Bennett Callaghan
Researcher
Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality: City University of New York
PhD: Social Psychology (Yale University, 2021)
Bennett studies the psychology of hierarchy and inequality.
More about me
Bennett Callaghan is an Associated Researcher at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).
Bennett draws on social-psychological, experimental, and interdisciplinary approaches to study the individual, societal, and structural forces that shape individuals’ perceptions of inequality and their responses to it. For instance, some of his research investigates the (in)accuracy of Americans’ beliefs about the extent of racial economic inequality in the U.S. and the types of messages that might correct such misperceptions and motivate support for policies that reduce it. In other work, Bennett investigates how inequality—and social class in particular—manifests in everyday life and how it influences a number of behaviors that might increase or decrease inequality (e.g., prosocial behavior and political participation). More recently, Bennett has begun to explore how individuals “make sense” of economic inequality by investigating individuals’ causal explanations of inequality, the groups they associate with it, and how they describe the phenomenon in their own words. Scroll down for more information on these projects and more!
Bennett obtained his PhD in 202o from Yale University. Before moving to Yale, he started his PhD work at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and received a BA in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY). Bennett was a member of the Contending with Social Inequality (with Michael Kraus) and the Intergroup Relations (with Jack Dovidio) labs at Yale. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Research
The Psychology of Inequality Maintenance
(CLICK ON SUBHEADINGS FOR LINKS)
Intergroup Inequality
In the U.S. and around the world, disparities among social identity groups (e.g., those associated with race and gender) contribute to economic inequality. In one line of research, Bennett studies how the intergroup structure of inequality impacts processes that maintain inequality. He investigate how people perceive racial inequalities, how best to inform them about intergroup inequalities, and how doing so can influence support for policies that address inequality.
Effectively Educating about the Racial Wealth Gap
Callaghan, B., Harouni, L., Dupree, C. H., Kraus, M. W., & Richeson, J. A.(2021). Testing the efficacy of three informational interventions for reducing misperceptions of the Black-White wealth gap. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(38), e2108875118
Changing Minds on Racial Inequality
Scholar’s Blog: Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
Status Signaling
In workplaces, schools, and other social settings, individuals express their status or social class in a variety of ways—for instance, through the way they dress and speak or through the interests and hobbies they pursue. In one line of research, Bennett investigates how these signals are emitted and picked up by others and how these processes influence outcomes such as prosocial behavior.
Status Signaling and Compassionate Behavior:
Callaghan, B., Delgadillo, Q, & Kraus, M. W. (in press). The influence of signs of social class on compassionate responses to people in need. Frontiers in Psychology, 13: 936170. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.936170
Social Class, Reputation, and Prosocial Behavior:
Kraus, M. W. & Callaghan, B. (2016). Social class and pro-social behavior: The moderating role of public versus private contexts. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7, 769-777. DOI: doi.org/10.1177/1948550616659120
Politics of Inequality
Economic inequality impacts every aspect of our lives. In one line of research, Bennett investigates how inequality and social class-related processes influence political preferences and participation in both overt (e.g., voting or legislating in accordance with one’s economic self-interest) and subtle ways (e.g., how social class influences preferences for politicians embodying different personal traits).
Social Class and Preference for Competent Politicians:
Callaghan, B., Kraus, M. W., & Dovidio, J. F. (2022). Social class predicts preference for competent politicians. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 100, 104298. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104298
Social Status and Legislative Behavior:
Kraus, M. W. & Callaghan, B. (2014). Noblesse oblige? Social status and economic inequality maintenance among politicians. PLoS ONE, 9, e85293. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085293
Other Research Interests
Motivators of Support for Torture
Over the past several decades, policy-makers and the lay public have engaged in heated debates about the use of torture or “enhanced interrogation” methods in the context of the War on Terror. In one line of research, Bennett has investigated the moral psychology underlying support for the use of such techniques, such as the moral motivations underlying support for torture (e.g., desires to gain true information from detainees vs. desires to punish them) and how different modes of moral reasoning influence acceptance of the use of torture.
Moral Transcendence and Support for Torture:
Callaghan, B. & Hansen, I. G. (2016) Cuing moral transcendence reduces support for torture and disentangles it from retributive and utilitarian concerns. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict: Pathways toward terrorism and genocide, 9, 37-56. doi: 10.1080/17467586.2016.1267864
Punitive Motivations Underlying Support for Torture:
Hansen, I. G. & Callaghan, B. (under review). “And if doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway”: More evidence that retributive concerns motivate support for “Enhanced Interrogation” torture.