Trystan “Trys” Loustau
Trys is interested in boundary crossers, people who resist social norms and exist at the intersections of conflicting social groups. Her research focuses on people who hold counterstereotypical identities, such as Christian liberals, and explores how social identity complexity influences social cognition, including moral judgment. For more details on this work, see “Social Identity Complexity Mitigates Intergroup Bias in Moral Judgment.”
Extending this exploration of non-conformity, Trys studies contrarians, individuals who diverge from the mainstream. In a recent project, Trys developed the Contrarianism Scale to measure trait contrarianism. Additionally, Trys’ work also examines how autistic people often diverge from conventional group-binding moral foundations. Read about this work, which was recently published in the International Journal of Social Cognition, here.
In other recent work, Trys investigates flexible approaches to social group membership, particularly in the contexts of punishment and partner choice.
Trys’ research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Outside the lab, Trys has experience in applied settings. She currently serves as a Research Consultant for More in Common, a non-profit dedicated to bridging social divides. Previously, she was a Research Fellow for the Listen First Project, a non-profit that manages national campaigns and strategies to promote social cohesion.