PhD position in experimental social psychology (Stereotypes and Generics)

We offer a fully-funded PhD position (funded by FWO – Research Foundation Flanders) in the Laboratory of Experimental Social Psychology (LESP) of KU Leuven. The position is currently funded for 3 years, but extra funding for an additional year can be obtained.

LESP belongs to the Research Group Brain & Cognition (B&C) in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of KU Leuven. Led by Prof. Vera Hoorens, LESP will from Fall 2024 on consist of 4 doctoral students, 1 research intern, and 8-10 master thesis students, all supported by two managerial assistants (part-time working for LESP), and the faculty’s ICT service. It is a vivid, cohesive, and productive research group, strongly committed to fostering collaborations, Responsible Research Practices, and FAIR and Open Science.

As a PhD student, you will be enrolled in the doctoral program of the faculty. You will devote nearly all your time to your doctoral research and the doctoral training program, with minimal teaching and administrative tasks. Your supervisors and main advisors will be Prof. Vera Hoorens (LESP), Prof. Walter Schaeken, and Prof. Susanne Bruckmüller, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany). The philosopher of language Prof. Filip Buekens from the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science (KU Leuven) may be involved in a consulting role.
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Project

You will work on the project “Are old folks wise, or are they wiser than youngsters? How the wording of claims about social groups spreads stereotypes”, funded by FWO (grant number G053623N). People’s views of social groups  (e.g. age, gender, professional, religious and ethnic groups) do not only manifest themselves in what they say or write about those groups, but also in how they express it. With most readers and listeners paying more attention to the contents than to the wording of verbal communication, the wording can imperceptibly affect how readers and listeners think about the described group(s). An important but as yet understudied aspect of the wording of claims about social groups is their ‘comparative format’ – the extent to, and the manner in which claims explicitly state that an intergroup comparison is being involved. For example, the claim “Old people are wise” does not explicitly compare groups, even though it suggests that old people are wiser than members of other age groups. “Old people are wiser than younger people” makes that comparison explicit. From a purely logical point of view, “Younger people are less wise than old people” makes the same comparison. However, readers or listeners will probably understand it very differently. This project examines determinants of the comparative formats that communicators use and the extent to which comparative formats shape the interpretation of claims by readers and listeners. It also examines to what extent and in which manner both processes jointly contribute to the spreading of stereotypes. The project will test hypotheses derived from theories and findings from social and cognitive psychology, linguistics, and philosophy. As a predoctoral researcher, you will play a major role in preparing and conducting the experiments, analyzing and interpreting the data, publishing the research, and disseminating the results to a wider audience. You will participate in the weekly lab meetings of the LESP, as well as in seminars within and outside the research group, and in regular online meetings with Susanne Bruckmüller.

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Offer

Interested?

For more information, please contact prof. dr. Vera Hoorens, tel. +32 16 32 60 28, Vera.Hoorens@kuleuven.be, or prof. dr. Susanne Bruckmüller, susanne.bruckmueller@fau.de. 

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