Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton has lived in Mexico, Ivory Coast, Thailand, and the United States. These travels cemented an early interest in culture and intergroup relations. After receiving his B.A. at Yale University, he pursued a Ph.D. in social psychology at Columbia University under the mentorship of Walter Mischel and Geraldine Downey. He remained at Columbia for postdoctoral training, and joined the psychology faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 2002. His professional interests include stereotyping and prejudice from the perspective of both target and perceiver, intergroup relations, cultural psychology, and educational achievement. He is co-editor of the edited volume "Are We Born Racist?" from Beacon Press, and writes a blog for Psychology Today by the same name.

Primary Interests:

Aggression, Conflict, Peace
Culture and Ethnicity
Group Processes
Intergroup Relations
Life Satisfaction, Well-Being
Neuroscience, Psychophysiology
Person Perception
Personality, Individual Differences
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Social Cognition

Aggression, Conflict, Peace
Culture and Ethnicity
Group Processes
Intergroup Relations
Life Satisfaction, Well-Being
Neuroscience, Psychophysiology

Person Perception
Personality, Individual Differences
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

Relationships and Social Cognition Laboratory
Interactive Map

Books:

Marsh, J. H., Mendoza-Denton, R., & Adam Smith, J. (2010). Are we born racist? New insights from neuroscience and positive psychology. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Journal Articles:

Chen, S., Langner, C. A., & Mendoza-Denton, R. (2009). When dispositional and role power fit: Implications for self-expression and self-other congruence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 710-727. DOI: 10.1037/a0014526
Martinez, A.G., Piff, P.K., Mendoza-Denton, R. & Hinshaw, S.P. (2011). The power of a label: Mental illness diagnoses, ascribed humanity, and social rejection. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 30, 1-23.
Mendoza-Denton, R., & Goldman-Flythe, M. (2009). Personality and racial/ethnic relations: A perspective from Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS) theory. Journal of Personality, 77, 1261-1282. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00581.x
Mendoza-Denton, R., Goldman-Flythe, M., Pietrzak, J., Downey, G., & Aceves, M. (in press). Group-value ambiguity: Understanding the effects of academic feedback on minority students’ self-esteem. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Mendoza-Denton, R., Kahn, K., & Chan, W. Y. (2008). Can fixed views of ability boost performance in the context of favorable stereotypes? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1187-1193. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.03.005
Mendoza-Denton, R., & Page-Gould, E. (2008). Can cross-group friendships influence minority students’ well being at historically White universities? Psychological Science, 19, 933-939.
Mendoza-Denton, R., Park, S. H., & O’Connor, A. (2008). Gender stereotypes as situation-behavior profiles. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 971-982. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.02.010
Mendoza-Denton, R., Pietrzak, J., & Downey, G. (2008). Distinguishing institutional identification from academic goal pursuit: Interactive effects of ethnic identification and race-based rejection sensitivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 338-351.
Mendoza-Denton, R., Shaw-Taylor, L., Chen, S., & Chang, E. (2009). Ironic effects of explicit gender prejudice on women’s test performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 275-278. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.017
Page-Gould, E., Mendoza-Denton, R., Alegre, J. M., & Siy, J. O. (2010). Understanding the impact of cross-group friendship on interactions with novel outgroup members. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 775-793.
Page-Gould, E., Mendoza-Denton, R., & Tropp, L. (2008). With a little help from my cross-group friends: Reducing intergroup anxiety through cross-group friendship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1080-1094.

Courses Taught:

Perspectives in Personality: Trends and Issues
Principles of Psychology
Stigma and Prejudice
Teaching Psychology
Writing Workshop

Perspectives in Personality: Trends and Issues
Principles of Psychology
Stigma and Prejudice

Teaching Psychology
Writing Workshop

Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton
Department of Psychology
3210 Tolman Hall
UC--Berkeley, Mail Code 1650
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

Phone: (510) 642-5292
Fax: (510) 642-5293