Duke ID Lab

08/17/2026

After three years in our lab, Esha Naidu is heading to Wake Forest to work with Eranda Jayawickreme, and while this is excellent news for them, it is considerably less excellent news for us!

Esha has been a fantastic colleague, problem-solver, and all-around lab citizen. Esha, thanks for putting up with us for three years. We’re excited to see what you do next, and we expect regular updates!

08/13/2026

Ending the summer the best way we know how: with lots of research posters! ☀️📊🧠

We’re celebrating Sadaf and Madelyn as they wrap up their UROP summer with the lab! Sadaf joined us from Wake Tech, exploring biracial Black maternal socialization, while Madelyn joined us from Meredith College, studying multiracial Asian identity denial experiences. We’ve loved having them in the lab and getting to see their projects come together!

And because apparently we can never have too many posters… Julia added a bonus one at Duke’s Summer Research Symposium, sharing her work on data visualization and threat! 🎉

08/07/2026

New lab publication! This is a new interdisciplinary paper with Monica Garcia-Perez and Sandy Darity examining the relationships among familial incarceration history, race, household wealth, and FICO credit scores.

Using data from the National Asset Scorecard for Communities of Color (NASCC), we found that familial incarceration history was associated with both lower wealth accumulation and lower credit scores, with particularly large disparities for Black households. The findings add to growing evidence that credit scores reflect broader structural inequalities rather than functioning as race-neutral indicators.

A special thank you to my amazing lab team, who spent many hours conducting the phone interviews that made this work possible!

Read it here:

08/06/2026

The lab helped out at the Durham County Sheriff’s Office Back-To-School resource fair this past weekend! We got to meet so many families!

07/23/2026

Research question: Can repeated ice cream outings postpone the start of the semester?

Results: No.

Conclusion: More ice cream is needed to confirm these findings. 🍨

One month until classes begin, so we took time to “scoop” up a little summer before the semester gets underway. 🍦

07/22/2026

Another successful Cook Center Fellowship lunch! Nothing like chatting science in the summer!

07/21/2026

Excited to share that the Handbook of Social Psychology and Consumer Behavior is now available from Edward Elgar Publishing!

Dr. Gaither contributed a chapter with co-authors Megan A. Trillo and Gavan J. Fitzsimons from the Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business: “The Buffering Effect of Identity Compartmentalization: Consumer Response to Brand Transgressions.”

Their chapter explores how the way people organize their social identities can shape their responses when brands engage in transgressions, offering insights into the intersection of identity, social psychology, and consumer behavior.

‘Spangenberg and Spangenberg powerfully reconnects consumer behavior to its social psychological roots while charting clear directions for future research. It is a thoughtful, comprehensive handbook that will shape how scholars conceptualize and study consumer behavior.’ – Vicki G. Morwitz, Co...

07/10/2026

A big congrats to Julia for finishing up our summer VIP program! She started work on her thesis testing how data visualizations can shift how we perceive information and threat!

07/05/2026

“Two hundred fifty years later, one of the most important challenges remains expanding our definition of "we." The encouraging lesson from psychological science is that belonging is not a fixed resource that must be divided among groups. It can grow. “ —Dr. Sarah Gaither

We invited Duke University faculty to reflect on the Declaration through the lens of their own discipline. Each contributor responded to a common prompt: “250 years later, how does your field help us understand, advance or challenge the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence?”

07/02/2026

The lab is saying bye to Hannah—our incredible lab manager! She is off to the University of Hawai’i to start her PhD and we couldn’t be more excited for her!

Thank you, Hannah for everything you have done for the lab the past two years!!! You will be missed!!!