Social processes and personality group

Our research is funded by prestigious grants from highly respected international organizations (e.g. European Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, and the Polish National Science Centre).

With this research, we work to understanding who people are, and how this affects our interactions with others, on both an individual and a group-based level.

Within this framework, our interests are diverse but include such topics as why some people believe in conspiracies, who would make your ideal romantic partner, when children learn to control their prejudices, and what we really mean by words like “straight” or “gay”. Our members work with activists and charities all over the world applying knowledge from social psychology to improve society.

Group members

• Dr Agniesszka Golec de Zavala
• Dr Andrew Cooper
• Dr Madoka Kumashiro
• Professor Keon West

Research Highlights

Articles

• Arriaga, X. B., Eller, J., Kumashiro, M., Rholes, W. S., & Simpson, J. A. (2021). Self-efficacy and declines over time in attachment anxiety during the transition to parenthood. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(5), 658-666
• Eaton, A.A., Saunders, J.F., Jacobson, R.K., & West, K. (2020) How gender and race stereotypes impact the advancement of scholars in STEM: Professors’ biased evaluations of physics and biology post-doctoral candidates. Sex Roles, 82, 127-141
• Golec de Zavala, A., Federico, C., Sedikides, C., Guerra, R., Lantos, D., Mrozinski, B., Cypryanska, M. & Baran, T. (2020). Low self-esteem predicts out-group derogation via collective narcissism, but this relationship Is obscured by in-group satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 119(3), 741-764. 
• Federico, C.M., de Zavala, A.G., & Baran, T. (2021) Collective narcissism, in-group satisfaction, and solidarity in the face of COVID-19. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12, 1071-1081
• Joel, S. et al. (2020) Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies. PNAS, 117, 19061-19071
• Kale, D., Pickering, A. & Cooper, A. (2020) Examining the relationship between impulsivity-related personality traits and e-cigarette use in adults. Addictive Behaviours, 106, 106348
• Sindermann, C., Cooper, A., & Montag, C. (2020) A short review on susceptibility to falling for fake political news. Current Opinion in Psychology, 36, 44-48
• West, K., Greenland, K., & van Laar, C. (2021) Implicit racism, colour blindness, and narrow definitions of discrimination: Why some white people prefer ‘All Lives Matter’ to ‘Black Lives Matter’. British Journal of Social Psychology

Grants/Fellowships

• Keon West is the PI on an ERC Starting Grant, “What does it mean to be heterosexual?”
• Agnieszka Golec de Zavala is a PI on a research project Maestro financed by the National Science Centre in Poland 'Mindfulness practice as an intervention to address collective narcissist's retaliatory aggression'

Research Dissemination

• Channel 4 - Naked Beach - Featuring Keon West and body image expert Natasha Devon, a new naked TV show is on a quest to make us feel better about our bodies
• Agnieszka Golec de Zavala has participated in various public debates (1,2) in Poland