A deeper look at identity
Psychology professor Kimberly Rios grew up outside of San Diego as the daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and a white father from Wisconsin. She lived in a community 10 minutes from the U.S.-Mexico border with no clear racial or ethnic majority. Perhaps it’s no great surprise, then, that her research examines stereotypes (in all forms) and how to reduce prejudice.
What are you currently researching? Why are you passionate about this area of study?
Broadly speaking, I study how people respond to threats to their group identities, including but not limited to race/ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexuality. This interest often translates into investigating practical problems, such as reducing stereotyping and prejudice, understanding the reasons behind resistance to diversity, and broadening participation in certain occupations (e.g., STEM). I grew up in a suburb of San Diego, California, less than 10 miles from the US-Mexico border. My hometown had no clear racial/ethnic majority group and was extremely diverse on multiple other dimensions. Looking back, it’s no wonder I research what I do now!
Please describe how you overcame an obstacle to better understand your area of study.
I was raised not only in a multicultural city, but also in a multicultural household. My mom was born in Puerto Rico and taught bilingual (English/Spanish) kindergarten for 30 years, whereas my dad is from Wisconsin with exclusively Western European ancestry. My mom, my sister, and I are all perceived as racially white by almost everyone we meet, despite belonging to an ethnic minority group. This led to quite a bit of confusion during my childhood and adolescence! For example, in high school I received a National Hispanic Scholarship due to my SAT scores, and my guidance counselor pulled me out of class to ask if I was really Hispanic. For years, I struggled with how I identified and whether I had the same “right” to claim my Puerto Rican heritage as did relatives and friends who (unlike me) were visible minorities. This is nowhere near as large an obstacle as those faced by people who don’t have the societal privilege of appearing white. But nowadays, I try to use both my privilege and unique heritage to better understand my area of research and others’ reactions to it.
Describe a moment when your professional career changed direction.
I have always been interested in social identities and relations between groups. However, I never had occasion or motivation to study religious identity until I took a vacation to Morocco in December 2011 (during my third year on the tenure track). During this trip, I had some conversations with locals about how Americans perceive the relationship between religion and science (i.e., as mostly in conflict). The locals were shocked by this perception of conflict and largely claimed that they saw religion and science as compatible, which led me to think more deeply about how sociocultural context might impact our religion-related beliefs. The Morocco trip spearheaded an entirely new (for me) line of research on stereotypes of religious and non-religious individuals in science, and I remain passionate about this research more than a dozen years later!
What kinds of lessons do you impart on your students?
One of my favorite undergraduate classes to teach is Psychology of Religion, and I start out each semester by discussing the importance of respecting diverse viewpoints and also considering the “reasonable person standard.” That is, before saying something that might be controversial, consider whether a reasonable person would be offended and why. Such a thought exercise often helps students both be more deliberate in their own communication with their peers and give grace to others whose views don’t seem to align with their own.
What was one of your first jobs? Does it still affect your work now as a professor?
The summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college, I worked as a barista at a frozen yogurt shop in San Diego called Humphrey Yogart (cringey, I know!). I enjoyed the experience and meeting new people, not to mention eating all the frozen yogurt I wanted for free. But it was, hands-down, the most difficult job I’ve ever held. It required a lot of multitasking, filtering out excess noise, etc., and I found that for a day-to-day job, I much preferred focusing on one task at a time in a quieter environment. Academia affords me that luxury, most of the time!
What’s one of your proudest achievements? How did it affect your career?
In October 2024, I was humbled and honored to receive the annual Diversity Science Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. This award recognizes 1-2 social psychologists every year who are within about 15 years of their PhD and have made significant contributions to the study of diversity. Receiving the Diversity Science Award has been my most significant achievement to date. As a winner of the award, I was asked to give an acceptance speech at the society’s annual meeting. I spent a long time thinking about what I was going to say in that speech, and honestly, that exercise meant at least as much to me as did the award itself. Acknowledging my mentors, collaborators, and students in the field—most of whom are also friends—reminded me of why I am passionate about my career and why I’d rather be nowhere else besides academia despite its challenges.
Editor's note: Read other LAS Experts series here.
