Joseph M. Quinn

DEMC Lab | CV | Google Scholar | LinkedIn

I'm an Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of South Carolina. I use experiments, surveys, and computational models to ask how cognitive mechanisms combine with network structures to (1) shape peoples' emotions and behaviors regarding members of different groups, and (2) reproduce or modify macro-level social patterns like segregation and stratification.

To study processes linked to these questions, my projects often involve experimental or quasi-experimental manipulations of networks and group arrangements in organizations to capture the causal implications of social structure and repeated exchange for belief formation and revision, prosocial behavior, and cultural evolution.

Here are some questions I'm asking in my ongoing work:

• Why do people stay in normative groups that no longer reflect their values?
• How do social network mechanisms shape support-seeking and well-being in organizations?
• Did the Covid-19 pandemic cause culture-wide belief change about certain occupations?
• Do actors select in-group our out-group partners when competing for scarce resources?
• Does the motherhood penalty operate differently when mothers work from home?

I got my PhD in sociology at Duke University, specializing in network methods and social psychology. Before that, I worked 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 at Johns Hopkins.

Students collaborate with me via my working group, the Dynamic Environments and Meaning Change Lab (DEMC). Check out our website (link above) for more info.