Dr. Eboni Bradley teaches Social Psychology and Race in America. She started as an assistant professor at Hope College in 2024.

Dr. Bradley’s research focuses broadly on the effects of being ostracized, the experience of being ignored and excluded. She uses novel methods such as comics and virtual reality to explore the psychological impact of feeling unseen, unheard, unacknowledged and unvalued — or of hypervisibility (being focused on more than what is normative) — and their impact on people’s need for satisfaction, affect and behavior. 

In Dr. Bradley’s research group, Hope students assist her and can learn how to interpret qualitative data into research methods, assessments, and scales. 

Areas of Expertise

• Taking the lived experience of those who have been marginalized and overlooked and highlighting these experiences in writing and research methods
• Using non-academic content (such as mass media) to bring creativity and depth to research questions and designs

Education

• Ph.D., social psychology, Purdue University, 2024
• B.S., social psychology and interpersonal communication, University of Illinois, 2018

Selected Publications and Presentations

• “Ostracism Isn't Funny: Using Comics to Assess Social Invisibility and Hypervisibility in the Black Community,” presentation with K. D. Williams, Midwestern Psychological Association conference, 2024
• “Who, Where, Why? Black Individuals' Experience with Invisibility and Hypervisibility,” presentation with K. D. Williams, Purdue University Social Psychology Colloquium, 2024
• “White People’s Responses to Confrontation of Microaggressive Behavior,” presentation with E. Noland and M. Monteith, Midwestern Psychological Association conference, 2023
• “Exploring Social Exclusion: Where We Are and Where We're Going,” with E. D. Wesselmann, R. S. Taggart, and K. D. Williams, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2022
•  “Death of the Social Self? Comparing Ostracism to Mortality Salience,” with R. S. Taggart et al., Social Influence, 2021
• “Backlash and Admiration as a Result of Counter-stereotypical Success,” presentation with A. L. Miller, Southeastern Association of Educational Opportunity Program Personnel conference, 2017

Outside the College

Dr. Bradley enjoys having mini concerts in her living room and spending time with family and friends. Her favorite hobbies include asking creative questions and bringing people together in unity through games and laughter. Her current creative question is “Let’s say that you had one memory of joy that would play in your head every few hours. What memory would you choose and why?”