Aline da Silva Frost 

I am a 6th year PhD candidate in Psychology at the University of California, Davis. My research focuses on basic evaluative processes in both interpersonal and intergroup contexts. 

Evaluation is central to the human experience: Our likes and dislikes can drive our decisions, they are a foundational part of our self-knowledge, and they help us navigate our experiences and make sense of the world. 

Unsurprisingly, evaluative processes have been studied across multiple and often disparate literatures, including intergroup bias, close relationships, consumer preferences, persuasion, and decision-making. Interestingly, each literature builds from its own set of long-standing assumptions, which often subtly but powerfully inform researcher questions and conclusions. 

By taking a step back to question and test these assumptions, my work aims to shed new light on how evaluations work and to start connecting across the disparate literatures that study them.