SHIRE Lab

Social Human-AI Impressions & Representations

Gandalf Nicolas

Gandalf Nicolas

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Rutgers University

Welcome

At the SHIRE Lab we study how people think about the social world and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) models learn and reproduce these social representations. Our research is at the intersection of social cognition and interdisciplinary quantitative methods (e.g., computer vision and natural language processing). More specific topics include linguistic social cognition, intersectional perceptions, social biases in AI, and human-computer interaction.

Posts

The Nicolas Lab is looking for students to join!

Please contact the faculty director at gandalf.nicolas@rutgers.edu if you are interested! For more information on our department’s opportunities for undergraduate RAs, please visit https://sites.rutgers.edu/ursp/
Apr 10, 2023 1 min read
The Nicolas Lab is looking for students to join!

Access to the Nicolas, Bai, and Fiske (2021) stereotype content dictionaries and dictionary creation package (R)

https://github.com/gandalfnicolas/SADCAT/tree/master/vignettes
Sep 9, 2021 1 min read
Access to the Nicolas, Bai, and Fiske (2021) stereotype content dictionaries and dictionary creation package (R)

Meet the Fellowship

Faculty Director

Avatar

Gandalf Nicolas

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Social Cognition, Person Perception, Quantitative Methods, Bias in Machine Learning

Postdoctoral Researchers

Avatar

Andrew Cortopassi

Stigma, Self & Identity, Health & well-being

Graduate Students

Avatar

Erin Foy

Social Perception, Intersectional Identity, Structural & Systemic Bias, Social Equity

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Avatar

Heena Aidoo

Avatar

Maya Aggarwal

Avatar

Mehwish Hussain

Projects

Complex Social Categorization

How are categorically-ambiguous and multiply-categorizable targets perceived?

Social-Cognitive Bias & Machine Learning

Do machine learning models reflect human stereotypes and social categorization biases?

Spontaneous Social Cognition Content

How are social groups, faces, and other social stimuli spontaneously perceived?

Recent Publications

Quickly discover relevant content by filtering publications.
Andrew Cortopassi, Diane M. Quinn, Gandalf Nicolas (2024). The identity group as a source of social influence for individuals with concealable stigmatized identities . PLOS One.

PDF

Paul Connor, Gandalf Nicolas, Stephen Antonoplis, Alex Koch (2024). Unconstrained descriptions of Facebook profile pictures support high-dimensional models of impression formation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

PDF

Xuechunzi Bai*, Gandalf Nicolas*, Susan T. Fiske (2024). Social stereotypes: Content and process. The Oxford Handbook of Social Cognition (2nd ed). *Equal contribution.

Gandalf Nicolas, Susan T. Fiske (2023). Valence biases and emergence in the stereotype content of intersecting social categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

PDF

Maria-Therese Friehs, ..., Gandalf Nicolas, et al. (2022). Warmth and competence perceptions of key protagonists are associated with containment measures during the COVID‑19 pandemic: Evidence from 35 countries. Scientific Reports.

PDF

See all publications

Gallery

Contact