Role
Full Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Trento
Bio
She graduated in Psychology from the University of Padua in 1992 and earned her PhD in Social Psychology in 2000, after studying at UC Louvain in Belgium. Since 2000, she has been a full professor of Social Psychology at the University of Trento.
Her early research investigated how we attribute humanity to different social groups, with a particular focus on national identities, gender relations, and interactions with social robots. She demonstrated how forms of dehumanization, even subtle and unconscious, are still widespread and can have social consequences.
More recently, she has focused on understanding the social and psychological mechanisms that fuel inequalities. She has studied, among other things, the so-called "gaydar" (the presumed ability to recognize the sexual orientation of others), the influence of an Italian or foreign accent on citizenship assessments, and the obstacles in educational settings to gender equality and the academic and university success of disadvantaged students.
She also helped develop a digital platform to raise awareness of the cultural roots of gender-based violence and promote its fight against it. She was Associate Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and the European Journal of Social Psychology .