Congratulations to Reiner Ng Wei Jie on his B.Soc.Sci. (highest distinction) and M.Soc.Sci. degrees! For his thesis research titled, "When objective ambivalence leads to subjective ambivalence for health behaviors: An affect-cognition matching perspective", he examined the effects of message matching on subjective ambivalence. His research demonstrated that the simultaneous existence of positive and negative reactions are more likely to manifest as the subjective experience of ambivalence, when people receive a message that matches the affective-cognitive orientation of a topic. Moreover, this occurs especially among people for whom the message is counter-attitudinal. This work is important in identifying novel antecedents to subjective ambivalence, which has been shown to have adaptive social functions and has implications for the ability of attitudes to predict behavior. We congratulate Reiner on accomplishing this interesting research that advances our understanding of ambivalence!

Congratulations to Rachel Sng Wei Yi on her offer of admission to the Concurrent Degree Programme [B.Soc.Sci. (Hons) and M.Soc.Sci.]! Rachel has already completed an Independent Study Module in our lab, and has been assisting with various research projects for the past two semesters. For her thesis, she will conduct research on intergroup. Welcome to the lab, Rachel!

Congratulations to Wang Binhui on the acceptance of her poster submission to the upcoming Association for Psychological Science (APS) Virtual Conference in May 2021! Her poster is entitled “Disadvantaged group relations: Enhanced or backfired depending on the membership of the source highlighting shared experience of discrimination.” This research demonstrated that although heterosexual females were more positive toward gay men and lesbian women when the shared experience of discrimination was made salient than not, the positive impact of such salience only occurred when the source was a heterosexual male and not a heterosexual female. This work highlights the role of source group membership in increasing receptivity to information about shared discrimination, and has implications for our understanding of solidarity between groups. We look forward to her sharing this interesting work in the upcoming APS conference!