I am interested in how people emotionally experience status and morality concerns in their relations with others. I study these issues at both the individual and the group level, with multiple methods (e.g., experiments and quasi-experiments, population surveys, personality measurement, signal-contingent diaries).
In one line of work, we examine individuals' representations and experience of in-group morality (e.g., Leach, Ellemers, & Barreto, 2007). Perceived morality plays an important role in feelings such as pride, guilt, shame, and sympathy (e.g., Harth, Kessler, & Leach, 2008; Iyer, Leach, & Crosby, 2003; Leach, Iyer, & Pedersen, 2006). We are particularly interested in whether such feelings motivate moral self-improvement or self-protection (Leach, Snider, & Iyer, 2002).
We also examine the process of status-oriented comparison (e.g., Leach & Smith, 2006) and its effects on identity (Leach, Rodriguez Mosquera, et al., 2010) and motivation and self-evaluation (Leach & Smith, 2006). Emotion is important here too. (A) Anger about one’s status is a potent motivator of political action, among the disadvantaged (e.g., van Zomeren, Spears, Fischer, & Leach, 2004; van Zomeren, Spears, & Leach, 2008) as well as the advantaged (Leach et al., 2006, 2007). (B) Schadenfreude -- feeling satisfied at another party's misfortune – is one way to regulate the painful feeling of inferiority that can follow from lower status (Leach & Spears, 2008, 2009; Leach, Spears, et al., 2003).
My interest in how people experience status and morality concerns come together to inform work on how racism, sexism, and the like should be theorized and studied (Leach, 1998, 2002, 2005). I am particularly interested in the evaluative content of stereotypes and prejudice (Leach et al., 2007, 2008) and how such ideology informs social and political motivation.