Research & Publications
Broadly, I'm interested in understanding stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. As an international student from Turkey, my work has specifically been inspired by the history of immigration to the U.S. My projects have focused on understanding stereotypes of nationality groups, as well as the experiences of immigrants in the U.S.
More ways to check out my research:
Stereotypes and Prejudice
My research focuses on understanding and documenting various stereotypes and attitudes toward nationality groups and immigrants. In doing so, I incorporate prevalent stereotype content models and examine numerous facets such as perceived warmth, status, Americanness, and political orientation. My research highlights the heterogeneity of how U.S. Americans stereotype others on the basis of nationality and demonstrate the importance of disaggregating nationality from race/ethnicity when assessing stereotypes and attitudes.
Interested in learning more? Check out 8,415 t-tests comparing stereotypes of 34 racial/nationality groups here.
Selin Toprakkıran, Calvin K. Lai
PsyArXiv
Immigrant Experiences
Immigrants constitute 14% of the U.S. population, and the U.S. currently houses the largest immigrant population in the world. In fact, more than 1 in 4 Americans identify as immigrants or children of immigrants. While attitudes toward immigrants and perceptions of immigrants are widely studied, research on experiences of immigrants is lacking in a variety of psychological domains. One line of my work aims to understand first and second generation immigrants' meta-perceptions (i.e., how they think U.S.-born Americans view them) and experiences with stressors such as policy changes. In another line of work, I focus on immigrant narratives and how interacting with these narratives can help U.S.-born Americans with perspective taking and humanizing.
Partick L. Hill, Jennifer F. Beatty, Selin Toprakkıran, Megan Wilson Wolk
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology
National Identity
A common identity, such as national identity may bring people together and lead to positive intergroup attitudes, a greater willingness for intergroup contact, helping outgroup members, and intergroup trust. At the same time, a stronger sense of belonging to a common group can also increase polarization, especially when the boundaries of common identities differ across individuals. For instance, a national identity might invoke nationalism and patriotism in some people, leading to more negative attitudes toward others. My work aims to explore how national identities are conceptualized and defined, and how national identification is linked to stereotypes and prejudice toward others.
Selin Toprakkıran, Jonathan Gordils, Jeremy P. Jamieson
Frontiers in Social Psychology
Cengiz Erisen, Mattia Guidi, Sergio Martini, Selin Toprakkıran, Pierangelo Isernia, Levente Littvay
Political Psychology
Selin Toprakkıran, Jonathan Gordils
The Journal of Social Psychology