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By Linda Evans, W'71 After Hurricane Katrina devastated much of America’s Gulf Coast, people throughout the country expressed sympathy and tried to help. They wondered about slow governmental response, and they questioned the level of preparation for such a catastrophic storm. “All these issues are ones of central concern to social psychology,” says Dr. Don Forsyth, one of two recent additions to the faculty who have helped create a new strength in the discipline at the University. Forsyth maintains a Web site to examine the social psychological issues related to the hurricane. “Katrina,” he says, “was a natural disaster complicated by human error.” Research in social psychology “indicates that in some cases groups can make very bad decisions, particularly when trying to calibrate risk.” Forsyth joined the Jepson School of Leadership Studies after moving across town from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he spent the past 28 years developing a national reputation in social psychology. He wrote the best-selling textbook on group dynamics, and at Richmond he holds the Col. Leo K. and Gaylee Thorsness Endowed Chair in Ethical Leadership. Joining him in January was Dr. George R. “Al” Goethals, who was most recently at Williams College and joined Richmond as the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies. Goethals was well-known to the Jepson School faculty before he joined them permanently. He had collaborated with many of them in writing and editing a leadership book, and he spent a semester at Richmond on sabbatical. Richmond’s concentration of top social psychologists rivals any university in the country, says Dr. Joel Cooper, professor of psychology at Princeton University and editor-elect of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. “The University of Richmond must now be considered one of the top programs in the United States, linking the study of leadership to social psychology,” he says. “The faculty’s research complements each other nicely so that students will be able to receive training and advice from several well-known and productive scholars.” In addition to Forsyth and Goethals, the Richmond group includes Dr. Crystal Hoyt, assistant professor of leadership studies, Dr. Scott Allison, MacEldin Trawick Professor of Psychology, and Dr. Dafna Eylon, who holds the F. Carlyle Tiller Chair of Business and also is an associate professor of psychology. Psych synergy Social psychology is a highly collaborative discipline, and it makes sense to bring people together who speak the same academic language, Goethals says. The fact that Richmond’s social psychologists teach in different departments and schools is also a plus. “We are coming at things from a perspective that creates more dynamism than if we were all in the psychology department,” Goethals says. Forsyth says Richmond’s new critical mass of social psychologists will make some larger, more complex research projects possible. “Although much good science can be done by lone individuals, … much of the best work is done by teams of investigators who collaborate,” he explains. Social psychology has many natural connections to other disciplines, including business, leadership and all the social sciences, Allison notes. Some of Goethals’ research, for example, delves into politics, leadership and public opinion. He is an expert on presidential debates, including pre-debate expectations, post-debate spin and how people conform to other people’s response to the debates. Social psychology even crosses over into the natural sciences at Richmond. Forsyth, for example, is collaborating with Malcolm Hill, associate professor of biology, and Dr. Michael Harrison, assistant professor of geography and environmental studies. They share an interest in human-environmental interactions, such as Hurricane Katrina. Forsyth’s research examines people’s willingness to engage in environmentally positive behaviors, reactions to being excluded from a group, understanding structures that organize group interactions and variations in judgments of unethical behavior. He plans to continue his studies of group members’ perceptions of leadership and how people process information while making decisions about morality. “Basically, the work suggests that people who make moral judgments based on the gut reaction do so very quickly and that interfering with their ability to process information does not change their decisions,” he says. Allison’s research flies in the face of traditional social psychological theory, which says people tend to associate with winners. Along with Goethals and Eylon, he is looking at the “underdog effect”—people’s propensity to root for underdogs. “Our research suggests that people love underdogs and will provide emotional and behavioral support for them in many circumstances,” he says. “Witness all the books and movies devoted to the lovable underdogs: Cinderella, The Little Engine that Could, Rocky, The Karate Kid and Erin Brokavich. Rooting for the underdog is deeply ingrained in us, culturally and psychologically.” He notes, however, that people also will bash top dogs like Wal-Mart and then shop there to save money. “We may quickly abandon the underdog,” he says, “when it’s in our best interest to do so.” Hoyt’s research looks at the effects of stereotypes and discrimination on women and minority leaders. “I am currently investigating various factors that influence how female leaders respond to the ‘think leader—think male’ stereotype,” she says. She also has investigated the responses of Latino leaders to feedback. “Research suggests that it can be difficult for ethnic minorities to accurately determine the causes of others’ behavior toward them,” she explains. “This ‘attributional ambiguity’ can be especially pervasive and problematic for those in leadership roles.” Eylon studies what happens to individuals and groups in the context of organizations. She has combined her class with Allison’s to hear speakers. “It is interesting to see students focus on slightly different things” depending on whether they are business or psychology majors, Eylon says. “There is definitely some peer learning.” Undergraduates at Richmond have “remarkable opportunities to take courses and pursue research in areas that few students around the country can,” Allison says. Social psychology is the most recent addition to that list. To learn more about the social psychological implications of Hurricane Katrina, visit www.richmond.edu/~dforsyth/katrina.
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