Rate My Professor Kevin Zabel

Kevin Zabel, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology with a social concentration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2015), an M.A. in Experimental Psychology from the same university (2012), and a B.A. in Psychology and Economics & Management from Albion College (2009). Before joining UW-La Crosse in fall 2019, he was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Western New England University (2015-2019), teaching a range of courses including Introduction to Psychology, Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, Research Methods, Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, and Multicultural Psychology, while advising students and involving them in research projects.

Dr. Zabel's research focuses on social psychology and social cognition, examining attitude-behavior processes, interracial interactions, and diversity initiatives. His work explores how attitudes toward social groups influence judgments and behaviors toward individuals, moderated by motivation and opportunity; content strategies in interracial interactions and their psychological impacts; and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Select publications include "Measures of Prejudice" (with M.A. Olson, 2016) in the Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination; "Changes in Nonprejudiced Motivations Track Shifts in the US Sociopolitical Climate" (Kievit et al., 2023) in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations; "Self-Protection and Correction for Automatically Activated Weight Bias: Revisiting the Applicability of the MODE Model" (with J.D. Seacat, 2021) in Journal of Applied Social Psychology; "What We Talk About Matters: Content Moderates Cognitive Depletion in Interracial Interactions" (with Olson et al., 2015) in Journal of Social Psychology; and contributions to Oxford Handbooks on undergraduate psychology education. In 2022, he received the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CASSH) Faculty Recognition of Excellence for Teaching. Dr. Zabel mentors undergraduate researchers, serves on the Institutional Review Board, and has presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, including "The Impact of Valenced Uniqueness and Similarity Feelings on Diversity Support and Internal Motivation to Control Prejudice" in 2020.