Biography

I am a social psychology lecturer and Australian Research Council's research fellow at the School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Australia. My interest in social and intergroup psychology started very early in my undergraduate studies at the University of Padova, Italy, under the supervision of Prof Dora Capozza. What immediately struck me was the possibility offered by social psychology to combine the study of complex human behaviours with methodological rigour and elegance. Research grants from the European Community, the British Economic and Social Research Council, and the University of Padova funded my PhD research on the social cognitive bases of prejudice, stereotyping and prejudice/stereotype reduction at Cardiff University under the supervision of Prof Miles Hewstone.

My ongoing research focuses on social categorization during intergroup contact; the cognitive and affective bases of intergroup friendship; the motivational and affective predictors of people's willingness to engage in intergroup contact; intergroup emotions, intergroup anxiety, and the learning mechanisms of interethnic anxiety; migrants' psychology; stereotype change; and the effects of meta-cognitions on social judgment.

I am a member of prominent international professional societies, like the Association for Psychological Science, British Psychological Society, European Association of Social Psychology, International Social Cognition Network, and Society of Australasian Social Psychologists.

I regularly act as reviewer for international journals, including Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Australian Journal of Psychology, British Journal of Social Psychology, European Journal of Social Psychology, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Social Issues, Personality and Individual Differences, Psychological Science, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, and Social Influence. I have been a reviewer for several grant bodies, including the Australian Research Council, the British Academy, the National Research Foundation (South Africa), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), and The Leverhulme Trust (UK).

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Wales - Cardiff - Wales, 2001
• Post Graduate Qualification to Practice Psychology, University of Padova - Italy
• Bachelor of Psychology (Honours), University of Padova - Italy, 1996

Research

Research keywords

• decision making
• intergroup anxiety
• intergroup emotions
• learning mechanisms of interethnic anxiety
• meta-cognition
• migrants psychology
• prejudice
• social categorization
• social discrimination
• stereotype and prejudice change
• stereotyping

Research expertise

• Social cognition
• Stereotyping, prejudice, and social discrimination
• Interventions to ameliorate intergroup relations
• Metacognition and social judgements

Collaboration

Dr Paolini's ongoing research focuses on:

• social categorization during intergroup contact;
• the cognitive and affective bases of intergroup friendship;
• the motivational and affective predictors of peoples willingness to engage in intergroup interactions;
• intergroup emotions, intergroup anxiety, and the learning mechanisms of interethnic anxiety;
• migrants psychology;
• stereotype change; and the effects of meta-cognitions on social judgment.

More information about her current and recent research projects follows.

Intergroup Contact and Social Categorization:

Dr Paolini and Dr Rubin are collaborating with Prof Jake Harwood from the University of Arizona, USA, to investigate the effects that the valence of intergroup contact exerts on the process of social categorisation during contact between members of different social groups (along ethnicity, age, etc.) This project is sponsored by a Discovery Project from the Australian Research Council (Paolini, Harwood, & Rubin, 2007-2011).

Predictors and Consequences of Intergroup Friendship:

Dr Paolini has carried out extensive research on the psychological consequences of cross-group friendships (Paolini, 2004-2008) and is currently investigating the effects of individuals self-expansion motives and intergroup anxiety on peoples willingness to engage in inter-ethnic contact (Paolini & Alexander, 2007-2009). This research has received financial support from grants from John and Daphne Endowment Research Fund.

Learning Mechanisms of Interethnic Anxiety:

Dr Paolini is collaborating with Dr Andrea Griffin (University of Newcastle) on a project investigating the learning mechanisms of interethnic anxiety. This works looks at first-hand and observational aversive learning, generalization and extinction processes, using experimentation and recordings of psycho-physiological markers of body activation (galvanic skin responses, heart rate, etc.). This research enjoys the financial support of a grant from John and Daphne Endowment Research Fund and Faculty of Science and IT research support.

Migrants Psychology:

Dr Rubin and Dr Paolini are collaborating with Prof Richard Crisp from the University of Kent, UK, to investigate the social cognitive bases of discrimination against migrants. This project has received sponsorship from a Discovery Project from the Australian Research Council (Rubin, Paolini, & Crisp, 2005-2007).

Stereotype Change and Meta-Cognitions:

Dr Paolini is engaged in a continuous research project on stereotype change. In particular, she is interested in a social form of inductive reasoning called member-to-group generalization whereby individuals change their judgments of discriminated groups in society in light of information about specific group members. With Kylie McIntyre and Prof Miles Hewstone, from the University of Oxford, UK, Dr Paolini is working towards a comprehensive meta-analysis of research on the process of member-to-group generalization. More recent work focuses on the impact that meta-cognitions, or peoples cognitions about cognitions (e.g., accountability considerations, retrieval and processing fluency) exert on generalisation with an eye towards basic social cognition and stereotype reduction interventions.

Languages

• English
• Italian

Fields of Research

Centres and Groups

Centre

• Hunter Medical Research Institute
• PRC - Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health (CTNMH)
• Research Institute of Social Inclusion & Wellbeing

Group

• Human Experimental and Applied Dynamics (HEAD)
• Hunter Medical Research Institute - Brain and Mental Health

Appointments

Invitations

Teaching interests

• Introduction to Social and Cross-Cultural Psychology
•  Indigenous Issues
• Advanced Social Cognition
• Multivariate Analyses, Exploratory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modelling.