Dr Kristof Dhont

Kristof Dhont, PhD, is a Reader in Psychology and Director of Graduate Studies (Research) in the School of Psychology at the University of Kent. He is the founder and director of SHARKLab, dedicated to the study human intergroup and human-animal relations. He currently serves as Associate Editor for the journal Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations (PHAIR) and as President of the Society for the Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations (PHAIR Society) Previously he served as Associate Editor for Group Processes & Intergroup Relations (GPIR) and as Consulting Editor for the European Journal of Personality (EJP).

Kristof's interests include the situational and personality factors that drive and sustain intergroup biases such as ethnic and gender-based prejudice as well as speciesism, with a special interest in social-ideological variables (e.g. social dominance orientation and authoritarianism) and identity-based processes.

He investigates the factors that shape people's perceptions and thinking about animals, the paradoxes in human-animal relations, and the moral psychology of eating and exploiting animals. Some of the key questions concern:

1. How do people perceive and think about animals as a social group (or multiple groups)?
2. Why do people love and care about animals, yet also eat and exploit them?
3. How can prejudice towards human and non-human animals be reduced?
4. What are the implications of our attitudes and behaviours toward animals for human intergroup relations?

Key publications

• Dhont, K., & Hodson, G. (Eds.) (2020). Why we love and exploit animals: Bridging insights from academia and advocacy. Routledge.
• Dhont, K., Piazza, J., & Hodson, G. (2021). The role of meat appetite in willfully disregarding factory farming as a pandemic catalyst risk. Appetite, 164, 105279.
• Salmen, A. & Dhont, K. (2021). Hostile and benevolent sexism: The differential roles of human supremacy beliefs, women’s connection to nature, and the dehumanization of women. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 24, 1053-1076. doi:10.1177/1368430220920713
• Dhont, K., Hodson, G., Loughnan, S., & Amiot, C. E. (2019). Rethinking human-animal relations: The critical role of social psychology. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 22, 769-784. doi.org/10.1177/1368430219864455
• Dhont, K., Hodson, G., Leite, A.C. (2016). Common ideological roots of speciesism and generalized ethnic prejudice: The Social Dominance Human-Animal Relations Model (SD-HARM). European Journal of Personality, 30, 507-522.
• Hodson, G., & Dhont, K. (2015). The person-based nature of prejudice. Individual difference predictors of intergroup negativity. European Review of Social Psychology, 26, 1-42.

BSc

• PSYC5290: Personality (2nd Year Undergraduate Honours level, Module Convenor and Lecturer)

MSc

• PSYC8600: Political Psychology (Co-lecturer)
• PSYC8130: Advanced Topics in Intergroup Relations (Co-lecturer)

Current Research Students

• Arti Makwana: Exploring The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Prejudice and Intergroup Relations

Past Research Students

• Dr Alina Salmen (2022): Animalizing women and feminizing men: The psychological intersections of human supremacism, sexism, and anti-veganism
• Dr Victoria C. Krings (2022): Attitudes towards animals and meat consumption: The role of ideology and individual differences
• Dr Linus Peitz (2021): The Psychology of Euroscepticism and Brexit preferences: The role of social attitudes and implications for national identification
• Dr Zafer Ozkan (2019): Intergroup contact and Solidarity-based collective action intentions: The role of affective and identity-based processes
• Dr Jasper Van Assche (Ghent University, 2018): Ethnic diversity, ideological climates, and intergroup relations : a person x context approach

Editorial work

• 2022 - present: Associate Editor, Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations (PHAIR).
• 2015 – 2021: Associate Editor, Group Processes & Intergroup Relations (GPIR)
• 2016 – 2020. Consulting Editor, European Journal of Personality (EJP)
• 2014 – 2017. Associate Editor, Psychologica Belgica
• 2019: Chief Editor of Special Issue of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. Dhont, Hodson, Loughnan, & Amiot (2019). (De)Valuing Animals: Intergroup
• Perspectives on Human-Animal Relations

Professional affiliations

• Society for the Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations (PHAIR)
• Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP)
• Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP)
• Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)
• International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP)    

Grants and Awards