Selin Toprakkıran

There are over 300 million immigrants in the world, with the United States housing the largest immigrant population of any country.

My work is guided by two broad questions:

How does immigration shape stereotypes and prejudice?
How do these social and policy contexts shape immigrants’ experiences?

To address these questions, I examine how immigrant groups are stereotyped, how immigration policy shapes these stereotypes and immigrants’ sense of belonging, and how these processes relate to national identity more broadly.

More ways to check out my research:

Stereotypes and Prejudice

Race and Nationality

I examine when stereotypes of nationality groups align with or diverge from stereotypes of associated racial groups. For example, people in the U.S. tend to view Chinese Americans similarly to Asian Americans, while stereotypes of Indian Americans are more distinct.

What explains these patterns of similarity and divergence, and why do they emerge?

Toprakkıran, S. & Lai. C. K (in prep). Racial Prototypicality and Stereotypes of Nationality and Race.

How does the prototypicality of nationality groups influence stereotypes of nationality relative to associated race? For my dissertation, we conducted multiple experiments where we manipulated the racial prototypicality of nationality groups. We then tested whether this prototypicality increased the similarity between nationality and race based stereotypes.

Toprakkıran, S. & Lai. C. K (under review). The relationship between stereotypes about nationality and stereotypes about race/ethnicity.

How and when do stereotypes of U.S. nationality groups differ from stereotypes of associated racial/ethnic groups? We created a novel measure of "stereotype distance" to examine these patterns and conducted follow-up studies to establish its predictors. Racial prototypicality and perceived racial identification (over nationality) emerged as predictors of stereotype distance.

Immigrants' Belonging

How do perceptions of immigration policy shape immigrants’ sense of belonging? What factors can strengthen this sense of belonging, and can hearing about other immigrants’ experiences help people feel more supported and connected?

Toprakkıran, S., Schachter, A., & Lai. C. K (under review). Does Perceiving Immigration Policy as Unstable Reduce Immigrants’ Felt Inclusion in the United States?

Immigration policies in the U.S. are unstable, with frequent changes to paperwork requirements, work authorization, and deportation enforcement. In two experiments, we use vignettes to manipulate perceived policy instability and punitiveness and examine their implications for immigrants' felt inclusion.

Toprakkıran, S., Arigbabu, R., & Schachter, A. (in prep). Toward an Accessible Storytelling Intervention to Improve U.S. Immigrants’ Belonging.

As part of Moving Stories - A Programmatic Grant, we are developing a public story-sharing app as an intervention with two goals: 1) improving immigrants' belonging to the U.S. and 2) improving U.S.-born Americans' attitudes toward immigrants.

Other related works:

Hill, P., Toprakkıran, S., Strecher, V.J., Wolk, M.W. (2025) Purpose, life satisfaction, and self-rated health in immigrant and non-immigrant adults. Psychology, Health & Medicine.

Hill, P., Beatty, J.F., Toprakkıran, S., Wolk, M.W. (2024) Cultural stress and immigrant well-being: The role of sense of purpose. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology.

National Identity

A shared national identity can bring people together and improve intergroup attitudes. However, when people disagree about who belongs within that identity, it can also increase polarization and negative attitudes toward immigrants. I am interested in understanding how national identities are conceptualized and defined, and how national identification is linked to stereotypes and prejudice toward others.

Toprakkıran, S., Gordils, J., Jamieson, J.P. (2024) Can Democrats and Republicans Like Each Other? Depends on How You Define "American". Frontiers in Social Psychology.

Erisen, C., Guidi, M., Martini, S., Toprakkıran, S., Isernia, P. & Littvay, L. (2021) Psychological correlates of populist attitudes. Political Psychology.

Immigrants' Belonging

National Identity

Toprakkıran, S., Gordils, J., Jamieson, J.P. (2024) Can Democrats and Republicans Like Each Other? Depends on How You Define "American". Frontiers in Social Psychology.

Toprakkıran, S., & Gordils, J. (2021) The onset of COVID-19, common identity, and intergroup prejudice. The Journal of Social Psychology.