Margarita Krochik


Email: mkrochik at nyu dot edu
Office: Meyer 775C
 
 

Personal Information
Hometown: Kishinev, Moldova; Riverdale, New Jersey
Undergraduate Major: Interdisciplinary (Political Psychology & Anthropology)
Undergraduate Institution: University of Virginia

Research Interests

My research focuses on the cognitive and motivational roots of ideology and their consequences for interpersonal relations.

Current Research

Currently, I am interested in liberals' and conservatives' cognitive and motivational responses to power and inequality. Does interpersonal behavior in power-differentiated roles resonate with beliefs about social dominance and equality? If conservatives tend to see the world in vertical terms, do liberals simply lack such vertical structures? Or, are liberals motivated by their beliefs to deny power differences that really do exist? John Jost and I are developing a set of dyadic interaction experiments in which we manipulate power arrangements, salience of politics, and feedback about interpersonal dominance; we predict differences in the behavioral responses and reported reactions of liberals and conservatives. This research may provide insight into how power is negotiated in cross-political contexts.

In another line of research, I plan to investigate the relation between regulatory focus, cognitive processing, and ideology.

I am also interested in exploring the psychological factors that underlie the adoption of a crystallized or extreme ideology, as well as the correlates of political ambivalence.


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