Thora Bjornsdottir

Thora Bjornsdottir is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Stirling, affiliated with the Cognition in Complex Environments research group and the Face Lab. She holds a PhD and MA from the University of Toronto and a BA from Cornell University. Her research focuses on social perception, particularly how social group memberships (e.g., class, sexual orientation, culture) shape first impressions from faces and their societal impacts. Key interests include detecting social identities via appearance, mental representations of social groups, and consequences of biased perceptions.

Her academic journey includes postdoctoral work at the University of Glasgow and prior lecturing roles at Royal Holloway, University of London. Bjornsdottir’s work bridges psychological theory and real-world applications, addressing how facial and bodily cues communicate social traits and the implications for inequality. She employs experimental and computational methods, often collaborating with labs like the Social Perception and Cognition Lab (Nick Rule) and Implicit Social Cognition Lab (Melissa Ferguson).

Recent research highlights include studying cultural differences in emotion expression, the role of stereotypes in class perception, and cross-cultural mental state reading. Though no specific awards are listed, her contributions to social perception and bias research are evident through frequent publications. Grants and advising details remain unspecified in the provided texts.