Dr. Michael Zárate

Michael Zárate

My research focuses on the social cognitive processes that underlie person and group perception, and how those processes lead to prejudice and stereotyping. In my primary line of research, my students and I have been investigating how time and sleep influence social perception processes. Our work demonstrates that over time, newly learned social information becomes more integrated with existing long-term memory structures, and that changes how the new information is then retrieved. This work has implications for a host of findings across social psychology. In our second line of research, we are developing a model of cultural inertia. This model suggests that most often, groups avoid change. Avoiding change leads to prejudice towards groups they perceive to be the agents of change. This work has implications for how immigration and other demographic factors influence group behavior. Finally, we are always investigating how various cultural factors influence both self-perceptions and group perceptions. In all of my research, we integrate student involvement at all levels.

UTEP Faculty Profile

Sample Publications:

Zárate, M. A., Reyna, C., & Alvarez, M J. (2019). Chapter 4 - Cultural inertia, identity, and intergroup dynamics in a changing context. Ed. James M. Olson. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 59, 175-233.

Alvarez, M., J., Armenta, A. D., & Zarate, M. A. (2019). Acculturation science: Limitations and new directions. In Gordon. C. Nagayma Hall (Ed.). Mental and Behavioral Health of Immigrants in the United States; Cultural, Environmental, and Structural factors. Academic Press, pages 71-91.

Lupo, A., & Zárate,M. A. (2019). Guilty by association: Time-dependent memory consolidation facilitates the generalization of negative – but not positive – person memories to group and self judgments. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 83, 78-87.

Hopkins, D. J., Kaiser, C., Perez, O., Haga, S., Ramos, C., & Zárate, M. (2018). Does perceiving discrimination influence partisanship among U.S. immigrant minorities? Evidence from five experiments. Journal of Experimental Political Science. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3236348 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3236348

Alvarez, M., Oviedo Ramirez, S., Frietze, G., Field, C., Zárate, M. A. (2018). A meta-analysis of Latinx acculturation and intimate partner violence. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838018801327

Lupo, A. K., & Zárate, M. A. (2018). When “they” become “us”: The role of time and ingroup identity on perceptions of gay and lesbian group members. Journal of Homosexuality. DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2018.1484232

Alvarez, M. J., Frietze, G., Ramos, C., Field, C., & Zárate, M. A. (2017). A quantitative analysis of Latino acculturation and alcohol use: myth versus reality. Alcoholism: clinical and experimental research, 41(7), 1246-1256.

Zárate, M. A., Hall, G. C. N., & Plaut, V. (2017). Researchers of color, fame, and impact. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12, 1176-1178. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617710511

Hall, G. C. N., Yip, T., & Zárate, M. A. (2016). Disciplinary perspectives on multicultural research: Reply to Dvorakova (2016) and Yakushko et al. (2016). American Psychologist, 71, 892-893. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000124

Hitlan, R. T., Zarate, M. A., Kelly, K., & DeSoto, M. C. (2016). Linguistic ostracism causes prejudice: Support for a serial mediation effect. Journal of Social Psychology.156, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2015.1119668

Hall, G. C. N., Yip, T., & Zárate, M. A. (2016). On Becoming Multicultural in a Monocultural Research World: A Conceptual Approach to Studying Ethnocultural Diversity. American Psychologist, 71, 40-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039734

Enge, L. R.,Lupo, A. K., & Zárate, M. A. (2015). Neurocognitive mechanisms of prejudice formation: The role of time-dependent memory consolidation. Psychological Science, 26, 964-971. DOI: 10.1177/0956797615572903