Jillian Swencionis Headshot

Jillian K. Swencionis

Senior Research Analyst, University of Saint Joseph
Chapter Member: Connecticut SSN
Areas of Expertise:

About Jillian

Swencionis's research moves between the laboratory; the field; and surveys to investigate how identity processes relate to disparate behavior.

Contributions

Publications

"Proactive Control of Implicit Bias: A Theoretical Model and Implications for Behavior Change" (with David Amodio). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (forthcoming).

Examines the effect of proactive control on expressions of implicit racial bias. Presents a model of proactive and reactive control that offers a novel and generative perspective on self-regulation and prejudice reduction.

"Cross-Status Interactions: Concerns and Consequences" (with Susan T. Fiske). Social Cognition 36, no. 1 (2018): 78-105.

Investigates individuals' concerns about interpersonal interactions when interacting with higher- and lower-status others, and how individuals manage those concerns. Describes concerns and behavioral consequences involved in interpersonal interactions across social status divides, in particular a tendency of downward ingratiation and cooperation.

"The Psychological Science of Racial Bias and Profiling" (with Phillip Atiba Goff). Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 23, no. 4 (2017): 398-409.

Maps the situational risk factors, that make individuals more likely to engage in disparate treatment—even without overt prejudice, to common experiences in modern patrol policing.

"Promote up, Ingratiate down: Status Comparisons Drive Warmth-Competence Tradeoffs in Impression Management" (with Susan T. Fiske). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 64 (2016): 27-34.

Investigates how individuals cope with social status divides in interpersonal interactions. Provides evidence that social status differences shift individuals' interaction goals in conveying two central dimensions of impression formation, warmth, and competence.

"Motivated Social Memory: Belonging Needs Moderate the Own-Group Bias in Face Recognition" (with Jay J. Van Bavel, Rachel C. O'Connor, and William A. Cunningham). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 48, no. 3 (2012): 707-713.

Examines why people have superior recognition memory for own-group members compared to other-group members. Provides evidence for one motivational mechanism underlying own-group bias: social belonging needs. Suggests that chronic belonging needs and social exclusion motivate own-group bias.