Speaker: José Soto

Title: Empathy avoidance as a possible mechanism for understanding racial disparities in society

Bio: José Soto is a clinical psychologist interested in the intersections of culture, health and emotion and how these three forces interact with and shape each other.  He has examined the manner in which culture influences various aspects of the human emotion system (e.g., experience, expression, recognition) and the psychological health costs or benefits associated with these cultural variations in emotional processes.  He has approached the study of culture and emotion from a multi-method perspective, using psychophysiological measures to supplement behavioral and self-report emotion data and going beyond self-identification to measure culture. An emerging component of his work is exploring the mental health consequences of experiencing discrimination, racism or oppression. He has done this by studying the relationship between these factors and mental health directly or by examining how emotional processes mediate/moderate this relationship.

José Soto is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Rock Sherwin Early Career Professor