Nicholas Rule Principal Investigator Dr. Rule is Professor of Psychology and presently serves as Dean of the University of Toronto Mississauga. He completed Ph.D. and M.S. degrees at Tufts University and an A.B. at Dartmouth College and held a Tier-II Canada Research Chair from 2010-2020. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars and has received a number of awards, including early career awards from the International Social Cognition Network, International Academy for Intercultural Research, Ministry of Research and Innovation of Ontario, as well as the Sage Young Scholars Award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology. He has served in various administrative roles across the University of Toronto and editorial roles in his field, including his current position as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. For more information about Dr. Rule's research interests, please click on the Research link above or browse his Publications.
	POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS
		Bradley Hughes is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the SPCL at the University of Toronto. He earned Ph.D. and M.S. degrees at the University of Oregon, and a B.A. at the University of California Berkeley. Dr. Hughes’ research investigates the impressions people form of others during social interactions, the stereotypes that manifest in these impressions, and how they impact social decisions. He has a special interest in the perceptions and effects of an individual’s socioeconomic status. In support of this work, he has developed novel experimental and specialized analytic approaches to examine these phenomena in actual interactions between real people from diverse populations.
		Hayley Liebenow is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the SPCL at the University of Toronto. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and her B.A. at Wellesley College. Dr. Liebenow's research investigates how prejudice and stereotypes form through person perception. In particular, her studies focus on how sexism and racism manifest through face perception and how this affects marginalized groups' outcomes in the workplace and beyond. When she has a moment of free time, she can be found at the skate park, your local Toronto coffee shop, or catering to her cat (Plum)'s every whim.
	GRADUATE STUDENTS
		Emily received her HBSc in Psychology from McGill University and her MA in Psychology from the University of Toronto. Her research examines how membership to marginalized social groups influences social perception at both the target and the perceiver level, with a particular focus on gender as well as the LGBTQ+ community. Elsewhere, she also examines pseudosocial perceptions of generative AI and digitally synthesized voices, including how stereotypes can affect human/AI interaction.
		Mac is a third-year PhD student. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto and received his honours bachelor of science in 2020. He is interested in how and why individuals' identities (e.g., gender) become apparent in the things that they make (such as films and food). His other work examines the factors that inform accurate and biased social inferences from face, and the antecedents of face change over time.
		Colin Boothby is a PhD Psychology student in the SPCL at the University of Toronto. He received his H.B.Sc. in Mental Health Studies from the University of Toronto Scarborough. Colin’s research currently focuses on how mentalization processes operate between people of different cultures and backgrounds, and how processes of mentalization can be improved to support positive between-group interactions. Outside of his studies, Colin enjoys competing in e-sports, playing theremin/other instruments, and spending time with his dogs and aquariums.
	GRADUATE ALUMNI
	Dr. Laura Tian Molly Sun Prof. Jason Deska Dr. Ravin Alaei Prof. Thora Bjornsdottir Dr. Shelbie Sutherland Prof. Miranda Giacomin Dr. Daniel E. Re Dr. Konstantin O. Tskhay Prof. John Paul Wilson Dr. Zak Witkower
	RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
	Current as of February 2025 Gavin (Tianheng) Zhang (Lab Manager) Catherine Ma (Assistant Lab Manager) Arista Arhin Rojan Bassiri Christina (Wei-Ting) Chen Isabela Santander Garcia Brigid Green Julia Gonsalves Liliana Andrea Castiblanco Guzman Linda He Amy Huang Diana Kuznetsova Kimberly Lee Jenny Liu Katherine Liu Ayesha Narang Maria Romero Ochoa Meijin Patil Udaya Reddy Joanna Sie Sophie Williams Michelle Yan Casey Zhang