|
 |
Deborah Prentice
Social influence and inter-group relations are particularly important in my research. I am especially interested in the ways in which social norms, beliefs, and values influence people's perceptions and behaviors in social contexts, as well as their individual identity and experience. Much of my work has focused on gender, with explorations into how individuals think about and respond to differences that arise in cross-gender and cross-race relations. How do social beliefs and conventions regarding gender serve to reproduce and sustain gender differences and divisions? I have also studied a number of issues related to college student life, including the social dynamics of alcohol use and the antecedents and consequences of academic and extracurricular choices. My current projects focus on three topics: the influence of essentialist beliefs on intergroup relations, the social consequences of violating gender stereotypes, and the role of personal values in the evaluation of everyday life. Visit WebsitePublications Prentice, D. A., & Miller D. T. (Eds.) (1999). Cultural divides: Understanding and overcoming group conflict. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Thirty years of progress on civil rights and a new era of immigration to the United States have together created an unprecedented level of diversity in American schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods. But increased contact among individuals from different racial and ethnic groups has not put an end to misunderstanding and conflict. Can a population of increasingly mixed origins learn to live and work together despite differing cultural backgrounds? Or, is social polarization by race and ethnicity inevitable? These are the dilemmas explored in Cultural Divides, a compendium of the latest research into the origins and nature of group conflict. |
