Department of Political Science
Lindsey Clark Levitan
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, N.Y. 11794-4392
lindsey.levitan@stonybrook.edu
Curriculum Vitae [ .pdf ]
Background
I joined the political psychology faculty at Stony Brook University after completing my Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of Chicago in 2007. My minor area was statistics.
Prior to that, I received my MA from the University of Chicago in 2004, and my BS in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University.
Research Interests
Social Networks and Attitude Strength
One of my primary interests is in how the social world influences attitudes and attitude strength. Thus far, this line of research has shown that the attitudes of others, especially the attitudes of well-liked others with whom an individual is in frequent contact, influence the strength of that individual's attitude. This occurs not only through the introduction of new information and arguments, but through the mere knowledge of the attitudes of others. In particular, having social network members who agree with one with respect to some attitude strengthens that attitude, whereas social network members with diverse attitudes may weaken one's own attitude.
Interestingly, my research in this area has shown that a diverse social network does not encourage individuals' to change their attitudes simply for the sake of change. Diversity acts as a cue that one's attitudes may need to be reexamined. As such, individuals whose networks contain a greater amount of attitudinal diversity will more carefully examine attitude relevant information, and change their attitude according to the quality of arguments they find. Individuals whose networks agree with them do not engage in such careful information processing.
My research continues to examine this phenomenon, exploring the antecedents, the process through with the effect transpires, and its consequences.
Social Networks and Prejudice Strength
A related line of research seeks to apply my prior research regarding the influence of social networks to the concept of prejudice. Prejudice is often conceptualized as an attitude towards a group of people. Like attitudes, prejudice is a general evaluation of a target, and has affective, cognitive, and behavioral components. As such, prejudice may be influenced by the same contextual features as are attitudes. Diversity in the opinions of social network members weakens prejudice, making individuals more open to changing their evaluation of another group, and perhaps less likely to act upon their current evaluation. Similarly, the agreement of social network members is expected to make individuals less open to persuasion, and more likely to act upon their evaluations, regardless of whether those evaluations are positive or negative. Preliminary evidence suggests that this effect holds with implicit prejudice.
