False accusations permeate social life—from the mundane blaming of other people to more serious accusations of infidelity and workplace wrongdoing. Importantly, false accusations can have grave consequences, including broken relationships, job loss, and reputational damage.  In this article, we document an equally pernicious phenomenon—the misuse of anger as a cue to predict whether a suspect has been falsely accused.

Although previous attempts have been made to measure everyday discrimination against African Americans, these approaches have been constrained by distinct methodological challenges. We present the results from an audit or correspondence study of a large-scale, nationally representative pool of the American public. We provide evidence that in simple day-to-day interactions, such as sending and responding to emails, the public discriminates against Black people. 

The next time you are accused of doing something you did not do, you may want to check your anger at the door. New research from Batten's Gabrielle Adams has found that such strong reactions lead others to assume the worst: that you did exactly what you have been accused of doing.

New evidence from a team of researchers, including Batten professor John Holbein, suggests that everyday racial discrimination is far more widespread than previous studies have indicated.

Batten postdoctoral fellow Jieun Pai is studying the complicated dynamics between workers and their managers.

Batten's Tim Davis advises parents to put down the phone, stop texting their kids and give them the space and permission to struggle and build their own new, supportive networks in college.

Lyangela Gutierrez is a postdoctoral research associate at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Gutierrez researches diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations by identifying and addressing factors that impact racial and gender equity in organizations.

As of Fall 2023, Gerald Higginbotham is an assistant professor of public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Utilizing social and cultural psychological insights, Higginbotham researches the imprint of history on people’s modern social perceptions and policy attitudes, and the psychological underpinnings of how people perceive history and its consequences. 

In a case of simulation imitating life, Batten's Center for Leadership Simulation and Gaming provides an opportunity for students to wrestle with a simulated pandemic online – during a worldwide pandemic.

Across a series of studies published this month in the journal Nature, Batten’s Gabrielle Adams, Benjamin Converse and co-authors demonstrated that people tend to overlook the option to subtract parts when asked to change or improve something. In an op-ed for The Washington Post, they explore why ‘less is more’ is a hard insight to act on.