Clara Wilkins, Dr.
Associate Professor and Earl R. Carlson Professor
Guthrie 225
Advising:
Accepting new graduate students in 2027-2028.
Areas:
Social and Personality
Interests: social inequality and social hierarchy maintenance
Links:
Research
My research focuses on understanding inequality and how social hierarchies are maintained. My lab has examined perceptions of bias against dominant social groups (e.g. anti-male, anti-White and anti-Christian bias) and how these perceptions affect intergroup relations and discrimination against disadvantaged groups (women, people of color and LGBTQ+ people). We are also examining how social belonging needs motivate prejudice expression.
- April 29, 2025 Clara Wilkins, Rosemary (Marah) Al-Kire, pen article in The Conversation on their research on beliefs about anti-Christian discrimination and its ties to attitudes about race
- April 25, 2024 UW News featured new research from Marah Al-Kire and Clara Wilkins on how claims of anti-Christian bias can serve as racial dog whistles
- May 10, 2023 Clara Wilkins awarded Fellow Status in the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)
- April 18, 2022 Clara Wilkins is featured in a Harvard University Women in Psychology newsletter
- June 8, 2010 The Department of Psychology has announced its annual awards for 2010
- June 30, 2009 Winter 2009 accomplishments
- April 7, 2008 Jennifer Wang, Clara Wilkins, and Lori Wu Malahy each received National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.
- January 17, 2008 Clara Wilkins received a Clara Mayo Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues to support her research on ethnic minorities' reactions to positive feedback from Whites.
- December 11, 2007 Clara Wilkins was awarded a Diversity Fund Graduate Travel Award for the Personality and Social Psychology 2008 conference.
- April 23, 2007 Clara Wilkins, first year graduate student in Social/Personality Psychology, received a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship.
- Wilkins, C. L., Wellman, J. D., Toosi, N., Miller, C*, Lisnek, J. A.* & Martin, L. A. (2021). Is LGBT progress seen as an attack on Christians?: Examining religion/sexual orientation zero sum beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes. DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000363
- Wilkins, C. L., Wellman, J. D., & Schad, K. D.* (2017). Reactions to anti-male sexism claims: the moderating roles of status legitimizing belief endorsement and group identification. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 20, 173-185. DOI: 10.1177/1368430215595109
- Wilkins, C. L., Wellman, J. D., Flavin, E. L.*, & Manrique, J.* (2017). When men perceive anti-male bias: Status-legitimizing beliefs increase discrimination against women. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 19, 282-290. DOI: 10.1037/men0000097
- Wilkins, C. L., Hirsch, A. A.*, Kaiser, C. R., & Inkles, M. P.* (2016). The threat of racial progress and the self-protective nature of perceiving anti-White bias. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 20, 1-12. DOI: 10.1177/1368430216631030
- Wilkins, C. L., Wellman, J.D., Babbitt, L., Toosi, N., & Schad, K. D.* (2015). You can win but I can't lose: Bias against high-status groups increases their zero-sum beliefs. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 57, 1-15. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2014.10.008
- Wilkins, C. L. & Kaiser, C. R. (2014). Racial progress as threat to the status hierarchy: Implications for perceptions of anti-White bias. Psychological Science, 25, 439-446. DOI: 10.1177/0956797613508412
- Wilkins, C.L., Chan, J.*, & Kaiser, C. R. (2011). Racial stereotypes and interracial attraction: Phenotypic prototypicality and perceived attractiveness of Asians. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17, 427-431. DOI: 10.1037/a0024733
- Wilkins, C. L., Kaiser, C. R., & Rieck, H. M. * (2010). Detecting racial identity: The role of phenotypic prototypicality. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 1029-1034. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.05.017