Hilary Bergsieker

Associate Professor
head shot of Dr. Hilary Bergsieker

BA (Stanford) MA, PhD (Princeton)

Contact information

View my profile on Google Scholar, ResearchGate, or Publons Profile

Diversity and Intergroup Relations Lab

I will be accepting graduate student applications for Fall 2026.

Research interests

I study how people from different social and cultural groups connect, collaborate, and build relationships. My research examines how interpersonal dynamics—such as impression management and trust—and structural factors—like network position and local norms—shape whether encounters, friendships, and partnerships in diverse settings succeed or stall, even without overt prejudice. My lab uses experiments, field studies, and simulations to understand how identities—race, gender, sexuality, social class, and religion—affect social cognition and intergroup relations. My students, collaborators, and I also design interventions that integrate theories and findings from relationship, affective, and network science with experimental social psychology methods. Our evidence-based interventions seek to build trust across group boundaries, foster allyship and collective action, and promote inclusion for historically marginalized groups, including women in STEM and people of colour facing racism. A new line of work advances statistical methods for detecting demographic moderators of psychological processes, helping researchers refine their theories to reflect human diversity.

Selected publications and presentations

  • Bergsieker, H.B., Trickey, J., Jansen, E.J., Huynh, A.C., & Schmader, T. (in press). Focusing on inclusion (vs. leadership) boosts gender bias recognition and intended action. Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

  • Cyr, E.N., Steele, J. R., Schmader, T., Robinson, K., Wright S.C., Spencer, S.L., & Bergsieker, H.B. (in press). Friendship networks predict girls’ STEM fit and interest through subjective belonging. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations.

  • Block, K., Olsson, M., van Grootel, S., Meeussen, L., Van Laar, C., Martiny, S., Schuster, C., Sun, M., Croft, A., Aarntzen, L., Adamus, M., Agirregoikoa, G., Aidy, C., Anderson, J., Atkinson, C., Avicenna, M., Bąbel, P., Bäck, E., Barth, M., Benson-Greenwald, T., Maloku Berdynr, E., Berent, J., Bergsieker, H.B. […] & Schmader, T. (2025). The gender gap in the care economy is larger in highly developed countries: Socio-cultural explanations for paradoxical findings. American Psychologist. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001512
  • Caceros, E.S., Campos-Ordóñez, P., Ayekun, A., Edalatkhah, M., & Bergsieker, H.B. (2025). Responsive social support to disclosures of racial discrimination: Expectations and implications for well-being. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000762
  • Cyr, E.N., Spencer, S.J., Wright, S.C., Steele, J.R., Kroeper, K.M., Colaco, P., Dennehy, T.C., Shum, P. L.-C., Ballinger, T., Nam, H., Reeves, S.L., Wells, M., Schmader, T., & Bergsieker, H.B. (2025). Seeing women who fit: Girls’ forecasted fit in STEM fosters career interest. Social Psychology of Education, 27, 112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-025-10056-2
  • Oakes, H., Eibach, R., & Bergsieker, H.B. (2025). Closets breed suspicion: Environments that stigmatize concealable identities cast doubt on claims to non-stigmatized identities. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2025.104736

  • Smith, L., Bergsieker, H.B., & Wolfe, S. (2025). Human dimensions in water crisis management: Gender bias in water manager appraisals and implications for water decision-making. PLOS Water. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000460

  • Schindler, S., Schuster, C., Olsson, M.I., Froehlich, L., Hübner, A.K., Block, K., Van Laar, C., Schmader, T., Meeussen, L., van Grootel, S., Croft, A., Sun, M.S., Ainsaar, M., Aarntzen, L., Adamus, M., Anderson, J., Atkinson, C., Avicenna, M, Babel, P., Barth, M., Benson-Greenwald, T.M., Maloku, E., Berent, J., Bergsieker, H.B., [...] & Martiny, S.E. (2024). Policy as normative influence? On the relationship between parental leave policy and social norms in gender division of childcare across 48 countries. British Journal of Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12806
  • Cyr, E.N., Kroeper, K., Bergsieker, H.B., […] Wright, S.C., & Spencer, S. (2023). Girls are good at STEM: Opening minds and providing strong evidence reduces boys’ stereotyping of girls’ STEM ability. Child Development, 95(2), 636-647. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14007
  • Olsson, M.I.T., van Grootel, S., Block, K., Schuster, C., Meeussen, L., Van Laar, C., Schmader, T., Ainsaar, M., Aarntzen, L., Adamus, M., Anderson, J., Atkinson, C., Avicenna, M, Babel, P., Barth, M., Benson-Greenwald, T.M., Maloku, E., Bernt, J., Bergsieker, H.B.,[…], Martiny, S. (2023). Gender gap in parental leave intentions: Evidence from 37 countries. Political Psychology, 44(6), 1163-1192. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12880
  • Hall, W., Schmader, T., Cyr, E. N., & Bergsieker, H. B. (2023). Collectively constructing gender-inclusive work cultures in STEM. European Review of Social Psychology, 34(2), 298-345. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2022.2109294

  • Cyr, E. N., Bergsieker, H. B., Denney, T. C., & Schmader, T. (2021). Mapping social exclusion in STEM to men’s implicit bias and women’s career costs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118, e2026308118. 

  • Bergsieker, H. B., Wilmot, M. O., Cyr, E. N., & Grey, C. B. (2021). A threat in the network: STEM women in less powerful network positions avoid integrating stereotypically feminine peers. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 24(3), 321-349.

  • Bennett, E. H., Bergsieker, H. B., Coe, I. R., Koch-Kraft, A., Langelier, E., Morrison, S., ... Decker, J. E. (2020). Enacting workplace culture change for excellence in research: A gender lens. FACETS, 5, 228–233.

  • Cyr, E. N., Donald, J., & Bergsieker, H. B. (2020). Engineering team dynamics: Connecting friendship networks and academic trajectories. Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA), 20, 1-8.

  • Schmader, T., Bergsieker, H. B., & Hall, W. M. (2020). Cracking the culture code: A tri-level model for cultivating inclusion in organizations. Invited chapter to appear in J. Forgas, B. Crano & K. Fiedler (Eds.), Applications of Social Psychology (pp. 334-355).
  • Garcia, R. L.*, Bergsieker, H. B.*, & Shelton, J. N. (2017). Racial attitude (dis)similarity and liking in same-race minority interactions. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 20, 501-518. *Shared first authorship.
  • Bonam, C. M., Bergsieker, H. B., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2016). Polluting Black space. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 1561-1582.
  • Kervyn, N., Bergsieker, H. B., Grignard, F., & Yzerbyt, V. (2016). An advantage of appearing mean or lazy: Amplified impressions of competence or warmth after mixed descriptions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 62, 17-23.
  • Fiske, S. T., Bergsieker, H., Constantine, V., Dupree, C. H., Holoien, D. S., Kervyn, N., Leslie, L., & Swencionis, J. K. (2015). Talking up and talking down: The power of positive speaking. Lewin Award Address, Journal of Social Issues, 71, 834-846.
  • Holoien, D. S., Bergsieker, H. B., Shelton, J. N., & Alegre, J. M. (2015). Do you really understand? Achieving accuracy in interracial relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108, 76-92.
  • Murphy, M. C., Richeson, J. A., Shelton, J. N., Rheinschmidt, M. L., & Bergsieker, H. B. (2013). Cognitive costs of contemporary prejudice. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 16, 560-571.
  • Bergsieker, H. B., Leslie, L. M., Constantine, V. S., & Fiske, S. T. (2012). Stereotyping by omission: Eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 1214-1238.
  • Kervyn, N., Bergsieker, H. B., & Fiske, S. T. (2012). The innuendo effect: Hearing the positive but inferring the negative. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 77-85.
  • Bergsieker, H. B., Shelton, J. N., & Richeson, J. A. (2010). To be liked versus respected: Divergent goals in interracial interactions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 248-264.
  • Shelton, J. N., Trail, T. E., West, T. V., & Bergsieker, H. B. (2010). From strangers to friends: The interpersonal process model of intimacy in developing interracial friendships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27, 71-90.
  • Fiske, S. T., Bergsieker, H. B., Russell, A. M., & Williams, L. (2009). Images of Black Americans: Then, "them" and now, "Obama!" DuBois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 6, 83-101.
  • Shelton, J. N., Richeson, J. A., & Bergsieker, H. B. (2009). Interracial friendship development and attributional biases. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 26, 179-193.
  • Stephens, N. M., Hamedani, M. G., Markus, H. R., Bergsieker, H. B., & Eloul, L. (2009). Why did they "choose" to stay? Perspectives of Hurricane Katrina observers and survivors. Psychological Science, 20, 878-886.
  • Townsend, S. S. M., Markus, H. R., & Bergsieker, H. B. (2009). My choice, your categories: The denial of multiracial identities. Journal of Social Issues, 65, 185-204.
  • Uchida, Y., Townsend, S. S. M, Markus, H. R., & Bergsieker, H. B. (2009). Emotions as within or between people? Lay theory of emotion expression and emotion inference across cultures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1427-1439.