About Me
Andre Oliver
I was born and raised in California, mostly the Bay Area, and I earned my B.A. and M.A. in psychology at San Francisco State University. Currently, I am completing my Ph.D. in psychology at the Graduate Center--City University of New York. My passion for social justice and social equity research stems from my lived experience as a Black man and first-generation college student. Across my academic career, my research has two broad focuses:
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Investigating how social identity and identity concerns shape people’s perceptions of others and influence behavior.
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Applying social psychological research to affect social equality in policy (e.g., reparative policies), education (e.g., STEM fields), and intergroup interactions (e.g., interracial interactions).
This research aims to improve intergroup interactions and reduce the racial and gender achievement gap in the U.S., including wealth, education, and housing disparities.
Research
What Mental Representations Tell us about Person Perception
Reverse Correlation Paradigm
In my research, I design experiments to investigate how people's mental representations of specific social categories influences their perceptions and behaviors. For example, I examine how Black men’s expectation to be mentally represented by police officers as criminals negatively impacts their anticipated interactions with police officers as well as how female STEM students’ stereotypical mental representations of STEM professors negatively impact their belonging in STEM domains. Understanding how Black men’s and female STEM students’ identity concerns when interacting with police officers and STEM professors, respectively, impact their interaction expectancies has the potential to inform interventions to improve such interactions.
Using Social Psychological Research to Inform Policy
Interventions to increase Support for Social Equality Policy
My research is also aimed at leveraging social and moral psychology to affect economic policy and educational pedagogy. Testing, for example, how race and political ideology interact to affect support for reparations and interventions that increase support for social equity in wealth. I am also developing interventions that aim to increase female STEM students' belonging in the domain by reducing their negative expectations when interacting with male STEM professors. This work has implications for decreasing the Black-White racial wealth gap in the U.S and the achievement gap between women in men in STEM.
Collaborations
Building Research Partnerships
I actively seek collaborations with fellow researchers and institutions to foster a dynamic research environment and exchange of ideas. By partnering with experts in the field, I aim to engage in impactful research projects and create synergies that advance our collective understanding of social psychology.
Social Equity Research
Discover Insights in Social Psychology
