD in social psychology from
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
in 1986.
Major Contributions
Devine's 1989 study, ''Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components'', received the prestigious Scientific Impact Award from the
Society of Experimental Social Psychology The Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP) is a scientific organization of social scientists founded in 1965 with the goal of advancing and communicating theories in social psychology. Its first chairperson was Edwin P. Hollander.Holland ...
, recognizing her paper's lasting impact that fundamentally altered the landscape of prejudice and stereotyping research. Her paper demonstrated that stereotypes and prejudicial emotions can be activated automatically, in opposition to one's explicit, controlled beliefs. This insight has spurred four decades of research on the automaticity and control of prejudice.
In 2012, she developed a prejudice intervention that taught participants cognitive techniques to overcome non-intentional race bias, which was able to reduce implicit bias up to two months after the intervention.
Publications
* ''The Role of Discrepancy-Associated Affect in Prejudice Reduction'' Co-Author: Margo J. Monteith
* ''Intuitive versus Rational Judgment and the Role of Stereotyping in the Human Condition: Kirk or Spock?'' Co-Author: Steven J. Sherman
* ''Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components''
* ''Overattribution Effect: The Role of Confidence and Attributional Complexity''
* ''Prejudice and Outgroup Perception''
* ''Getting Hooked on Research in Social Psychology: Examples from Eyewitness Identification and Prejudice''
* ''Diagnostic and Confirmation Strategies in Trait Hypothesis Testing'' Co-Authors: Edward R. Hirt and Elizabeth M. Gehrke
* ''Prejudice With and Without Compunction'' Co-Authors: Margo J. Monteith, Julia R. Zuwerink and Andre J. Elliot
* ''Goals in Social Information Processing: The Case of Anticipated Interaction'' Co-Authors: Constantine Sedikides and Robert W. Fuhrman
Recent publications
Devine, together with
William T. L. Cox
William Taylor Laimaka Cox is an assistant scientist in the department of psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is an experimental cognitive scientist specializing in stereotyping, prejudice, and learning. His work explores ...
,
Lyn Abramson and Steven Hollon, recently proposed the integrated perspective on prejudice and depression, which unites cognitive theories of depression with theories of prejudice, casting them in a common terminology and identifying ways that depression research can inform prejudice research and vice versa.
Devine, along with
William T. L. Cox
William Taylor Laimaka Cox is an assistant scientist in the department of psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is an experimental cognitive scientist specializing in stereotyping, prejudice, and learning. His work explores ...
, Alyssa Bischmann, and Janet Hyde at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
, have suggested that “
gaydar
Gaydar (a portmanteau of ''gay'' and ''radar'') is a colloquialism referring to the intuitive ability of a person to assess others' sexual orientations as homosexual, bisexual or straight. Gaydar relies on verbal and nonverbal clues and LG ...
” is an alternate label for using stereotypes to infer orientation (e.g., inferring that fashionable men are gay) (2015).
These studies have revealed that orientation is not visible from the face—participants did, however, readily infer orientation from stereotypic attributes (e.g., fashion, career). Compared to a control group, people stereotyped more when led to believe in gaydar, whereas people stereotyped less when told gaydar is an alternate label for stereotyping. It was concluded that “gaydar” serves as a legitimizing myth that disguises and perpetuates stereotyping.
References
External links
Patricia Devine – UW-Madison Department of PsychologyTrish Devine – Social Psychology Network ProfileDevine Intergroup Relations Lab Official Page
Living people
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
Year of birth missing (living people)
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