Youngki Hong

About

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I am a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Social Cognitive and Neural Sciences Lab (PI: Dr. Jonathan Freeman) at Columbia University. My research investigates how people perceive others and process information about them. My research integrates theories and methods from social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and machine learning to explore three main research areas: (1) intergroup bias in person perception, (2) mechanisms of facial stereotyping, and (3) real-world outcomes of stereotyping and prejudice.

Before my postdoctoral training, I received my Ph.D. in Social Psychology at UC Santa Barbara, working with Dr. Kyle Ratner in 2021. I completed my undergraduate degrees in psychology and statistics at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2015.

Please feel free to contact me via email. You can also download my latest CV here.

Recent news

  • March 14, 2025: The paper titled “Group Bouba-Kiki effects: The interplay of social categorization, competition, and sound symbolism " was accepted for publication at the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General!

  • March 14, 2024: The paper titled “Psychological effects of anti-Arab politics on American and Arab people’s views of each other” was accepted for publication at PLOS ONE!

  • November 28, 2023: The paper titled “Facial stereotypes of competence (not trustworthiness and dominance) most resemble facial stereotypes of group membership” was accepted for publication at Social Cognition!

  • October 14, 2023: The paper titled “Reducing facial stereotype bias in consequential social judgments: Intervention success with White male faces” was accepted for publication at Psychological Science!

Publications

  • Hong, Y., Auten, A. R., & Ratner, K. G. (in press). Group Bouba-Kiki effects: The interplay of social categorization, competition, and sound symbolism . Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

  • Hong, Y., Maitner, A. T., & Ratner, K. G. (2024). Psychological effects of anti-Arab politics on American and Arab peoples’ views of each other. PLoS ONE, 19(5): e0301282.[pdf]

  • Hong, Y., Chua, C-W., & Freeman, J. B. (2024). Reducing facial stereotype bias in consequential social judgments: Intervention success with White male faces. Psychological Science, 35(1), 21-33. [pdf]

  • Hong, Y., Reed, M., & Ratner, K. G. (2023). Facial stereotypes of competence (not trustworthiness and dominance) most resemble facial stereotypes of group membership. Social Cognition, 41(6), 562-578. [pdf]

  • Hong, Y., & Freeman, J. B. (2024). Shifts in facial impression structures across group boundaries. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 15(6), 619-629. [pdf]

  • Hong, Y., Mayes, M. S., Munasinghe, A. P., & Ratner, K. G. (2022). Scrutinizing whether mere group membership influences the N170 response to faces: Results from two preregistered ERP studies. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 34(11), 1999-2015. [pdf]

  • Hong, Y., & Ratner, K. G. (2021). Minimal but not meaningless: Seemingly arbitrary category labels can imply more than group membership. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(3), 576-600. [pdf]

  • Welborn, B. L., & Hong, Y., & Ratner, K. G. (2020). Exposure to negative stereotypes influences the representations of monetary incentives in the nucleus accumbens. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 15(3), 347-358. [pdf]

  • Hu, C., Yin, J., Lindenberg, S., Dalgar, I., Weissgerber, S. S., Vergara, R. C., Cairo, A. H, Čolic, M. V., Dursun, P., Frankowska, N., Hadi, R., Hall, C. J., Hong, Y., …, & IJzerman, H. (2019). Data from the Human Penguin Project: A cross-national dataset testing principles from social thermoregulation theory. Scientific Data, 6(1), 32. [pdf]

  • Ratner, K. G., Kaczmarek, A. R., & Hong, Y. (2018). Can over-the-counter pain medications influence our thoughts and emotions? Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 5(1), 82-89. [pdf]

  • IJzerman, H., Dalgar, I., Weissgerber, S. S., Vergara, R. C., Cairo, A. H, Čolic, M. V., Dursun, P., Frankowska, N., Hadi, R., Hall, C. J., Hong, Y., …, & Lindenberg, S. M. (2018). The human penguin project: Complex social integration buffers human core temperatures from cold climates. Collabra: Psychology, 4(1), 37. [pdf]

  • IJzerman, H., Čolic, M. V., Hennecke, M., Hong, Y., …, & Lindenberg, S. M. (2017). Does distance from the equator predict self-control? Lessons from the Human Penguin Project. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40. [pdf]

Manuscripts Under Review/In Preparation

  • Hong, Y., & Freeman, J. B. (under review). Mechanisms of implicit facial stereotyping.

  • Hong, Y., & Ratner, K.G. (under review). The self as a representational base: My sense of “me” shapes what I think “us” should look like.

  • Hong, Y., Welborn, B. L., & Ratner, K. G. (in prep). The neural representational similarity between vicarious reward processing and face perception in an intergroup context.

  • Hong, Y., Fajardo, G., & Freeman, J. B. (in prep). The neural mechanisms of facial stereotyping.

Presentations

Oral Presentations

  • Hong, Y. (February, 2025). How facial stereotyping changes: Exploring potential mechanisms. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Denver, CO.

  • Hong, Y. (December, 2024). Mechanisms and malleability of facial stereotyping. Invited talk, Department of Psychology, The University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO.

  • Hong, Y. (October, 2024). Mechanisms and malleability of facial stereotyping. Invited talk, Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA.

  • Hong, Y. (February, 2024). Mechanisms and malleability of facial stereotyping. Invited talk, Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX.

  • Hong, Y. (February, 2024). Reducing facial stereotype bias in consequential social judgments. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego, CA.

  • Hong, Y. (February, 2023). Shifts in core person perception dimensions across group boundaries. Paper to presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Atlanta, GA.

  • Hong, Y. (February, 2022). Minimal group paradigm in the modern era: How reverse correlation methods can advance rich theoretical tradition. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Francisco, CA.

  • Hong, Y. (October, 2021). How does my sense of “me” shape what I think “us” looks like? Adjudicating the contributions of self-image and self-evaluation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of Person Memory Interest Group, Santa Barbara, CA.

  • Hong, Y. (May, 2018). The relationship between core body temperature and intergroup bias. Advances in Social Thermoregulation Research: Doubts, New Directions, and Innovations. Paper presented at the annual meeting of Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA.

  • Hong, Y. (February, 2017). Effects of exposure to political rhetoric on intergroup biases among American and Arab people. Presented at the symposium for Social Psychological Perspectives on the 2016 Election, Santa Barbara, CA.

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