Sarah Gaither featured in Duke Magazine

Sarah Gaither featured in Duke Magazine

Dr. Sarah Gaither was recently featured in a Duke Magazine story, "Who Do you Think you See?"

Gaither, an assistant professor in Duke's Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, and principal investigator of the Duke Identity and Diversity Lab, writes:

"I feel that if I do not reveal my true racial identity, I would be doing a disservice to others like me who may not feel as confident in revealing that secret self. My identity is not in fact a secret. I am now a professor studying this identity for a living. I am biracial and black and white, and this is my known secret."

Gaither's research focuses on how individuals’ social identities and experiences across the lifespan motivate their social perceptions and behaviors, including:

  • how intergroup contact shapes interracial interaction outcomes for both racial majority and racial minority individuals
  • how having multiple racial or social identities more broadly affects various types of behavior including complex thinking, social behavior, and identity malleability
  • what contexts in particular may influence how people perceive or socially categorize each other across group boundaries

Her research program investigates the attitudinal and behavioral effects stemming from exposure to racial and gender diversity as a means to pinpoint pathways that one can utilize to foster more positive group relations for both adult and child populations. By exploring the developmental origins of social identity and intergroup perceptions, her research pinpoints some of the antecedents that predict adult behavior in diverse settings.

Be sure to read her feature story in Duke Today:

http://dukemagazine.duke.edu/article/who-do-you-think-you-see

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Publications

Gaither, SE, Remedios, JD, Schultz, JR, Maddox, KB, and Sommers, SR. "Examining the Effects of I-Sharing for Future White-Black Interactions." Social Psychology 47.3 (May 2016): 125-135. Full Text

Gaither, SE, Pauker, K, Slepian, ML, and Sommers, SR. "Social belonging motivates categorization of racially ambiguous faces." Social Cognition 34.2 (April 1, 2016): 97-118.

Gaither, SE, and Dukes, KN. "Young, black, and endangered: Examining the deaths of trayvon martin, michael brown, and tamir rice through a psychological lens." Stereotypes and Stereotyping: Misperceptions, Perspectives and Role of Social Media. January 1, 2016. 83-98.

Gaither, SE, Remedios, JD, Schultz, JR, and Sommers, SR. "Priming White identity elicits stereotype boost for biracial Black-White individuals." Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 18.6 (November 2015): 778-787. Full Text

Gaither, SE, Remedios, JD, Sanchez, DT, and Sommers, SR. "Thinking Outside the Box." Social Psychological and Personality Science 6.5 (July 2015): 596-603. Full Text

Howell, JL, Gaither, SE, and Ratliff, KA. "Caught in the Middle." Social Psychological and Personality Science 6.4 (May 2015): 373-381. Full Text

Gaither, SE. "“Mixed” Results." Current Directions in Psychological Science 24.2 (April 2015): 114-119. Full Text

Gaither, SE, Cohen-Goldberg, AM, Gidney, CL, Maddox, KB, Gidney, CL, and Gidney, CL. "Sounding Black or White: priming identity and biracial speech." Frontiers in psychology 6 (January 2015): 457-. Full Text

Schultz, JR, Gaither, SE, Urry, HL, and Maddox, KB. "Reframing anxiety to encourage interracial interactions." Translational Issues in Psychological Science 1.4 (2015): 392-400. Full Text

Gaither, SE, Wilton, LS, and Young, DM. "Perceiving a Presidency in Black (and White): Four Years Later." Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 14.1 (December 2014): 7-21. Full Text

Gaither, SE, Chen, EE, Corriveau, KH, Harris, PL, Ambady, N, and Sommers, SR. "Monoracial and biracial children: effects of racial identity saliency on social learning and social preferences." Child development 85.6 (November 2014): 2299-2316. Full Text

Chen, JM, Moons, WG, Gaither, SE, Hamilton, DL, and Sherman, JW. "Motivation to control prejudice predicts categorization of multiracials." Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin 40.5 (May 2014): 590-603. Full Text

Gaither, SE, Schultz, JR, Pauker, K, Sommers, SR, Maddox, KB, and Ambady, N. "Essentialist thinking predicts decrements in children's memory for racially ambiguous faces." Developmental psychology 50.2 (February 2014): 482-488. Full Text

Gaither, SE, Sommers, SR, and Ambady, N. "When the half affects the whole: Priming identity for biracial individuals in social interactions." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49.3 (May 2013): 368-371. Full Text

Gaither, SE, and Sommers, SR. "Living with an other-race roommate shapes Whites' behavior in subsequent diverse settings." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49.2 (March 2013): 272-276. Full Text

Gaither, SE, and Sommers, SR. "Honk if you like minorities: Vuvuzela attitudes predict outgroup liking." International Review for the Sociology of Sport 48.1 (February 2013): 54-65. Full Text

Gaither, SE, Pauker, K, and Johnson, SP. "Biracial and monoracial infant own-race face perception: an eye tracking study." Developmental science 15.6 (November 2012): 775-782. Full Text