Joseph M. Quinn

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I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of South Carolina, where I use quantitative and computational methods to explore two broad questions: how social psychological and cognitive mechanisms combine with network structures to (1) shape peoples' emotions about and behaviors toward members of different groups, and (2) recreate or mitigate macro-level social inequalities.

My research considers beliefs about group identity and status, when these beliefs emerge and change, and how they reproduce or attenuate inequality and social stratification in society. I study processes related to these interests through agent-based simulations, online surveys and experiments, and field-based research partnerships with organizations. The methods I deploy in much of my ongoing work involve experimental manipulations of network structure and composition, which I leverage to explore the causal implications of social structure in belief formation, behavioral decisions, and downstream network dynamics.

Current projects of mine assess how a substantial environmental shock accompanied cultural belief change about certain occupations, the effect of repeated exchange in different network structures on cooperation, emotion, and trust amongst actors with different social identities, and how manipulating aspects of organizational structure might affect interactions between members of different groups in ways that attenuate segregation. A portion of my ongoing research also explores both the survey items and computational approaches used to measure and model networks.

I got my PhD in sociology at Duke University, specializing in network methods and social psychology. Before that, I worked as a technical researcher at MDRC in support of several large-scale program evaluations funded by the Institute of Educational Sciences, the US Department of Education, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And before that, I taught physics and coached soccer at McKinley Technology High School in DC (go Trainers!) and volunteered as a research assistant at the Poverty and Inequality Research Lab in Baltimore.