About Jonathan Kunstman
Assistant Professor

Dr. Kunstman received his BA in psychology from the University of Minnesota in 2005 and his MS and PhD in social psychology from Florida State University. Dr. Kunstman then served as a post-doctoral researcher at UC Santa Barbara before joining the faculty of Miami University where he was an assistant and associate professor. Dr. Kunstman joined the faculty at Auburn University in 2021. His work primarily focuses on how motives, stereotypes, and social identity threats shape health and professional outcomes in intergroup settings. His work also explores how the psychological experience of power can influence social cognition and behavior. 

Representative Publications

Kunstman, J.W., Deska, J.*, Lloyd, E. P.*, Almaraz, S. M.*, Bernstein, M. J., Gonzales, J. P.*, & Hugenberg, K. (2020). Race-based biases in judgments of social pain. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 88.

Kunstman, J.W., Deska, J.*, Ogungbadero, T.**, Bernstein, M.J., & Hugenberg, K. (2020). Black racial phenotypicality shapes social pain judgments, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 90

Kunstman, J. W., Lloyd, E. P.*, Bernstein, M., & Tuscherer, T*. (2017). The face of suspicion: Suspicion of Whites’ motives moderates mental representations of Whites. Social Psychology and Personality Science, 8, 953-960.

Major, B., Kunstman, J. W., Malta, B. R., Sawyer, P., Townsend, S. S. M., & Mendes, W. B. (2016). Why are you being so nice to me? How suspicion of whites’ motives shapes minorities’ responses to positive feedback. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 62, 75-88.

Kunstman, J. W., Plant, E. A., & LaCosse, J. Zielaskowski, K. (2013). Feeling in with the outgroup: Need fulfillment and the internalization of motivation to respond without prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105, 443-457.