I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Arbeitsgruppe Sozial- und Wirtschaftspsychologie (Social and Work Psychology Research Group) at RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany. My research current examines social identity, prejudice, and inclusion, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ communities and gender. I study how social prototypes and intergroup processes influence belonging, discrimination, solidarity, and health within and between sexuality- and gender-minority communities in the United States and Germany.
Ongoing Research
Inter-Intra Group Solidarity & Ostracism in the LGBT+ Community
This project examines how perceptions of prototypicality, threat, and belonging shape relations within marginalized communities, extending theoretical models of intergroup processes to complex social hierarchies in which groups share structural disadvantages. Although public discourse and existing research predominantly center on majority–minority relations, comparatively little is known about how minorities are perceived by adjacent marginalized groups (i.e., familiar minorities that share some, but not all, of the same identities). Contemporary debates within the LGBT community surrounding transgender inclusion highlight how perceived deviation from group-defining attributes and symbolic threats to group boundaries can undermine solidarity. Across two aims, this project investigates how different perceiver groups evaluate transgender targets’ misfit to superordinate LGBT prototypes, and how these judgments translate into social and political ostracism. Together, this program advances theory by integrating prototype theory with intergroup threat frameworks to clarify when shared marginalization promotes coalition-building or when psychological dynamics instead produce ostracism and political fragmentation.
April 2026 - Project submitted as a Walter Benjamin application to Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (the German Research Foundation)
December 2025 - Project awarded €9711 in TU-Nachwuchsring Early Career research funding
December 2025 - Project awarded €2500 in SCOPE research funding
Gender prototypes: Women & sexual harassment
When women make sexual harassment claims, those who deviate from (vs. conform to) feminine gender prototypes are viewed as less credible, their experiences are minimized, and they receive less support. Here I explore how this prototype bias affects perceptions of and responses to sexual harassment claims. First, I showed that holding intersectional minoritized identities (race, sexuality, age) uniquely affects the impact of gender prototypes on perceptions of sexual harassment. Next, I test whether this bias influences lawyers’ willingness to represent nonprototypical claimants, beliefs about settlement success, and perceptions of case merit. Finally, I created an an educational intervention designed to broaden representations of sexual harassment victims.
Ferguson, Z. E., Schachtman, R., & Kaiser, C. R. (manuscript under review). An Educational Intervention to Broaden Prototypes of Sexual Harassment Victims Among Laypeople and Lawyers.
Ferguson, Z. E., Glazier, J. J., & Kaiser, C. R. (manuscript in preparation). Cognitive representations of intersectional women sexual harassment victims and credibility likelihood perceptions.
Gender prototypes: Nonbinary people as a gender group
Cisgender and binary transgender people who deviate from gender prototypes are more likely to be misgendered and experience identity denial. This mixed-methods project documented nonbinary prototypes and consequences of non-prototypicality. In Study 1, participants pictured and described a nonbinary person. Qualitative coding revealed a clear prototype: a White, skinny, androgynous person, assigned female at birth, who uses they/them pronouns. Next I examined consequences of non-prototypicality from both outgroup (Study 2) and ingroup (Study 3) perspectives. Results showed that increased nonbinary gender prototypicality predicts both positive (e.g., in-group ties to the LGBTQ+ community) and negative (e.g., increased harassment/discrimination experiences).
Ferguson, Z. E. & Morgenroth, T. (manuscript in preparation). White, skinny, androgynous: Narrow prototypes of nonbinary people.
Do race categories reflect racial identities?
To determine their racial identities, researchers often ask participants to choose from predefined race categories, such as “Black” or “White.” Four mixed-methods studies, showed that when answering closed-ended questions about their race, participants who did not identify with any of the standard categories defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) perceived the racial labels they had to settle for as not accurately capturing their racial identities, and felt negatively about being described by such labels. Furthermore, different question formats resulted in different characterizations of the same participant sample (e.g., the proportion of those selecting “Asian or Asian American” dropping from 56% to 18%). Responses to open-ended questions provided insights into participants’ perceptions of being misrepresented. In a separate set of studies, we find preliminary evidence that the current default language with which research participant demographics are reported in adamic spaces implies that researchers believe that people’s race is an essentialist category that differentiates them from people of other races. The results highlight the inequity inherent in commonly used question formats and reporting strategies, calling for more inclusive approaches that honor the complexity of racial identities in an increasingly diverse society.
Panicacci, A., Ferguson, Z. E., Moriizumi, S., Palais, M. W., & Shoda, Y. (manuscript in preparation). Misrepresentation by design: Do race categories reflect racial identities? Examining participants’ perceptions and feelings when answering questions about their race.
Published Research
Ferguson, Z. E., Glazier, J. J., Bandt-Law, B., & Kaiser, C. R. (2025). Do gender prototypes influence attorney willingness to represent sexual harassment victims? Law and Human Behavior.
[https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000624]
Gallegos, J. M., Ferguson, Z. E., Dover, T., Mclaughlin, K., & Kaiser, C. R. (2024). Bearing witness to
police brutality affects psychological and cardiovascular responses in Black
Americans and White Americans. Psychology of Violence.
https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000576
Jarvis, S. N., Ferguson, Z. E., & Okonofua, J. A. (2023). Principals’ disciplinary decisions in a
nationally representative sample. Collabra: Psychology.
https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.88326
Grossman, I., Rotella, A., Hutcherson, C. A., ... Ferguson, Z. E., … (2023). Insights into accuracy of
social scientists' forecasts of societal change. Nature and Human Behavior.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01517-1
Ferguson, Z. E., Jarvis, S. N., Antonoplis, S. & Okonofua, J. A. (2023). Principal beliefs predict
responses to individual students’ misbehavior. Educational Researcher.
10.3102/0013189X231158389.
Open access link: https://psyarxiv.com/znujc/
Undergraduate Mentee Alumni
Jia Cao, BS 2024 (MA Student, Boston College)
Emma Bunter, BS 2023 (PhD Student, University of Utah)
Sheer Yedidia, BS 2022 (Law Student, University of San Diego)
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Teaching
Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau:
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Master Seminar on Intergroup Communication (Summer 2026)
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Selected Topics of Social Psychology (Summer 2026)
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Selected Applications of Economic Psychology (Winter 2025)
University of Washington:
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Social Identity, Bias, and Discrimination (Summer 2025)
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Psychology of Gender (Winter 2024)
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Psychology Research Fundamentals (Fall 2023)
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Laboratory in Social Psychology (Spring 2023; Summer 2023)
