JONATHAN DORISCAR
Hi, I’m Jonathan Doriscar, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Social Psychology program and a master’s student in Statistics and Data Science at Northwestern University. Before Northwestern, I earned my BA in Psychology with a minor in Composition & Rhetoric from Knox College.
My research sits at the intersection of digital media, bias, and bias education. While I identify as a computational social scientist, I consider myself, above all, a methodologist. I enjoy combining and adapting methods—whether qualitative, experimental, or computational—to answer challenging questions. Specifically, I explore how affective (e.g., outrage, anger, shame, guilt) and defensive responses (e.g., source derogation, group threats, toxicity) to bias education or bias reduction efforts influence people’s motivation to either reform or perpetuate bias. My work examines these dynamics in various settings, particularly in social and digital media spaces (like YouTube) and controlled experimental environments.
Dive Into My Work
PUBLICATIONS
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*Vallabha, S., Doriscar, J. E., & Brandt, M. J. (2024). When the specter of the past haunts current groups: Psychological antecedents of historical blame. Journal of personality and social psychology, 10.1037/pspi0000452. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000452
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McAndrew, F. T., Doriscar, J. E., *Schmidt, N. T., & Niebauer, C. (2024). Explorations in Creepiness: Tolerance for Ambiguity and Susceptibility to “Not Just Right Experiences” Predict the Ease of Getting “Creeped Out.” The Journal of Psychology, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2024.2366882
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Farrer, B., Holahan, R., Allen, K., Allen, L., Doriscar, J. E., Johnson, V., ... & Smith, S. (2024). Assessing how energy companies negotiate with landowners when obtaining land for hydraulic fracturing. Nature Energy, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01601-y
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Perry, S. P., Abaied, J. L., Wu, D. J., & Doriscar, J. E. (2024). Racial Socialization in the United States. Annual review of psychology, 10.1146/annurev-psych-050724-034006. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-050724-034006
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Doriscar, J.E., Mamakos, M., Perry, S.P., Charlesworth, T.“From Data to Discovery: Unsupervised Machine Learnings Role in Social Cognition” (In press; Journal of Social Cognition)