Monthly Archives: September 2020

DIGging into Privilege teach-in

Please join members of the Department of Psychology’s Diversity Interest Group (DIG), which will sponsor a teach-in for the entire department on Friday, October 2, from 3-4 pm on Zoom. The program “DIGging into privilege” will provide a live-streamed virtual exercise that will invite attendees to examine their unique perspectives and consider why their peers may feel differently.

Special thanks to DIG members Akanksha Das, Rachel Geyer, and Kate Wargel for organizing this event (originally scheduled for March but postponed because of COVID).

PSY at Discover the Sciences

Each year, one of the most important recruitment activities in the College of Arts and Science is the Discover the Science event, which invites high school students interested in the sciences to learn more about biological, physical, and social sciences at Miami University. Because of COVID, this year’s Discover the Sciences event will be virtual (e.g., videos, slideshows, participation in live panels with prospective students).

I’d like to thank the following people for representing PSY at this year’s Discover the Sciences (and thank Elise Clerkin for coordinating our department’s engagement with this year’s event).

Faculty participating: Allie Farrell, Vrinda Kalia, Liz Kiel, Anna Radke, Jay Smart
Graduate students participating: Pankhuri Aggarwal, Feven Ogbaselase, Elizabeth Sneddon-Yepez, Shannon Thompson
Undergraduate students participating: Biragbara Dornu and Danielle Nabor (Wolfe lab), Maddie Hannapel (Kiel lab), Kate Turns (Clerkin lab)

Congrats to Anna Radke on receiving an NIAAA R15 grant

A big congratulations goes out to Dr. Anna Radke, who was awarded a R15 National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism grant to support her research project entitled, “Analysis Of Subcortical Networks That Promote Aversion-Resistant Alcohol Drinking.”

Dr. Radke’s RAD Lab uses animal models to study motivational brain circuits to understand how these neural circuits function in a healthy state as well as to uncover adaptations that contribute to maladaptive behaviors such as addiction. To address these questions, they study reward-seeking and compulsive behaviors in mice.

The grant will support her research for three years (September 2020 – August 2023) and is a $378K award.

Congrats to Anna and everyone in the RAD Lab!!!

2020 Diversity and Inclusion Conference at Miami on Oct 9

On October 9, Miami’s will be hosting its 2020 Diversity and Inclusion Conference. The conference runs all day (starting at 8:50 am and ending at 2:25 pm).

One of its sessions will feature a presentation by psychology faculty member Dr. April Smith, who will present, “Inclusive Classrooms and Departments: Evidence Based Strategies for Success,” starting at 1:10 p.m.

Michael Kraus SPRIG talk on Sept 18

On Friday, September 18, Yale University Professor of Management Dr. Michael Kraus will be presenting a talk in SPRIG entitled, “The Misperception of Racial Economic Inequality.” Kraus is a leading expert on inequality and its consequences.

The talk will be hosted on zoom, beginning at 12N, and can be accessed on-line:
http://tinyurl.com/DrHZoom

Here is the abstract of his talk: In one large-scale experiment using US respondents on MTurk (N = 2,899), we studied how subtle differences in framing and context impact estimates of the Black-White wealth gap. Across our 10 different experimental manipulations of framing and context, respondents consistently overestimated Black family wealth relative to White wealth. There was also substantial variation in the magnitude of these wealth estimates, which ranged from a low of 35 to a high of over 60 percentage points across the conditions. Overestimates were largest when respondents were asked about the Black-White wealth gap at both past and present time points and closest to accuracy when respondents used images as pictorial comparisons for White and Black wealth. Overall, while framing and context certainly affect the magnitude of misperception, the tendency to overestimate racial wealth equality is extremely robust.