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GrouPsy-Lab

A Sabanci University based social psychology lab.

About Us

The GrouPsy Lab, led by Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Bağcı, is a social psychology research lab at Sabancı University. Our research interests include but are not limited to phenomena within intergroup relationships such as stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination, intergroup contact, collective action; environmental behaviors, and human-robot interactions.

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Through cutting-edge research, our lab aims to deepen understanding of these critical social issues and contribute to the development of interventions that promote healthy cross-group communication and foster intergroup harmony.

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Our Instagram Account: https://www.instagram.com/groupsylab/

Ongoing Projects

Robot Threat and Collective Action Project

This study investigates whether robots and similar technologies can threaten our basic human needs, and further influence intergroup attitudes  and collective action intentions for humans and robots/AI. Prof. Çiğdem Bağcı, Prof. Junko Kanero, Prof. Wang Xijing from City University of Hong Kong,  Selen Akay and İrem Sakarya are collaborators on this project. 

Predictors of Pro Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors

This research investigates the role of contextual and individual level factors in shaping pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors with a longitudinal study. This project is funded by the TUBITAK 1001 grant. Prof. Çiğdem Bağcı, İpek Güvensoy, Büşra Kaplan, Güneş Sağanak and İrem Sakarya are collaborators. 

Latest Publications

Resistance to Veganism: Threat perceptions and negative stereotyping may undermine intentions to reduce meat consumption among meat-eaters 

Sabahat Cigdem Bagci, Ipek Guvensoy, Büşra Kaplan, Gunes Deniz Sagnak

 

May, 2026  10.1016/j.appet.2026.108586

Despite increasing awareness and advocacy for meat-restricted diets, overall progress toward meat reduction remains limited. To better understand such resistance, we examined whether perceiving vegans as a cultural threat (threat to traditional meat-eating practices) or moral threat (threat to the ingroup's moral image) affects meat-eaters’ willingness to change their meat consumption, both directly and indirectly through positive and negative stereotyping of vegans. Across three studies conducted in Türkiye and the UK (one correlational and two pre-registered experiments manipulating threat; Total N = 1325), we found that threat related to veganism predicted lower intentions to restrict meat consumption, both directly and indirectly via stereotyping processes. While cultural and moral threats were conceptually distinct and showed differential associations in correlational analyses, experimental manipulations appeared to elicit a more general sense of symbolic threat. Nevertheless, across both experimental studies, perceiving vegans as a threat decreased positive stereotyping and increased negative stereotyping, which in turn related to lower intentions to reduce meat consumption. We discussed how threat-based evaluation of vegans and the associated stereotyping could create barriers to more sustainable reductions in meat consumption.

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