The Mind and Society Center is a research facility in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
The USC Dornsife Mind & Society Center opened in August 2014 in the new Dr. Verna and Peter Dauterive Hall, an interdisciplinary social sciences building. Our research addresses the interface of individual and society by investigating how people think about societal issues and how societal context shapes individuals' thoughts and actions. Understanding this interface requires insight into the cont
02/04/2026
Congratulations to USC's new President, Beong-Soo Kim!
A Message from USC President Beong-Soo Kim Visit USC on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/USC/ Learn more about the University of Southern California: https://www.usc.edu
12/18/2025
PSI CHI podcast with Daphna Oyserman, discussing difficulties of daily life from the perspective of identity-based-motivation theory.
VIDEO: Does Difficulty Mean You Should Quit or Try Harder? Identity-Based Motivation Theory With... Why do some challenges feel like opportunities while others seem impossible? In this episode, Dr. Daphna Oyserman explains identity-based motivation theory a...
07/30/2025
Congratulations to the PBS documentary "Possible Selves: Overcoming the Odds in Foster Care"! It won a 2025 Emmy Award! The documentary features Daphna Oyserman's research on possible selves and opportunities to work on them in the context of foster care. You can watch the documentary at this link.
Possible Selves: Overcoming the Odds in Foster Care Foster teens strive to graduate from college, a dream that only 3% of foster youth attain.
07/30/2025
Metaphors can guide how we think about things. This piece reports on work with Dave Hauser, now at Queen's University, Canada, in which we explored the influence of metaphors on healthy people's intention to engage in cancer prevention.
Cancer as a journey: Framing of illness may influence outcomes USC’s Norbert Schwarz: Viewing cancer as battle may actually hurt patients.
02/07/2025
How does cultural identity influence us? Mind & Society co-director Daphna Oyserman discusses her work in an interview with The Perception Box, a podcast that explores how each person's perception is influenced by their context and beliefs.
How Does Our Cultural Identity Influence Us? with Dr. Daphna Oyserman Our cultural lenses can expand our Perception Box or contract it, keeping us closed off to new opportunities. So how do we become aware of the personal influ...
