Laurie O’Brien, Ph.D.
Professor

Education & Affiliations
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?
Office
3013 Percival Stern Hall
Selected Publications
Kulibert, D., Moss, A.J., Appleby, J., & O’Brien, L.T. (2025). Perceptions of political deviants in the U.S. Democrat and Republican Parties. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 55, 87-102. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.13079
O’Brien, L.T., Musumeci, M., Lowe, C., Waldon-Lee, T., & Simon, S. (2024). Attributions to discrimination in a multiracial context: Isolating the effect of victim race. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 153(11), 2751-2770. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001475
Moss, A. J., Budd, R., Blanchard, M. A., & O’Brien, L. T. (2023). The upside of acknowledging prejudiced behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 104, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104401
O’Brien, L.T., & Merritt, S. (2022). Attributions to discrimination against Black victims in a multiracial society: Isolating the effect of perpetrator group membership. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48(1), 120-134. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220988372
For a complete list of publications, see https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=V11MNhgAAAAJ&hl=en
Courses Taught
Introduction to Social Psychology: PSYC 343
Psychology of Diversity?: PSYC 3470
Social Stigma: PSYC 662
Social Psychology: PSYC 700