Perspective Student FAQs
Are you reviewing PhD applications?
Yes, I will be reviewing Ph.D. applications this year (to begin graduate school Fall 2026) and encourage all interested students to apply.
I’m interested in applying to Yale SOM as a PhD student. Should I email you to let you know/set up a time to talk?
I love talking about research with students. However, I’d prefer to not create potentially unfair circumstances by having early communications with just some perspective applicants. If you’d like to make sure that I’ll review your application, please include me in your research statement/application.
What are you looking for in a PhD student?
I’m interested in working with students who have considerable research experience (no matter the topic) and are keen to investigate the relationship between culture and intergroup relations. As a mixed-method researcher, I am most excited about training students who are interested in combining multiple methods (e.g., experiments and large observational datasets) with psychological theories.
What are you currently working on?
Here are three topics I’m currently investigating:
How are childless women perceived within organizations and broader society? In this new line of research, I am exploring whether childless women may be perceived to “fit” less with certain careers than women who are mothers (Germano, ongoing research project).
How does your partner’s race influence your housing options and outcomes? In this new ongoing research, I am currently examining differences in discrimination between same-race and interracial couples in the mortgage and housing market (Germano, et al., ongoing research project).
Why do policies and social initiatives have negative consequences for the same groups they intend to help? Here I am currently examining how seemingly helpful and even neutral policies (e.g., gender-neutral items for children) may inadvertently maintain the same social hierarchies they seek to disrupt (Germano et al., 2021; Germano & Bailey, ongoing research project).
Examples of recent papers that show the types of experiments I run and theories I draw on:
Siy, J. O., Germano, A. L., Vianna, L., Azpeitia, J., Yan, S., Montoya, A., & Cheryan, S. (2023). Does the follow-your-passions ideology cause greater academic and occupational gender disparities than other cultural ideologies? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 125, 548–570.
Germano, A. L., Ziegler, S. A., Banham, L., & Cheryan, S. (2021). Do diversity awards discourage applicants from marginalized groups from pursuing more lucrative opportunities? Psychological Science, 32, 1346-1361.