Position:

Associate Professor

Areas:

Industrial-Organizational Psychology 

Applied Social Psychology

Advising Philosophy:

My goal is to conduct top-quality research in close collaboration with students. As a supervisor, I believe it is my role to help students to develop their skills, self-efficacy, and autonomy. I try to create an environment in my lab that is supportive and challenging. Students who work with me get a lot of guidance and feedback—from me and from other students in the lab. I expect students in my lab to be motivated, organized, courteous of others, hardworking, and to have burning intellectual curiosity. Junior students are expected to work with me to develop a shared line of research. Senior students have the flexibility to select their own topic.

Research Interests:

My research focuses on social justice issues. In general, I am interested in the disparities or inequalities that exist between individuals and groups in terms of status, power, and outcomes (e.g., income). I have multiple lines of research that converge on this issue.
 
I have long-term interests in who is more (vs. less) likely to want to maintain and promote inequality. A lot of my previous research has focused on understanding the nature of prejudice (i.e., racism and sexism) and its ideological bases, which involve dominance motives, conservatism, and feeling that people are not all connected by their humanity. I study both explicit (i.e., deliberate, controllable) and implicit (i.e., automatic, less controllable) prejudice and how and when they lead to discrimination when making outcome allocation decisions (e.g., who should be hired or promoted). More recently, I have written on how socio-historical contexts—namely competition and increased inequalities—created increases in threat that motivate prejudice. Thus, I am interested in how contexts and ideology produce prejudice.
 
In addition, I study the effects of prejudice and discrimination for those who are stigmatized. I recently finished a paper on the effects of stigmatization on devalued group members' health, well-being, and performance. I used a stress and coping model to explore when people are more vulnerable to the negative effects of stigmatization and when people are more likely to demonstrate resilience.
 
I also study how people make sense of the differences that exist between individuals and groups in society: are they a result of a fairly operating meritocracy, in which the cream rises to the top, or are they a result of injustices, such as discrimination or favoritism? Such different understandings of why inequality exists plays an important role in determining people's reaction to social and organizational policies that are designed to mitigate inequalities like affirmative action, employment equity, or diversity initiatives. My colleagues and I have found that prejudice, justice beliefs, and beliefs about the cause of societal inequality interact to affect whether people support programs that aim to reduce inequality.
 
Finally, in my newest line of research, I am investigating how the degree to which people experience of inequality at work (e.g., in pay, status, decision-making power) affects their well-being, performance, and health. How people respond to inequality likely depends on (a) their relative position in the hierarchy, and (b) their level of social dominance. I am really intrigued by the processes through which inequality might hurt people, groups, and organizations. Negative effects likely operate through stress processes and social relations (e.g., increased competition, decreased trust). Thus, I am studying how inequality negatively affects people within organizations.

Sample Publications

 
Son Hing, L. S. (2011). Prejudice, Neoliberalism, and Resilience. Chapter to appear in Social Resilience in the Neo-Liberal Era P. A. Hall, M. Lamont (Eds.).
 
Son Hing, L. S., Bobocel, D. R., Zanna, M. P., Garcia, D.M., Gee, S., & Orazietti, K. (2011). The merit of meritocracy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 433-450.
 
Son Hing, L. S., & Zanna, M. P. (2010). Individual Differences in Prejudice. In J. Dovidio, P. M. Hewstone, P. Glick, & V. Esses (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination (pp. 163-178). London, UK: Sage Publications.
 
Son Hing, L. S., Chung-Yan, G., Hamilton, L. K., & Zanna, M. P. (2008). A Two-Dimensional Model that Employs Explicit and Implicit Attitudes to Characterize Prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 971-987.
 
Son Hing, L. S., Bobocel, D. R., Zanna, M. P., & McBride, M. V. (2007). Authoritarian Dynamics and Unethical Decision Making: High Social Dominance Orientation Leaders and High Right-Wing Authoritarian Followers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 67-81.
Son Hing, L. S., Bobocel, D. R., & Zanna, M. P. (2002). Meritocracy and opposition to affirmative action: Making concessions in the face of discrimination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 493-509.

Son Hing, L. S., Li, W., & Zanna, M. P. (2002). Inducing hypocrisy to reduce prejudicial responses among aversive racists. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 71-78.

Bobocel, D. R., Son Hing, L. S., Davey, L. M., Stanley, D. J., & Zanna, M. P. (1998). Justice-based opposition to social policies: Is it genuine? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 653-669.

Contact Information:

MacKinnon Extension, Room 3010
Department of Psychology
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario Canada, N1G 2W1

Phone: (519) 824-4120 x 54475
Fax: (519) 837 8629
Email: sonhing@uoguelph.ca

Link to Homepage:

http://www.uoguelph.ca/iopsychology/SonHing.shtml