Research Interests
Identities can be derived from many sources, including membership in social categories (e.g., race/ethnicity, religion, gender) and personal characteristics (e.g., opinions, beliefs). The overarching goal of my work is to better understand how individuals respond to threats to their social and personal identities, with a particular focus on majority versus minority identity.
Currently, I have two primary areas of research within this tradition. In the first, I study the factors that influence majority group members' (e.g., White/European Americans') perceptions of threat from and attitudes toward minority groups, and vice versa. Much of my work in this area examines reasons that majority group members may see multiculturalism - the recognition and celebration of diversity - as threatening, and ways to reduce these feelings of threat. In the second, I study the causes and consequences of stereotyping/prejudice among religious majorities (e.g., negative stereotypes about Christians' scientific abilities) and minorities (e.g., negative stereotypes about atheists' morality and trustworthiness), both within the U.S. and cross-culturally.
That said, I am interested in a wide variety of research topics related to self and identity, intergroup relations, and attitudes/social influence. Feel free to browse my publication list to get a sense of what I have worked on over the years!
Education
Organizational Behavior, PhD, Stanford University
Recent Publications
Ybarra, O., Rios, K., Keller, M. C., Michalak, N., Wang, I., & Chan, T. (2024). On Predicting and Being Predicted: Navigating Life in a Competitive Landscape Full of Mind Readers. In S. M. Garcia, A. Tor, & A. J. Elliot (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Psychology of Competition (Oxford Library of Psychology). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190060800.013.15
Inesi, M. E., & Rios, K. (2023). How prosocial actors use power hierarchies to build moral reputation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 106, Article 104441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104441
Mackey, C. D., Rios, K., & Cheng, Z. H. (2023). Christianity-science compatibility beliefs increase nonreligious individuals’ perceptions of Christians’ intelligence and scientific ability. Public Understanding of Science, 32(1), 71-87. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625221097022
Mackey, C., & Rios, K. (Accepted/In press). Do Demographic Increases in LGBT and Nonreligious Americans Increase Threat? Personality and social psychology bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231188278
Mackey, C. D., & Rios, K. (2023). Identity Centrality, Social Identity Threat, and Differences in Concealment between Religious Minorities and Nonreligious Individuals. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 33(1), 52-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2022.2064110