Kate Ratliff

Associate Professor (Beginning Summer 2025)

B.S., Belmont University; PhD, University of Virginia

Contact information

Curriculum Vitae 

I will be accepting new graduate students for Fall 2025.

Research Interests

My research is in the area of attitudes and social cognition and generally seeks to understand how attitudes and stereotypes form and how they influence judgements and behavior. I use a variety of tools and methods for understanding bias in different domains, though most of my research is focused on intergroup attitudes.

Most recently my lab has been looking at the role of public and institutional policy in shaping how people think and feel about their own and others’ social groups. With this in mind, I have two main lines of research planned for the coming years: (1) developing a theoretical model that accounts for when, why, and how laws and policies affect intergroup attitudes and stereotypes, and (2) understanding the role of migration and residential mobility in shaping individual and regional intergroup attitudes and stereotypes.

Selected Publications

• Ratliff, K. A., Chen, J., & Lofaro, N. (2024). Institutional change affects perceived and personal intergroup bias. In press at Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Lofaro, N., Irving, L., & Ratliff, K. A. (2023). Defensiveness toward IAT feedback predicts willingness to engage in anti-bias behaviors. In press at Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Howell, J. L., Lofaro, N., & Ratliff, K. A. (2024). Responding to feedback about implicit bias. Social Psychology and Personality Compass, 18, e12926.
• Campbell, J., Hudson, S. T. J., & Ratliff, K. A. (2023). The Influence of perceiver and target race in hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes. Sex Roles, 89, 644-657.
• Ratliff, K. A., & Smith, C. T. (2024). The Implicit Association Test. Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 153, 51-64.
• Hawkins, C. B., Lofaro, N., Umansky, E., & Ratliff, K. A. (2023). Understanding Implicit Bias (UIB): Experimental evaluation of an online bias education program. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 29, 887-902.