Dr. Deborah Wu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, in the Social Psychology program. She directs the Identity Development, Emotions, and Attitudes (IDEA) Lab, which examines how social identities and emotions shape our experiences, attitudes and behaviors. More specifically, she investigates the antecedents and consequences of stereotyping and prejudice, with the ultimate goal of creating interventions to improve intergroup attitudes. Her work utilizes multiple methods, including longitudinal, experimental and psychophysiological approaches.
Dr. Wu received her B.A. from Northwestern University, her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and was a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University. She joins ASU in January 2025, after being an assistant professor at Stonehill College.
- Ph.D. in Social Psychology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2022
- M.S. in Social Psychology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2019
- B.A. in Psychology and Music, Northwestern University, 2016
Stereotyping and prejudice; Intergroup relations; Self and identity; Intervention science; Emotion
- Perry, S. P., Abaied, J., & Wu, D. J., Doriscar, J. E. (2025). Racial socialization in the United States. Annual Review of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-050724-034006
- Wu, D. J., Gibson, T. M., Ziegenbein, L. M., Phillis, R. W., Zehnder, C., Connor, E. A., & Dasgupta, N. (2024). A communal social vaccine: An identity-based learning community intervention enhances the lived experience and success of first-generation college students in the biological sciences. Scientific Reports, 14, 10163. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-60650-1
- Perry, S. P., Wu, D. J., Sánchez, S., Skinner-Dorkenoo, A. L., Abaied, J., Waters, S. F., & Osnaya, A. (2024). White parents’ racial socialization messages during a discussion task predict reductions in their White children’s pro-White biases. Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001703. Media coverage: WBEZ Chicago
- Wu, D. J., Syropoulos, S., Rivera-Rodriguez, A., Dasgupta, N. (2023). From Model Minority to Yellow Peril: How threat perceptions and disgust predict anti-Asian prejudice during COVID-19. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, e12833. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12833. Media coverage: SPSSI Forward
- Wu, D. J., Thiem, K. C., & Dasgupta, N. (2022). Female peer mentors early in college have lasting positive impacts on female engineering students that persist beyond graduation. Nature Communications, 13, 6837. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34508-x. Media coverage: SPSSI Forward | UMass News
- Wu, D. J., Sánchez, S., & Perry, S. P. (2022). “Will talking about race make my child racist?” Dispelling myths to encourage honest white U.S. parent-child conversations about race and racism. Current Opinion in Psychology, 47, 101420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101420
- Syropoulos, S.,* Wu, D. J.,* Burrows, B. E., & Mercado, E. (2021). Psychology doctoral program experiences and student well-being, mental health, and optimism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 629205. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.629205
- Wu, D. J., Svoboda, R. C., Bae, K. K., & Haase, C. M. (2021). Individual differences in sadness coherence: Associations with dispositional affect and age. Emotion, 21(3), 465-477. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000731
- Wu, D. J., Park, J., & Dasgupta, N. (2020). The influence of masculine faces on stereotype activation among women in STEM: An ERP investigation. Biological Psychology, 156, 107948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2020.107948