Research Interests
As an experimental psychologist, my research seeks to understand how humans adaptively respond to new information and how learning unfolding in individual minds is modulated by constraints present in the broader environment. I examine learning primarily in the context of basic social processes. Specifically, I study the ordinary decisions we make every day that are critical to our well-being and even survival: our evaluations of and beliefs about other people. In doing so, I rely on a combination of traditional online and laboratory experiments as well as computational approaches, while drawing on a variety of learning paradigms, including reinforcement learning, evaluative conditioning, propositional learning, and causal learning. These methods help me uncover the basic mechanisms involved in how we acquire and update our impressions of individuals, especially against the backdrop of information about their social group memberships, such as gender, sexual orientation, age, race, and ethnicity.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Eotvos Loránd University
Master of Arts in Political Science, Central European University
Master of Arts in Psychology, Harvard University
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology, Harvard University
Awards and Honors
Berlin Scholarship, Humboldt University of Berlin
Program in International Education, Bard College
Outstanding Academic Achievement Award, Central European University
Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning
Rising Star, Association for Psychological Science
SAGE Early-Career Trajectory Award, Society for Personality and Social Psychology
For undergraduate students:
Dr. Kurdi is not currently accepting applications for research assistant positions or thesis students.
For prospective doctoral students:
Dr. Kurdi expects recruiting one or more graduate students in the 2023–2024 admissions cycle.
Recent Publications
Charlesworth, T. E. S., Navon, M., Rabinovich, Y., Lofaro, N., & Kurdi, B. (2023). The project implicit international dataset: Measuring implicit and explicit social group attitudes and stereotypes across 34 countries (2009–2019). Behavior Research Methods, 55(3), 1413-1440. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01851-2
Kurdi, B., & Charlesworth, T. E. S. (2023). A 3D framework of implicit attitude change. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27(8), 745-758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.05.009
Kurdi, B., Krosch, A. R., & Ferguson, M. J. (2023). Oppressed Groups Engender Implicit Positivity: Seven Demonstrations Using Novel and Familiar Targets. Psychological Science, 34(10), 1069-1086. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976231194588
Kurdi, B., Melnikoff, D. E., Hannay, J. W., Korkmaz, A., Lee, K. M., Ritchie, E., Surdel, N., Vuletich, H. A., Yang, X., Payne, B. K., & Ferguson, M. J. (Accepted/In press). Testing the automaticity features of the affect misattribution procedure: The roles of awareness and intentionality. Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-023-02291-2
Kurdi, B., & Mandelbaum, E. (2023). The case against implicit bias fatalism. Nature Reviews Psychology, 2(11), 656-657. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00248-y
