2025 Roster of Participants
Participants whose names are in blue will be attending their first in-person Duck Conference.
Participants should feel free to contact the conference organizer if they wish to substitute another picture or to add or revise their descriptions of professional or personal interests.
Duck 2025 Who's Who
Allen McConnell
(he/him)
Miami University
Professional Interests: My research examines how self-nature representations promote environmental sustainability, the consequences of discrete positive emotions, how relationships with family and pets affect health and well-being, and how people form impressions of others.
Professional Interests: Hiking in national parks, astronomy, photography, good restaurants, basketball (college, WNBA, NBA), and catering to the every whim of the world's cutest puppy Leo.
Christopher K. Marshburn
(he/him)
University of Kentucky
Professional Interests: Inter- and intra-personal factors that influence how people think about, understand, perpetuate, and cope with racism.
Professional Interests: Watching movies, talking about movies, and playing video games. I'm always down to play flag football (former 2007 Division III preseason All-American...well, second team, but still something, right?)
Christopher (Chris) Bryant
(he/him)
McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin
Professional Interests: Most of my work is focused on designing, testing, and (over the long term) scaling behavioral interventions to address pressing social and organizational problems with an emphasis on problems related to inequality and social mobility.
Professional Interests: My main hobbies are woodworking—I'm currently building a bookcase for the daughter of some friends, music—I play bass in a casual dad metal band, and kickboxing—been training at a gym for a few years.
Dan Molden
(he/him)
Northwestern University
Professional Interests: Self-regulation and Motivated Cognition; Political Psychology
Professional Interests: Endurance sports (mostly running), cooking, prestige TV, most pro sports (particularly baseball)
Becca Neel
(she/her)
University of Toronto
Professional Interests: How social motivations and beliefs shape social perception, stigmatization, prejudice, and interpersonal relationships.
Professional Interests: Walking and hiking, reading, food, getting to know new people, diving briefly into whatever new activity seems interesting, currently learning Spanish
Donal Carlston
(he/him)
Professor Emeritus, Purdue University
Professional Interests: Impression formation, associative processes and all other social cognitionish stuff.
Professional Interests: Reading, writing, the Personal Preference board game, basketball, pool volleyball, listening to music, Duck.
Ed Hirt
(he/him)
Indiana University
Professional Interests: My research interests span many topics in social cognition, though recently my focus has been primarily on motivational factors (such as perceived depletion or competence) and beliefs (such as free will beliefs)affecting judgment and behavior.
Professional Interests: I like playing and watching sports, Peloton, trivia, puzzles, movies, and dogs. Up for pool volleyball, board games (Personal Preference?), or euchre.
Elizabeth Haines
(she/her)
William Patterson University
Professional Interests: Social perception, stereotyping, sexism, implicit measurement
Professional Interests: Gardening, killing/neglecting plants, yoga, complaining that I am sore from yoga, cooking, overeating, NYT puzzles, my children (other children, okay, too), skiing, heated clothing, clever people.
Emily Balcetis
(she/her)
New York University
Professional Interests: Motivated social cognition and self-regulation, as applied to probing causes of and solutions to disparities in health, decision-making, the law, leadership, and other topics
Professional Interests: Finding awe, laughing, friendships, creating community, hiking, eating, yoga-ing, making messes, and momming
Gerald Higginbotham
(he/him)
Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia
Professional Interests: Racism, sociocultural selves and identity, intersectionality, motivated social cognition, and social policy attitudes relevant to firearms, voting, and history repair
Professional Interests: Testing new ways to disprove my green thumb, learning how to play bass, spending time with friends and family, being in or near water, hiking/jogging/being active
Evava (Eva) Pietri
(she/her)
University of Colorado Boulder
Professional Interests: Identity-safety and belonging; experiences of women with multiply marginalized identities (e.g., Black and Latina women); role models; attitudes and attitude change
Professional Interests: Going for relatively easy hikes (because Colorado); reading for fun; watching TV; mostly keeping up with my toddler
Heidi A. Vuletich
(she/her)
University of Denver
Professional Interests: Regional and context-based differences in bias, structural inequality, and disparities in STEM.
Professional Interests: Hiking, biking, camping, backpacking, exploring new places, and just being out in nature.
Jeff Stone
(he/him)
Northern Arizona University
Professional Interests: Attitude and behavior change processes; the role of stereotypes and prejudice in disparities in health, sports, and education
Personal Interests: Playing music (drums), hiking, snow skiing, swimming, golf
Keith Maddox
(he/him)
Tufts University
Professional Interests: Social cognition of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination with a focus on mental representation; strategies to facilitate intergroup dialogue around racial bias remediation (e.g., emotion regulation, humor); Anti-bias education.
Personal Interests: Movies and television, science fiction reading, science podcasts, squash, golf, dancing, karaoke, music. Socializing with family and friends. And cocktails.
Kerri Johnson
(she/her)
University of California Los Angeles
Professional Interests: social cognition and social vision, person perception, people perception
Personal Interests: food, wine, and friends
Kip Williams
(he/him)
Purdue University
Professional Interests: My focus since 1994 has been examining ostracism: The causes and consequences of being ignored and excluded.
Personal Interests: I play disc golf competitively and recreationally. I like reading, hiking, traveling, and I confess to watching too many series on Netflix, Hulu, etc.
Lara Aknin
(she/her)
Simon Fraser University
Professional Interests: Happiness, well-being, generosity, prosocial behavior, prosocial spending, social connection, friendship, inequality
Personal Interests: Travel, food, running, and more food
Michael Bernstein
(he/him)
Penn State University Abington College
Professional Interests: Face memory and face processing; social ostracism, inclusion, and exclusion; group categorization
Personal Interests: Being a dad; good and bad movies; good TV; reading; cooking; spending time with my kiddo; video games; board games
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Paige Lloyd
(she/her)
University of Denver
Professional Interests: Person perception; social categorization; stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination; interpersonal sensitivity; health disparities
Personal Interests: Painting, felting, hiking, home workouts, & card games
Lora Park
(she/her)
University at Buffalo
Professional Interests: Self/identity, motivation, happiness/well-being, interpersonal processes, motivated social cognition, broadening participation in STEM
Personal Interests: Power yoga, snowboarding, hiking, traveling, wandering/ exploring, nature, reading, singing with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, food, movies, spending time with family and friends
Nicholas Alt
(he/him)
Occidental College
Professional Interests: Person and people perception; social categorization; social vision; bias and prejudice reduction strategies (e.g., confronting prejudice)
Personal Interests: I'm getting back into tennis and trying out pickleball. I also enjoy bouldering, dance, board and video games.
Rebecca M. Carey
(she/her)
Princeton University
Professional Interests: social class, adversity, close relationships, inequality, health and well-being, culture, intergroup interactions
Personal Interests: TV and film, horror, games (of all kind!), taking photos, animals (of all kind!)
Steven (Steve) Stroessner
(he/him)
University of California Los Angeles
Professional Interests: Shared reality in intergroup interaction; social cognitive factors in processing non-social stimuli; linguistic biases in intergroup communication; Social cognition factors in human-robotic interaction
Personal Interests: Cooking; Reading, thinking, and talking politics; New music
Yuthika Girme
(she/her)
Simon Fraser University
Professional Interests: reconciling complexities within close relationships and singlehood, with specific interests in attachment insecurities, social support, social stigma, societal beliefs/norms, happiness and wellbeing
Personal Interests: You'll find me in the mountains - snowboarding, hiking, and camping. I also love cooking (and eating), dancing, and playing with my kids. Currently learning a new language (Qui parle français??)!