Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior,
University College London
A social psychologist by training, Cydney Hurston Dupree studies social inequality and the stereotypes that can maintain it. Her current research examines how stereotypes “leak” into everyday language—and how this can maintain inequality.
Cydney earned her B.A. in Psychology from Brown University and her Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Policy from Princeton University. She named a “Rising Star” by the American Psychological Society and was awarded the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s SAGE Early Career Trajectory Award.
Research
My primary research uses advances in natural language processing to show how stereotypes are transmitted via language, revealing how communication can play an essential role as source of and solution to group-based divides.
Publications
My work has appeared in leading multi-disciplinary and psychology journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Human Behavior, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Perspectives on Psychological Science, and Administrative Science Quarterly.
Media Coverage
My research and writing has appeared in several media outlets, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Time Magazine and NPR.
The Washington Post
“This racial and political disparity is among the discoveries made by a pair of social psychologists in a paper forthcoming in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Psychological Association. Cydney Dupree, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management, and Susan Fiske, a professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton, documented what they call a ‘competence downshift’ exhibited by white liberals in interactions with racial minorities, and with black people in particular.”
Time Magazine
“From the first instant our eyes alight on a television or phone screen, we are inundated with a curated set of images that supposedly depict the world around us. These images often show people of color through a stereotypical lens, and these stereotypes bleed into our everyday lives—our workplaces, our social lives, our politics. As a social psychologist at Yale University, I am figuring out exactly how stereotypes hold us back, and what we can do about it.”
Discover Magazine
“In our rapidly diversifying world, the lack of scientists of color becomes increasingly harmful to humanity. Researchers of color are less subject to racial ignorance, allowing them to conduct research that is meaningful to more communities. Journal editors of color are often more likely to spot harmful implications that research might have for vulnerable communities, while participants of color allow scientific breakthroughs that apply to many rather than a few.”
Freakonomics Radio
“My research shows that White liberals are actually more likely to talk down to black people in this way. This is a phenomenon that I call the competence downshift, in which White liberals—presumably trying to get along with racial minorities—actually end up being patronizing towards them, by presenting themselves as less competent to black people relative to other white people.”