Bayla T
- Research Program Mentor

MA candidate at New York University

Expertise

Neuropsychology and Social Psychology

Bio

My academic passion lays in the scientific research of social identities, moral implications of discrimination, cognitive processes behind prejudice, racial minority experiences, and institutionalized inequality. Currently, my thesis is a proposed empirical study investigating a social phenomenon, social inhibition, and its implications on empathic expression towards racial minorities. Overall, my goals with my research is to foster awareness surrounding ingrained prejudices and form a critical understanding for racial climates, social identities, and intervention mechanisms to enact positive change and create a better way of life for marginalized people.  In my free time, I love to be creative! I’m a dancer that loves to teach classes, encourage growth, and explore different, unique styles of dance. I also take this approach to my art. I enjoy creating art, whether it be digital or traditional, through different mediums like painting and drawing. Exploring my talents via expressive, dramatic, and colorful art forms is definitely a fun juxtaposition to my academic endeavors.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Moral Cognitive Decision Making in U.S. Politics

This proposed study could examine the intersection between morality and social decision making in relation to political moral conviction and its potential to predict congressional decisions. The overall goal for the study would be to curate research facilitating national harmony endeavoring an advancement in peoples’ cognitive capacities at empathizing for those who are less fortunate, marginalized, and degraded through the creation, enforcement, and evaluation of U.S. laws.

Correctional Officers’ Potential Empathy Deficiency: Its Regressive Contributions to Racial Adversities in the U.S. Prison System

This study could challenge the ubiquitous pattern of race and ethnicity implicated in the maltreatment towards Black criminals. The goal for the study would be to empirically assess how empathy changes in relation to social groups-- like race-- and how their maltreatment is a major contributor to fatal psychological disorders in the U.S. prisons.