1. Body concealment
Self-objectification is a phenomenon by which individuals, primarily women, internalize an observer perspective towards their own bodies as an outcome of sexual objectification, and thus perceive themselves and their value through the lenses of an external, sexually objectifying gaze. Self-objectification is related to women's mental health (e.g., depression and eating disorders), body shame, sexual dysfunctions, and overall well-being (Calogero & Tantleff-Dunn, 2011). This line of research investigates the effects of self-objectification on women's attitudes towards their bodies and their clothing choices.

- McKay, T. (2013). Female self-objectification: Causes, consequences and prevention. McNair Scholars Research Journal, 6(1), 7.
- Roberts, T.-A., Calogero, R. M., & Gervais, S. J. (2018). Objectification theory: Continuing contributions to feminist psychology. In C. B. Travis, J. W. White, A. Rutherford, W. S. Williams, S.L. Cook, & K. F. Wyche (Eds.), APA handbook of the psychology of women: History, theory, and battlegrounds (pp. 249–271). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000059-013
- Karsay, K. (2020). Objectification. In The International Encyclopedia of Media Psychology, J. Bulck (Ed.). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119011071.iemp0141
- Karsay, K., Knoll, J., & Matthes, J. (2018). Sexualizing Media Use and Self-Objectification: A Meta-Analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 42(1), 9-28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684317743019
- You can find other relevant literature here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jF9ql2NGY-rf3TctbBgCi5wkOYtREBEa

2. Fake news, Conspiracy theories, and trust in science
Skepticism toward science is emerging in recent movements questioning vaccination safety or climate change. Often the skepticism is associated with conspiracy beliefs that undermine the trust in institutions, suggesting simple and engaging explanations of complex events. This line of research addresses the cognitive and motivational underpinnings of such beliefs and the communication strategies (e.g, false balance phenomena) that may contribute to decision making.

Salvador Casara, B. G., Suitner, C., & Bettinsoli, M. L. (2019). Viral suspicions: Vaccine hesitancy in the Web 2.0. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 25(3), 354.
Douglas, K. M., Uscinski, J. E., Sutton, R. M., Cichocka, A., Nefes, T., Ang, C. S., & Deravi, F. (2019). Understanding conspiracy theories. Political Psychology, 40, 3-35.


3. Language and agency

Agency is a core dimension of social cognition, featuring stereotype content and intergroup biases. Language can capture such dimensions in blatant (be strong!) or subtle ways. This line of research addresses the subtle expression of agency through language, for example by means of verbs, word ordering, active or passive forms.
Such cues of agency are investigated through a socio-cognitive lens, showing the role of language in creating maintaining and shaping social order.

This research grounds firmly in the activities of the Social Grammar Lab, where you can find further literature and information: https://gsr-lab.com/

1. Self-objectification and body attitudes
Self-objectification is a phenomenon by which individuals, primarily women, internalize an observer perspective towards their own bodies as an outcome of sexual objectification, and thus perceive themselves and their value through the lenses of an external, sexually objectifying gaze. Self-objectification is related to women's mental health (e.g., depression and eating disorders), body shame, sexual dysfunctions, and overall well-being (Calogero & Tantleff-Dunn, 2011). This line of research investigates the effects of self-objectification on women's attitudes towards their bodies and their clothing choices.
You can find relevant literature here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jF9ql2NGY-rf3TctbBgCi5wkOYtREBEa


2. Gender discrimination in the workplace is often rooted in structural power imbalances. Building on recent research on decentralized organizations (Filippi, Peters & Suitner, 2024) and masculine organizational cultures (Berdahl et al., 2018), this research line explores whether shared decision-making is associated with lower perceptions of gender discrimination. We will examine whether employees who perceive their workplace as more decentralized also perceive it as less shaped by masculine norms and, in turn, report lower expectations of gender discrimination. By shifting attention from individual-level fixes to organizational structures, this research aims to highlight decentralization as a promising yet understudied lever for fostering more inclusive workplaces.


3. Dynamic Big Two
People make sense of the social world by assigning traits to themselves, others, and social groups. The well-established Big Two framework identifies agency (goal achievement, competition, self-interest) and communion (bonding, cooperation, trust) as the core dimensions of these trait attributions. This project takes an innovative approach by focusing on the dynamic interplay of agency and communion over time and across observations. Moving beyond static models, it adopts a complex dynamic systems perspective to capture how these dimensions shift reciprocally in response to contextual demands
Abele, A. E., Ellemers, N., Fiske, S. T., Koch, A., & Yzerbyt, V. (2021). DOI 10.1037/rev0000262​
Dalege, J., Borsboom, D., Van Harreveld, F., Van den Berg, H., Conner, M., & Van der Maas, H. L. (2016). DOI 10.1037/rev0000024
Kervyn, N., Fiske, S. T., & Yzerbyt, V. (2015). DOI 10.1027/1864-9335/a000219​



Please consult the field of research areas for further details and relevant references to read.