Kyle Ratner

Kyle Ratner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at UC Santa Barbara. He directs the Social Perception Lab, investigating how social contexts interact with cognitive, affective, and biological processes to shape perception. His research employs fMRI, EEG, and behavioral methods to study intergroup reactions, stigma, and motivation.

Research focuses on neural mechanisms of face processing, effects of stereotypes on reward systems, and political attitudes on perception. Current projects examine how group identities modulate sensory encoding and collective action motivation.

Advises doctoral students: Ava Ma de Sousa, Diego Padilla-Garcia, and Qianqian Cui. Supervises research assistants working on neuroimaging and behavioral studies. Publications emphasize social cognitive neuroscience with consistent themes of bias, identity, and neural representation across 50+ articles.