Bio

 Joseph Quinn is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at USC and a Research Fellow at the Center for Health Policy and Inequality at Duke University. His research explores the effects of networks and environments on cognitive processes, cultural meanings, prosocial behavior, and social stratification. Joe earned his PhD in sociology from Duke University in 2022, specializing in social network analysis and social psychology. He collaborates with undergraduate and graduate students through is working group, the Dynamic Environments and Meaning Change Lab (DEMC).

Research

 Substantive research interests: social psychology; cognition; networks; cultural evolution; inequality; organizations.

Department cluster: Social Psychology; Inequalities and Institutions

Research Overview: Joe studies how people’s environments and connections to members of other groups combine to (a) shape their beliefs about and behaviors toward dissimilar people, and (b) influence macro patterns of stratification, discrimination, and segregation. A portion of his current research explores methods for measuring and modeling networks, and approaches to measuring differences in social status of different occupational identities.

Current Projects: Joe’s ongoing projects leverage novel survey data, experiments, agent-based simulations, and secondary datasets to explore the following questions:

• Did the Covid-19 pandemic make people change their beliefs about certain jobs? (CEUT)
• What social psychological mechanisms enhance trust cause more tie formation between dissimilar people? (PSIMO)
• Can network-induced outgroup exposure weaken micro-level ingroup biases? (HSIM)
• How do the narratives we consume shape cultural meanings that Republicans and Democrats maintain about immigrants? (SCNT)
• Do flexible work opportunities lessen the cultural “motherhood penalty” for working mothers?

Teaching

• Sociology 101 – Introduction to Sociology
• Sociology 392 – Elementary Statistics for Sociologists
• Sociology 500 – Social Networks
• Sociology 598 – Culture and Cognition