Arnold Ho

Research in my lab examines why systems of group-based social inequality are ubiquitous and resistant to change.  Our research centers around three major themes:

1. why individuals who qualify equally for membership in more than one group (e.g., biracials) are categorized and perceived as belonging more to their lower status parent group,
2. the nature of social dominance orientation (SDO), or individual differences in the preference for inequality between groups (e.g., race or caste groups), and
3. the endorsement of ideologies and beliefs that justify group-based inequality and discrimination (that is, beliefs that make inequality seem fair or legitimate).

Selected Publications:

Ho, A. K., Kteily, N., & Chen, J. M. (in press). Introducing the Sociopolitical Motive x Intergroup Threat Model to understand how monoracial perceivers’ sociopolitical motives influence their categorization of multiracial people. Personality and Social Psychology Review. 

Roberts, S. O., Ho, A. K., Gulgoz, S., Leeka, J., & Gelman, S. A. (2020). The role of group status and group membership in the practice of hypodescent. Child Development, 91, e721-e732.

Chen, J. M., Kteily, N., & Ho, A. K. (2019). Whose side are you on? Asian Americans’ mistrust of Asian-White biracials predicts more exclusion from the ingroup. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45, 827-841.

Kteily, N., Rocklage, M., McClanahan, K., & Ho, A. K. (2019). Political ideology shapes the amplification of the accomplishments of disadvantaged vs. advantaged group members. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, 116, 1559-1568.

Ho, A. K., Kteily, N., & Chen, J. M. (2017). “You’re one of us”: Black Americans’ use of hypodescent and its association with egalitarianism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113, 753-768.

Kteily, N., Sheehy-Skeffington, J., & Ho, A. K. (2017). Hierarchy in the eye of the beholder: Social dominance orientation shapes the perception of inequality between groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112, 136-159.

Ho, A. K., Sidanius, J., Kteily, N., Sheehy-Skeffington, J, Pratto, F., Henkel, K. E., Foels, R., & Stewart, A. L. (2015). The nature of social dominance orientation: Theorizing and measuring preferences for intergroup inequality using the new SDO₇ scale. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109, 1003-1028.

Ho, A. K., Roberts, S. O., & Gelman, S (2015). Essentialism and racial bias jointly contribute to the categorization of multiracial individuals. Psychological Science, 26, 1639-1645.

Ho, A. K., Sidanius, J., Cuddy, A. J. C., & Banaji, M. R. (2013). Status-boundary enforcement and the categorization of Black-White biracials. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 940-943.

Ho, A. K., Sidanius, J., Pratto, F., Levin, S., Thomsen, L., Kteily, N., & Sheehy-Skeffington, J. (2012). Social dominance orientation: Revisiting the structure and function of a variable predicting social and political attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 583-606.

Ho, A. K., Sidanius, J., Levin, D. T., & Banaji, M. R. (2011).Evidence for hypodescent and racial hierarchy in the categorization and perception of biracial individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 492-506.  

Affiliation(s)

• Psychology

Field(s) of Study

• Social Inequality
• Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination
• Social Categorization and Perception
• Social Policy Attitudes