Education

Ph.D., 2002, University of Kansas

Biography

As an experimental social psychologist, I am interested in issues related to prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, and stigma. Two questions central to my research are: (1) How do people from high status and low status groups make judgments about what constitutes prejudice? (2) What are the consequences of perceiving prejudice and discrimination for people from both high and low status groups?

Selected Publications

O’Brien, L.T., & Merritt, S. (in press). Understanding attributions to discrimination in a multiracial society: Isolating the effect of perpetrator group membership. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220988372 

O’Brien, L.T., Garcia, D.M., Blodorn, A., Adams, G., Gravelin, C., & Hammer, E. (2020). An educational intervention to improve women’s academic STEM outcomes: Divergent effects on well represented vs. underrepresented minority women. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 26(2), 163–168. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000289

O’Brien, L.T. Bart, H., & Garcia, D.M. (2020). Why are there so few minorities in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology?: The roles of challenges to inclusion and sense of belonging. Social Psychology of Education, 23, 449-477.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-019-09538-x

Simon, S., Magaldi, M., & O’Brien, L.T. (2019). Empathy vs. evidence: Does perspective-taking for a discrimination claimant bias judgments of institutional sexism? Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 22, 1109-1123. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430218818731

Moss, A., Blodorn, A., Van Camp, A., & O’Brien, L.T. (2019). Gender equality, value violations, and prejudice toward Muslims. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 22, 288-301.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430217716751

Simon, S., Moss, A., & O’Brien, L.T. (2019). Pick your perspective: Racial-group membership and judgments of intent, harm, and discrimination. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 22, 215-232.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430217735576

Van Camp, A., Gilbert, P., & O’Brien, L.T. (2019). Testing the effects of a role model intervention on women’s STEM outcomes. Social Psychology of Education, 22, 649-671. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-019-09498-2

O’Brien, L.T., Hitti, A., Schaffer, E., Van Camp, A., Gilbert, P., & Henry, D.  (2017). Improving girls’ sense of fit in science: Increasing the impact of role models. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8, 301-309.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616671997

Blodorn, A., O’Brien, L.T., Cheryan, S., & Vick, S.B. (2016). Perceptions of racism in Katrina-related events: Understanding racial differences in perceptions of racism. Social Justice Research, 29, 139-158.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-016-0259-9

O’Brien, L.T., Garcia, D.M., Adams, G., Villalobos, J.G., Hammer, E., & Gilbert, P. (2015). The threat of sexism in a STEM educational setting: Moderating impacts of ethnicity and legitimacy beliefs. Social Psychology of Education, 18, 667-684. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-015-9310-1

Simon, S. & O’Brien, L.T. (2015). Confronting sexism: Exploring the effect of nonsexist credentials on the costs of target confrontations. Sex Roles, 73, 245-257.   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0513-x

O’Brien, L.T., Blodorn, A., Adams, G., Garcia, D. & Hammer, E. (2015). Ethnic variation in gender-STEM stereotypes and STEM participation: An intersectional approach. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 21, 169-180.  https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037944

Gilbert, P.N., O’Brien, L.T., Garcia, D.M., & Marx, D. (2015). Not the sum of its parts: Decomposing implicit academic stereotypes to understand academic outcomes for men and women. Sex Roles, 72, 25 – 39.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-014-0428-y