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Julie Woodzicka

Woodzicka’s courses include Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination, Social Psychology, Psychology of Humor, and Research Design and Analysis. She studies the effects of disparagement humor (specifically sexist and racist humor) and subtle strategies to confront discrimination.

Julie Woodzicka

Julie Woodzicka

William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science and Department Head

Education

  • Ph.D. - Boston College, 2000
  • M.A. - University of Dayton, Ohio, 1994
  • B.A. - University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, 1991

Research

I research issues of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Specifically, I am interested in how targets of prejudice (e.g., women, African-Americans) are affected by everyday instances of unfair treatment. For the past 15 years, I have been studying the effects of disparagement humor, specifically sexist and racist humor. More recently, I have focused on confronting discrimination using creative strategies, such as humorous confrontations.

Teaching

  • CBSC 114: Introduction to Social Psychology
  • CBSC 214: The Psychology of Humor
  • CBSC 250: Research Design and Analysis
  • CBSC 329: Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination
  • CBSC 369: Directed Research in Social Psychology

Selected Publications

  • Melchoiri, K., Mallett, R. K., & Woodzicka, J.A. (2025). Men’s responses to being confronted for sexism with and without humor. HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research. doi: 10.1515/humor-2024-0032
  • Ford, T.E., and Woodzicka, J.A. (2024). Psychological approaches to humor:  The interaction of cognition and motivation.  In The DeGruyter Handbook of Humor Studies.

  • Woodzicka, J. A., Boudreau, G. H., & Hayne, S. (2024). Do professors favor liberal students?: Examining political orientation appearance cues and professor bias. Frontiers in Higher Education, 9:1473967. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1473967.

  • Good, J.J., Woodzicka, J.A. & Bourne, K. (2021). How do confronters want perpetrators to respond?  Defining successful confrontation as the match between desired and actual outcomes. Journal of Social Psychology.

  • Woodzicka, J.A. and Mallett, R. K. (2021). Addressing the challenges of confronting disparagement humor. Social Psychology of Humor, Routledge book series-Current Issues in Social Psychology.

  • Woodzicka, J.A., & Good, J.J. (2020). Strategic confrontation: Examining the utility of low stakes prodding as a strategy for confronting sexism.  Journal of Social Psychology.

  • Woodzicka, J.A., Mallett, R. K., & Melchiori, K. (2020). Gender differences in using humor to respond to sexist jokes.  HUMOR:  International Journal of Humor Research.