Duke ID Lab

09/09/2026

Today’s Social Identities class was pawsitively good for our self-esteem. 🐾

We had a very special visitor from Dr. Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods’ Puppy Kindergarten at Duke University while talking about self-esteem, identity, and the social forces that shape how we see ourselves.

I’m not sure “puppy affection” appears in the self-esteem literature as an intervention, but based on today’s extremely rigorous classroom observations, I think we may have a significant effect. 😂

And yes, the professor may have benefited most. 🐶💙

09/02/2026

Excited to see DukeLine (our peer mental health texting program led by Nancy Zucker and Dr Gaither) featured as one of four new faculty-led research initiatives funded by Duke Trinity College of Arts & Sciences! 🎉

Our interdisciplinary team is using 1,500+ hours of anonymized peer-support conversations to ask a deceptively simple question: What actually makes someone feel seen, heard, and supported?

By bringing together psychology, clinical science, qualitative methods, and computational modeling, we hope to better understand the science of human connection—and use it to strengthen peer support and student mental health.

Very excited for what comes next! 💙

The increased support for early-stage interdisciplinary research is bolstering efforts in biodiversity, statistics, mental health, philosophy, cultural heritage and more.

08/17/2026

After three years in our lab, Esha Naidu is heading to Wake Forest to work with Eranda Jayawickreme, and while this is excellent news for them, it is considerably less excellent news for us!

Esha has been a fantastic colleague, problem-solver, and all-around lab citizen. Esha, thanks for putting up with us for three years. We’re excited to see what you do next, and we expect regular updates!

08/13/2026

Ending the summer the best way we know how: with lots of research posters! ☀️📊🧠

We’re celebrating Sadaf and Madelyn as they wrap up their UROP summer with the lab! Sadaf joined us from Wake Tech, exploring biracial Black maternal socialization, while Madelyn joined us from Meredith College, studying multiracial Asian identity denial experiences. We’ve loved having them in the lab and getting to see their projects come together!

And because apparently we can never have too many posters… Julia added a bonus one at Duke’s Summer Research Symposium, sharing her work on data visualization and threat! 🎉

08/07/2026

New lab publication! This is a new interdisciplinary paper with Monica Garcia-Perez and Sandy Darity examining the relationships among familial incarceration history, race, household wealth, and FICO credit scores.

Using data from the National Asset Scorecard for Communities of Color (NASCC), we found that familial incarceration history was associated with both lower wealth accumulation and lower credit scores, with particularly large disparities for Black households. The findings add to growing evidence that credit scores reflect broader structural inequalities rather than functioning as race-neutral indicators.

A special thank you to my amazing lab team, who spent many hours conducting the phone interviews that made this work possible!

Read it here:

08/06/2026

The lab helped out at the Durham County Sheriff’s Office Back-To-School resource fair this past weekend! We got to meet so many families!

07/23/2026

Research question: Can repeated ice cream outings postpone the start of the semester?

Results: No.

Conclusion: More ice cream is needed to confirm these findings. 🍨

One month until classes begin, so we took time to “scoop” up a little summer before the semester gets underway. 🍦

07/22/2026

Another successful Cook Center Fellowship lunch! Nothing like chatting science in the summer!

07/21/2026

Excited to share that the Handbook of Social Psychology and Consumer Behavior is now available from Edward Elgar Publishing!

Dr. Gaither contributed a chapter with co-authors Megan A. Trillo and Gavan J. Fitzsimons from the Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business: “The Buffering Effect of Identity Compartmentalization: Consumer Response to Brand Transgressions.”

Their chapter explores how the way people organize their social identities can shape their responses when brands engage in transgressions, offering insights into the intersection of identity, social psychology, and consumer behavior.

‘Spangenberg and Spangenberg powerfully reconnects consumer behavior to its social psychological roots while charting clear directions for future research. It is a thoughtful, comprehensive handbook that will shape how scholars conceptualize and study consumer behavior.’ – Vicki G. Morwitz, Co...

07/10/2026

A big congrats to Julia for finishing up our summer VIP program! She started work on her thesis testing how data visualizations can shift how we perceive information and threat!