Guest Lecture by Dr. Iniobong Essien

9 April 2026

On 20.04.2026 (14:15-15:45, Von-Melle-Park 5, 3023) Dr. Iniobong Essien (Leuphana University Lüneburg) will give a lecture on "From Immigrant Neighborhoods to Racialized Classrooms: How Composition Shapes Social Judgment" as part of the research colloquium.

Abstract:  How does the social composition of environments shape social judgment? The talk examines how variation in the composition of neighborhoods and classrooms influences how people perceive places and respond to others.
I first present research on space-focused stereotypes, showing that urban neighborhoods are evaluated differently depending on the social groups believed to inhabit them, including evidence from a study with police officers. I then turn to schools and test whether classroom composition affects teachers’ responses to identical student behavior. Across experimental studies, teachers endorse more severe disciplinary measures in classrooms with a higher share of students from stigmatized racialized groups.
Building on these findings, I outline a context-based discrimination model that specifies how classroom and school composition can shape categorization, stereotype activation, and disciplinary decisions. Together, this work highlights how structural conditions such as segregation can shape everyday judgments and institutional practices in systematic ways.