As I reflect on my academic journey, I think about my identity, not just as a social psychological researcher, but as a “SPSSI person.” What does it mean to be a “SPSSI person?” 

I was a new graduate student in social psychology at UCLA when I was first told that I was a “SPSSI person.” I had been researching racial stereotyping on police decision-making using shooter bias simulations in the lab for my thesis. It was evident with how I talked about the research that I wanted to take it “out of the lab” and into police departments and the community that led my advisors to instantly recognize these “SPSSI” traits in me. Twenty years ago, I presented at my first SPSSI conference in Long Beach. It was there that I first understood what being a “SPSSI person” meant:  a socially engaged, rigorous, policy-oriented, social justice-focused scholar. 

Being a “SPSSI person” means sharing a common value of making a socially just and equitable world through psychological research. It means giving voice to underrepresented and marginalized populations and topics through data, policy, and advocacy. It means being in tune with, and responsive to, pressing social issues of the time. It’s being close to the phenomena we study.  

During times of social crisis, SPSSI people do not stay in the lab, but continue to engage with the community and take on new research challenges.  During COVID, it meant pivoting my research from face-to-face community-police interactions to uncovering new ways that masking enacted social identity threat for stigmatized populations interacting with police. 

It means being attuned to local, state, and federal policy that directly affect communities.  Last Fall, the Supreme Court ruled that perceived ethnicity was a “relevant factor” to stop individuals regarding immigration status, essentially legalizing racial profiling. This alarming decision set off calls between myself and police chiefs and vulnerable communities. How will this change relationships between these communities and law enforcement? What does research say on ways to protect psychological safety? What messaging should local police put out to counteract this ruling? And what new research questions should we ask to get answers we do not have? 

It was a natural fit to call SPSSI journals home for my research on the psychology of bias in policing. When it came time to collating empirical research on race and policing into a special issue, the Journal of Social Issues was the first choice. Seminal review articles on the psychology of bias in policing had a natural fit in Social Issues and Policy Review. Empirical studies with a strong policy focus, like the effect of intergroup threat perceptions on support for biased policing policy, gravitated to Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy.  

This June, “SPSSI people” will gather at SPSSI’s annual conference in New Orleans to celebrate SPSSI’s 90th anniversary. I am thrilled to see the high-quality research being presented on immigration, criminal justice, educational inequities, poverty, violence, health disparities, reproductive justice, and the climate crisis. I also call attention to a Special Policy session by SPSSI’s Sam Abbott and myself on “Psychology in the ICE Age,” where we discuss how psychology can research, resist, and advocate for change in immigration enforcement. 

Being able to lead SPSSI 20 years after my first SPSSI conference, and after first being called a “SPSSI person,” is truly an honor. I look forward to celebrating with many “SPSSI People” in June!