Trisha Dehrone received her B.A. in Psychology at Rutgers University – Newark in 2015. Prior to joining the lab, she was a project manager for two large-scale social psychological interventions with Dr. Mary Murphy at Indiana University. She became interested in conflict resolution during her experiences as a military wife and while interning in the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence. During this internship she managed casework for constituents interfacing with Department of Justice (DOJ) on a range of discrimination and justice cases and with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) fleeing violence and seeking asylum and refugee status.
Broadly, Trisha’s research interests center around intergroup relations, prejudice reduction, and conflict associated with social justice efforts. She is specifically interested in understanding how positive contact can enhance white’s psychological investment in racial equality (empathy, humanizing outgroups, etc.) and testing strategies to eliminate the barriers to this investment (dehumanization, negative contact). She is also interested in understanding the factors that make bystanders more likely to intervene against discrimination and violence (i.e., hate crimes, genocide). She is invested in conducting research and evaluating programs designed to improve interracial relations and reduce racial and ethnic conflict.
