Dominic is a Professor of Social Psychology and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Group Processes in the School of Psychology at the University of Kent. His research examines all aspects of relations between different social groups and the behaviour of groups in general.
Dominic has extensive experience in the areas of equality and human rights, prejudice, discrimination, social attitudes and social change across the life course. His expertise spans social and developmental psychology and gerontology and uses a wide range of methods, ranging from laboratory and field experiments to national and international surveys.
Dominic has worked closely both with the charitable sector (notably Age UK, the Anne Frank Trust, and People United), and with government departments (DWP, CLG) as well as with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to develop and evaluate interventions to reduce prejudice and discrimination. He has authored and coauthored over 200 papers and numerous books on groups, identity and social inclusion, and edits the journal Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.
Dominic is also a fellow of several professional associations and recipient of the British Psychological Society’s Presidents’ award for distinguished contribution to psychology. He is the only psychologist outside America to have been elected president of Division 9 of the American Psychological Association (the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues), as well as being a recipient of its distinguished contribution award. He was also a founding member of the Academy of Social Sciences, and one of his first acts was to chair the committee that drew together all of the different learned societies. More recently, he was appointed Vice President for Social Sciences at the British Academy, where his role is similarly to be able to link with and draw on experts across the entire range of disciplines.
Key publications
Dominic's main areas of current research are in the broad area of group processes and intergroup relations. Themes and topics include:
- Social exclusion and prejudice
- Intergroup contact, collective action protest
- Deviance (particularly the subjective group dynamics model)
- Development of understanding about groups and group processes in middle childhood and adolescence
- Ageism and age stereotypes, including stereotype threat
- Social identity in organisational contexts.
For more information see Dominic's YouTube video.
Dominic would welcome applications from potential doctoral students in these areas.
Current research students:
| 2017-18 | A.Templeton, D. Abrams, F. Neville and K. Still DTSL Improving crowd resilience - using social identity to enhance detection and response to threats | £79,369 |
| 2013-17 | D. Abrams European Commission FP7 MOPACT: Mobilising the potential of active ageing in Europe | €166,294 |
| 2012 | D.Abrams and M.Vasiljevic Department for Business, Innovation and Skills DR 12 - What happens to people's identities when the economy is suffering or flourishing? | £6,000 |
| 2012 | D. Abrams and M. Vauclair ESRC Psychological and societal bases of attitudes to age: A multilevel cross-national analysis | £112,000 |
| 2012 | M. Weick, T. Hopthrow, D. Abrams, P. Taylor-Gooby ESRC Risk perception and behaviour in business: What we know and what we need to know | £44,692 |
| 2010 | L. Lima and D. Abrams European Social Fund Strategic Workshop on Social Identity, Health and Equality | €20,000 |
| 2010 | D. Abrams Department for Work and Pensions Multilevel modelling of the European Social Survey module on Age Attitudes | £75,000 |
| 2010 | D. Abrams Department for Work and Pensions Developing an Age Attitudes indicator set for the ONS Omnibus | £10,000 |
| 2010 | D Abrams Age UK Age discrimination across Europe | £10,000 |
| 2009 | D Abrams and A Rutland The British Academy The role of group status and social norms in children's peer exclusion behaviour | £115,875 |
| 2009 | D Abrams Department of Work and Pensions Measuring attitudes to ageing over time | £98,546 |
| 2005-06 | G T Viki and D Abrams Economic and Social Research Council Identification and evaluations of confessions by in-group and out-group members | £46,750 |
| 2003-06 | D Abrams and A Rutland Economic and Social Research Council Children’s evaluations of deviant ingroup and outgroup members | £106,000 |
| 2003 | D Abrams and A Rutland The British Academy The effect of accountability to the peer group on children’s judgements of deviant group members | £5,000 |
| 2001-03 | D Abrams (Co-director) ESRC Social Inclusion and Exclusion: The Contribution of Social Psychology to Policy. ESRC seminar series | £12,000 |
| 2001-02 | D Abrams and L G Hulbert Economic and Social Research Council The impact of alcohol consumption on group processes | £39,997 |
| 2000 | D Abrams Unilever Research, Colworth The Delayed Evaluation Paradigm | £4,400 |
| 1999-2001 | D Abrams and L G Hulbert Economic and Social Research Council Risky decisions in groups | £40,000 |
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