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Dr Mark Rubin is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He obtained an MSc from the London School of Economics and a PhD from Cardiff University, UK. He is a social psychologist, and his research focuses on evaluations of deviant people, interdependent problem-solving, migration processes, perceived group variability, prejudice, stereotyping, social class, social identity, and social integration. For more information, please visit his research webpage at: http://bit.ly/QgpV4O
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- June 17, 2013
- 01:47 AM
- 23 views
JUST PUBLISHED: Early Life Determinants of Reproductive Success
by Mark Rubin in The University of Newcastle's School of Psychology Newsline
Infertility is a rising problem around the world. Coupled with a current tendency to delay childbearing, the growth in the population of many countries has come to halt. Bacterial infections are an often overlooked cause for infertility. This is particularly relevant to the recent increase in Chlamydia infections among young people. When untreated, Chlamydia in pregnant women can be transmitted to the newborn. As a result, up to 15% of newly born babies are currently known to be infected with Ch........ Read more »
Sominsky, L., Sobinoff, A., Jobling, M., Pye, V., McLaughlin, E., & Hodgson, D. (2013) Immune regulation of ovarian development: programming by neonatal immune challenge. Frontiers in Neuroscience. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2013.00100
- June 11, 2013
- 12:03 AM
- 41 views
JUST PUBLISHED: Sexuality and Suicide - Call for a More Nuanced Approach
by Mark Rubin in The University of Newcastle's School of Psychology Newsline
The evidence that sexual minorities (e.g., lesbians, gay males, bisexuals, and those questioning their sexuality: LGBQ) are at increased risk of suicide is fairly robust. This study (anonymous, online survey, N = 1,016), as several others, found LGBQ participants were more likely to meet standardized assessment criteria for suicide-risk.
Knowing which groups are at increased risk of suicide provides great help for outreach, treatment and prevention. Unfortunately, some may view at-risk groups........ Read more »
Harris, K. (2013) Sexuality and Suicidality: Matched-Pairs Analyses Reveal Unique Characteristics in Non-Heterosexual Suicidal Behaviors. Archives of Sexual Behavior. DOI: 10.1007/s10508-013-0112-2
- May 29, 2013
- 01:40 AM
- 40 views
JUST PUBLISHED: Treating Anxiety by Modifying Negative Cognitive Biases
by Mark Rubin in The University of Newcastle's School of Psychology Newsline
Dr Sirous Mobini and colleagues have recently published a integrative review of the literature investigating the treatment of anxiety using cognitive bias modification.
Cognitive theories of social anxiety indicate that negative biases in thinking play a key role in causing and maintaining social anxiety. On the basis of these cognitive theories, research has shown that individuals with social anxiety interpret ambiguous social situations in a negative (or less passive) manner.
Cognitive Bi........ Read more »
Mobini, S., Reynolds, S., & Mackintosh, B. (2012) Clinical Implications of Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretative Biases in Social Anxiety: An Integrative Literature Review. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 37(1), 173-182. DOI: 10.1007/s10608-012-9445-8
- April 21, 2013
- 03:03 AM
- 74 views
Spotlight on Research: What's in (Half) a Face?
by Mark Rubin in The University of Newcastle's School of Psychology Newsline
When we recognise someone, we integrate information from across their face into a perceptual whole, and do so using a specialised brain region. Recognising other kinds of objects does not engage such specific brain areas, and is achieved in a much more parts-based way.... Read more »
Burke, D., & Sulikowski, D. (2013) The Evolution of Holistic Processing of Faces. Frontiers in Psychology. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00011
- March 3, 2013
- 09:17 PM
- 177 views
“It Wasn’t My Idea to Come Here”: Young Women Lack Ownership of the Idea to Immigrate
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
Together with getting married and buying a house, the decision to immigrate is one of the most important decisions that a person can make. So, it’s important that immigrants feel that they have satisfactory input into the process of deciding whether or not to migrate. In some recent research, I looked at a very early stage of this decision-making process: ownership of the idea to immigrate.... Read more »
Rubin, M. (2013) “It wasn’t my idea to come here!”: Ownership of the idea to immigrate as a function of gender, age, and culture. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.02.001
- December 4, 2012
- 07:00 AM
- 200 views
“They’re all the Same!”...But for Several Different Reasons
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
People often get confused between members of the same social group because “they all look the same!” In a recent review, Constantina Badea and I looked at the various reasons for this group homogeneity effect.... Read more »
Rubin, M., & Badea, C. (2012) They're All the Same!. . . but for Several Different Reasons: A Review of the Multicausal Nature of Perceived Group Variability. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(6), 367-372. DOI: 10.1177/0963721412457363
- December 3, 2012
- 05:30 AM
- 190 views
The Disproportionate Influence of Negative Intergroup Encounters on Prejudice
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
Back in February, I wrote about some research in which my colleagues and I showed that negative experiences with people from other groups are better at drawing attention
to the people's group memberships than positive experiences (Paolini, Harwood, & Rubin, 2010). In other words, if you have a negative encounter with someone from another group, then you are more likely to think about their group memberships (e.g., their gender, race, nationality, etc.) than if you have a positive encounte........ Read more »
Barlow, F., Paolini, S., Pedersen, A., Hornsey, M., Radke, H., Harwood, J., Rubin, M., & Sibley, C. (2012) The Contact Caveat: Negative Contact Predicts Increased Prejudice More Than Positive Contact Predicts Reduced Prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(12), 1629-1643. DOI: 10.1177/0146167212457953
- May 16, 2012
- 02:28 PM
- 255 views
Let’s Show Them the Ropes: Why University Friends May Help Australia’s New Intake of Working-Class Students to Succeed
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
Like the USA and UK, Australia is currently
attempting to increase the number of working-class students at its universities.
I have
recently published a short piece in Higher
Education Research and Development in which I argue that Australia’s social and education
researchers need to focus their efforts on identifying the best approaches towards
facilitating these students’ success at uni (Rubin, 2012). In particular, we need to consider
how to increase the social integration of working-cl........ Read more »
Rubin, M. (2012) Working-class students need more friends at university: a cautionary note for Australia's higher education equity initiative. Higher Education Research , 31(3), 431-433. DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2012.689246
- March 29, 2012
- 11:55 AM
- 303 views
And the Winners Are...All the Same! Why Winning Groups Are Stereotyped
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
In some recent research,
my colleagues and I investigated whether people stereotype winning groups more
than losing groups. In other words, do people perceive the members of winning
groups to be more similar to one another than the members of losing groups? Traditionally, social psychologists have assumed that it is low status groups, low power groups, and minority
groups that bear the brunt of stereotyping with more positive, high status,
high power, majority groups being considered as uniq........ Read more »
Badea, C., Brauer, M., & Rubin, M. (2012) The Effects of Winning and Losing on Perceived Group Variability. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.03.006
- March 13, 2012
- 02:29 AM
- 318 views
Working-Class Students Are Left Out at Uni
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
In a review paper published this month, I report the results of a meta-analysis of 35 separate studies that surveyed over 62,000 university students, mostly in the United States. I found that there was a significant positive relation between students’ social class (socioeconomic status) and the degree of social integration that they experience at their universities and colleges.
The higher students’ social class, the more likely they were to participate in formal social activities such as........ Read more »
Rubin, M. (2012) Social class differences in social integration among students in higher education: A meta-analysis and recommendations for future research. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 5(1), 22-38. DOI: 10.1037/a0026162
- March 11, 2012
- 12:38 AM
- 257 views
Immigrants Should Be Independent and Proactive to Achieve Better Social Integration
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
Previous research has
shown that immigrants who approach, rather than avoid, social stimuli are more
likely to have positive attitudes toward integrating with people in their host
country (Matschke & Sassenberg, 2010). In some recent research, my colleagues and I investigated whether
immigrants’ problem-solving style was also involved in this relationship.
We asked 137 Australian immigrants to complete
measures of approach vs. avoidance orientation and independent vs. interdependent
pr........ Read more »
Rubin, M., Watt, S., & Ramelli, M. (2012) Immigrants’ social integration as a function of approach–avoidance orientation and problem-solving style. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.12.009
- March 7, 2012
- 07:49 PM
- 269 views
High Status Groups are the Most Prototypical
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
Imagine an average, typical person
walking down the street. Imagine them speaking on their mobile phone as they
walk and waving at a friend who rides past on a bike.
Well done! Good imagining!! Now,
what is the gender of your imaginary person? My guess is that it is a man
rather than a woman! Why? Well, there is some evidence that people tend to
perceive men as having a higher status than women and, in a recent research study,
I found that people tend to perceive high status groups as bei........ Read more »
Rubin, M. (2012) Group Status is Related to Group Prototypicality in the Absence of Social Identity Concerns. The Journal of Social Psychology, 152(3), 386-389. DOI: 10.1080/00224545.2011.614648
- March 3, 2012
- 04:22 PM
- 854 views
A Scale to Measure Independent and Interdependent Problem-Solving
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
My colleagues and I have recently developed a general purpose measure of dispositional preferences for independent and interdependent problem-solving called the Independent-Interdependent Problem-Solving Scale (IIPSS; Rubin, Watt, & Ramelli, in press). The scale distinguishes between independent problem-solvers, who prefer to work on their own when solving problems, and interdependent problem-solvers, who prefer to consult with other people.... Read more »
Rubin, M., Watt, S., & Ramelli, M. (2012) Immigrants’ social integration as a function of approach–avoidance orientation and problem-solving style. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.12.009
- March 1, 2012
- 04:48 PM
- 699 views
Holding Hands Triggers Help-Seeking Tendencies
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
Have you ever driven around lost for hours before eventually stopping to ask somebody for directions? If you have, then you're probably quite an independent, self-reliant sort of person. But your personality may not be the only thing that determines whether you ask people for help. I recently reported research that suggests that our intentions to seek help from others may be influenced by some fairly subtle cues in our environment.... Read more »
Rubin, M. (2011) Social affiliation cues prime help-seeking intentions. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 43(2), 138-141. DOI: 10.1037/a0022246
- March 1, 2012
- 01:46 AM
- 291 views
A Scale to Measure the Influence of Demand Characteristics in Research Situations
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
Demand characteristics are cues in a researcher's design,
materials, or procedure that allow their research participants to guess their
hypotheses. They are a problem because, if participants become aware of the
research hypotheses, then they may respond in a way that they believe will
confirm the hypotheses in order to be "good" participants and not
"ruin" the research (Orne, 1962). These unnatural responses can
compromise the ecological validity of the research. In other words,
participant........ Read more »
Rubin, M., Paolini, S., & Crisp, R. (2010) A processing fluency explanation of bias against migrants. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 21-28. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.09.006
- February 28, 2012
- 05:32 AM
- 262 views
Prejudice Against Migrants: Is It Because They're Too Hard to Think About?
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
In some recent research, my colleagues and I showed that bias against migrants is
related to how easy people find it to think about migrants.
We asked research participants to imagine a situation in which
people were randomly divided into two very abstract social groups called
“Group A” and “Group B”. Participants then imagined that, through a
process of random selection, some people stayed in their original group
(i.e., non-migrant individuals) and some people changed to the ot........ Read more »
Rubin, M., Paolini, S., & Crisp, R. (2010) A processing fluency explanation of bias against migrants. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 21-28. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.09.006
- February 28, 2012
- 05:23 AM
- 315 views
Positive and Negative Experiences with Members of Other Groups
by Mark Rubin in Mark Rubin's Social Psychology Research Blog
When people have positive experiences with members of another group, they
tend to generalize these experiences from the group member to the group as a whole. This process of member-to-group generalization results in less
prejudice against the group. Notably, however, researchers have tended to ignore what
happens when people have negative experiences with group members.
In a recent article, my colleagues
and I proposed that negative experiences have an opposite but stronger effect
on pe........ Read more »
Paolini, S., Harwood, J., & Rubin, M. (2010) Negative Intergroup Contact Makes Group Memberships Salient: Explaining Why Intergroup Conflict Endures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(12), 1723-1738. DOI: 10.1177/0146167210388667
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