I explore social issues with an eye towards interventions that ignite positive societal change. My primary line of research concerns intergroup relations. I use quantitative and mixed methods approaches to investigate prejudice from both the target’s and perpetrator’s perspective, and apply insights from the intergroup relations literature to other social problems. A connected, secondary line of my research focuses on applied issues. I enjoy crafting online surveys, field experiments, and high-impact lab studies to test readily-implementable solutions to social justice, environmental, educational, and health concerns. Thus my research questions fall under the umbrella of using science to address pressing social issues.

Intergroup Relations
Responses to Prejudice: A host of situational and individual characteristics shape how target group members (i.e., people at risk for being negatively stereotyped) psychologically and behaviorally respond to prejudice. Intergroup interactions are cognitively challenging, causing both majority and minority group members to engage in behavioral compensation (Mallett & Melchiori, under revision). Assertively calling out prejudice has the power to change behavior, yet confrontation is one of the most difficult and costly responses to prejudice. Targets are often concerned with being liked by the perpetrator – for example, in a job scenario, a woman is unlikely to confront a sexist interviewer because she needs to be liked to secure a job. However, satisfying belonging needs allows women to pursue respect-related goals, thereby increasing assertive responses to sexism (Mallett & Melchiori, 2014). Confrontation can also be encouraged by priming targets with respect-related goals prior to a sexist interaction (Melchiori & Mallett, in prep). Discovering the ways that goals influence responses to sexism is important because assertive confrontation is often a first step in reporting workplace discrimination. In future research, I will test real-world interventions (e.g., confrontation training) to help women to adaptively respond to sexism in the lab and in online contexts (e.g., on social media).

Narratives and Stereotypic Thinking: The books, movies, and media we consume have the power to influence and redefine us. The way the media presents factual information about a target group can shape the (often incorrect) assumptions we make about that group (Muellerleile, Melchiori, & Williams, in prep). Additionally, people can become transported by fictional stories and take on the characteristics of the characters and context in the narrative. Women who are exposed to stereotypically unconfident and relationship-oriented female protagonists (like Bella from Twilight) become more implicitly submissive; however, women exposed to counterstereotypic, agentic female characters (like Katniss from The Hunger Games) become more implicitly assertive (Melchiori & Mallett, under review). Furthermore, our pre-existing gendered self-concepts can also impact our immersion into a character. High (vs. low) feminine women are less likely to have implicit romantic fantasies after reading about an androgynous female character and her romantic partner (Melchiori & Mallett, under review). I will expand upon this research by examining the real-world implications for, and longevity of, the shift in self-concept following narrative engagement.

Backlash: People who do not act in line with the stereotypes of their group risk discriminatory backlash for acting outside of their prescribed roles. In my dissertation, I examined whether women who deviate from the traditional woman stereotype – working women without children and working mothers– activate different forms of sexist prejudice in perceivers, thereby becoming vulnerable to different forms of discrimination. Childless women may activate hostile sexism (i.e., negative attitudes towards women) in perceivers and receive more blatant discrimination and resentful cooperation in the workplace than mothers. On the other hand, mothers may activate benevolent sexism (i.e., positive, but paternalistic, attitudes towards women) in perceivers and receive more subtle, unintentional discrimination as well as genuine help than childless women. In online and high-impact lab studies, I found that parents, especially mothers, were more likely to receive seemingly positive, but limiting, forms of discriminatory backlash, such as being less likely to be invited on professional networking outings (Melchiori & Mallett, in prep). My collaborators and I plan to explore how childless women may also be susceptible to subtle forms of backlash for violating feminine stereotypes. This research is important for managers, supervisors, and policy creators to consider when drafting sexual harassment, family leave, and social conduct policies for workers.

Applied Issues
Protecting the Environment: Global climate change is a reality. There are many psychological contributions we can draw on to encourage behavior change. For instance, emotion research suggests that guilt is a powerful driving factor for reparative action (Mallett, Harrison, & Melchiori, 2014). In fact, tools like carbon footprint calculators that educate people on their contribution to climate change are only effective for changing behavior if they successfully induce guilt (Mallett, Melchiori, & Strickroth, 2013). Similarly, educational campaigns designed to encourage people to conserve resources need to do more than simply state factual information. To increase the likelihood of behavior change, conservation campaigns should try to activate the goal to conserve resources, like reminding students to shorten showers, while dissuading personal comfort goals, possibly by emphasizing the value of experience over consumption (Melchiori, Mallett, Durnbaugh, & Pham, 2016). Alternatively, educational campaigns can link personal identity to conservation behavior to encourage eco-friendly behavior (Mallett & Melchiori, under review).

Promoting Vaccination: The CDC highlights vaccination as one of the most important modern public health issues. Unfortunately, for the first time in decades, there have been outbreaks of measles and whooping cough in low vaccination-rate communities. Social scientists are in a unique position to apply psychological principles of behavior change to sway public opinion on vaccination attitudes and shape effective public health policy. My collaborators and I have planned a series of studies to explore how moral foundations impact vaccination attitudes. We expect that those who endorse liberty values may oppose vaccination out of concerns of government interference, whereas those who endorse purity values may be concerned with so-called vaccine “toxicity.” We ultimately plan to craft focused interventions to appeal to different moral foundations in order to dispel myths and promote vaccination.

Summary
I have a deep-seated passion for research that can speak to important social issues. Evidence-based interventions are sorely needed to address inequality in workplace, health, and global contexts. Consequently, my work is designed with the “last mile” of the research marathon – application – in mind. I enjoy mentoring and collaborating with students on research concerning women’s well-being in work, everyday, and online contexts, and applied issues that readily impact our personal and global health. Ultimately, I hope that my work will contribute to our field’s conversation with policy makers and innovators who seek to improve society.