University of Wisconsin–Madison

Category: Marginalized Groups

Normative Discrimination and the Gender Binary: Negative Evaluations of People with Nonconventional Pronouns

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Social Psychology Quarterly (2026) Authors: Chloe Grace Hart, Aliya Saperstein, Shelley J. Correll Abstract: Pronoun sharing has become a common inclusion practice in U.S. schools and workplaces. Drawing on normative discrimination theories, however, we predict that pronoun sharing can lead to negative evaluations of people who share nonconventional pronouns. In a preregistered survey experiment (N = 1,516), …

Stress Around Interracial Interactions May Be a Missing Link in Health Disparities Among Black Americans

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Black Americans face disproportionately high rates of chronic illness and mental health challenges compared to White Americans. A new study by Institute for Diversity Science (IDS) affiliate Morgan Jerald and colleague Milena Berestko suggests that stress surrounding interracial interactions may play a previously overlooked role in health disparities. Jerald and Berestko, with support from an …

Confronting Stereotypes: Intersectional Approaches to Sexuality Education for Girls of Color

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Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2025) Authors: Morgan C. Jerald and Elizabete Romanovska Abstract: Girls of color experience disproportionately high rates of sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy, and sexual violence compared to their White peers. Despite these disparities, current sexuality education programs— designed from White, Christian, middle-class, and heterosexual perspectives— largely fail …

How Awareness of Stereotypes Shapes Black Americans’ Experiences in Nature  

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Wisconsin’s many parks and natural areas offer opportunities for relaxation, recreation, and renewal—but not everyone experiences the outdoors in the same way. New research by Michelle Marji and Dr. Paula Niedenthal explores why Black Americans often report fewer benefits, greater barriers, and, at times, less belonging in outdoor spaces, even as nature engagement is known …

Quality of Life in Autistic Children: Discrepancies Between Self- and Caregiver-Proxy Reports and Associations With Individual Characteristics

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Autism Research (2025) Authors: Emily Skaletski, Rebekah Rodriguez, Sharon Gartland, Karla Ausderau, Lauren Bishop, James  Li, Brittany Travers Abstract: Quality of life (QoL) is important for everyone and has been identified as a priority for autistic people. However, studies typically focus on caregiver-proxy-reported QoL and its related individual characteristics, even though self- and caregiver-proxy-reported QoL …

Journal-Sentinel highlights McQuillan’s research on policies protecting gender expression

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Most Wisconsin schools protect students from discrimination against everything but this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 13, 2025 By Natalie Eilbert A study of Wisconsin school board policies has found that nearly all districts have policies protecting students from discrimination based on sexual orientation and the vast majority protect students from discrimination based on gender identity. But …

Research Reveals Hidden Role of Skin Tone in Hazardous Job Assignments 

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  Research led by IDS Graduate Fellow and Wisconsin School of Business PhD candidate Alexis Avery uncovers how historical biases around skin tone continue to shape workplace experiences, particularly in the assignment of hazardous tasks. Avery finds that managers draw on these biases when deciding who is best suited for dangerous work, leaving darker-skinned employees disproportionately …

Inclusive but Not Integrative: Ethnoracial Boundaries and the Use of Spanish in the Market for Rental Housing

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Sociological Science (2023) Authors: Ariela Schachter, John Kuk, Max Besbris, Garrett Pekarek Abstract: Increasing Spanish fluency in the United States likely shapes ethnoracial group boundaries and inequality. We study a key site for group boundary negotiations—the housing market—where Spanish usage may represent a key source of information exchange between landlords and prospective renters. Specifically, we examine the use …

A Rapidly Changing Ecology of Aid: Accepting Help and Stigma in the Aftermath of Disaster

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Qualitative Sociology (2024) Authors: Anna Rhodes, Max Besbris Abstract: Drawing on the human ecology framework, which describes social structure as dynamic and social action as environmentally contingent, this article examines behavior and attitudes around accepting help after disaster. Through two years of longitudinal in-depth interviews with 59 households in one community whose homes flooded during Hurricane Harvey, …

Pandemic Housing: The Role of Landlords, Social Networks, and Social Policy in Mitigating Housing Insecurity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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RSF: The Russel Sage Foundation Journal of Social Sciences (2024) Authors: Max Besbris, Sadie Dempsey, Brian McCabe, Eva Rosen Abstract: This article uses a subsample of low-income American Voices Project respondents who rent their homes to examine how households coped with housing insecurity at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, some renters reported more housing stability because …