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Psychology Colloquium: Keely Muscatell

"Social Status and Mentalizing: A Missing Piece of the Puzzle of Health Disparities"

Abstract: Social hierarchies are ubiquitous in the modern world, with ever increasing gaps between the “haves” and the “have nots.” These economic and social inequalities have important implications for health and well-being, though a complete understanding of how, exactly, social status affects psychological processes that may be linked with poor health is still unknown. In the present talk, I will present data from a recent line of work suggesting that the tendency of lower-status individuals to engage in mentalizing (i.e., thinking about the thoughts and feelings of others), may be a missing piece of the puzzle of health disparities. Utilizing methods from social neuroscience and psychoneuroimmunology, I will show that social status affects both neural and inflammatory responses to social threat in ways that may lead to the development of chronic disease and psychopathology. I will also present preliminary data suggesting that interventions that capitalize on the mentalizing abilities of lower-status individuals could be especially effective in helping to reduce disparities. Finally, I will explore a related line of work showing that the physiological state of the body, especially biological changes accompanying illness, feeds back to the brain to influence social experience. I will end by discussing ongoing projects, including a new line of work exploring neural responses to cross-race social evaluation, and future directions for this program of research.

Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015

4:00 pm, Swift Hall 107