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Department of

Psychology

Linderman Library Rotunda stained glass dome
Jiin Jung, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Lehigh University

Jiin Jung

Assistant Professor

610.758.3618
jij324@lehigh.edu
Chandler-Ullmann room 110
Education:

Postdoc. in Public Policy & Psychology, Princeton University

Postdoc. in Psychology, New York University

Ph.D. in Psychology, Claremont Graduate University

M.A. in Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University

B.S. in Biology, Seoul National University

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Research Areas

Additional Interests

  • Minority Influence
  • Social Change
  • Collective Intelligence
  • Computational Social Science

Research Statement

A healthy society provides space for both change and cohesion. Diverse ideas should be able to move, mix, recombine, and connect; producing novel perspectives and solutions that enhance society's adaptability and resilience. However, shifts in majority-minority status during social change can trigger identity uncertainty and status threat, fueling intergroup conflicts and group schisms that result in societal division and polarization. This can challenge further change and strain our collective resilience. These observations have prompted me to inquire: Can a society achieve a sustainable and gradual change toward a pluralistic state while maintaining social cohesion? If so, what psychological and social mechanisms underlie such a pattern of social change?

With a keen awareness of these two aspects of minority influence, one as a facilitator of collective adaptation and the other as an eroder of social cohesion, I seek to identify the social, epistemic, and cognitive mechanisms of group dynamics that promote social change and diversity while reducing social division and polarization (Jung et al., 2019, 2021, 2023, American Psychologist). My three primary lines of research include (a) how social change, triggering identity uncertainty, can erode social cohesion, leading to polarization and division (Jung, Hogg, Choi, & Lewis, 2019); (b) how open-minded tolerance, triggering indirect minority influence, can produce gradual social change while maintaining social cohesion (Jung et al., 2021; Jung, 2023); and (c) how diverse voices are brought into and potentially improve collective decisions (Jung et al., 2019; Kerr & Jung, 2019). 

To understand the causal links between the micro-level cognitive mechanisms and macro-level system behaviors and iterations over time, I combine social psychology and other disciplines with a complex adaptive systems approach using laboratory and field experiments, surveys, network analysis, and agent-based modeling. My interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers from epistemology, political science, and complex systems science strengthen the robustness of my research and open new avenues for exploring the complexities of group dynamics and social change. With my research program, I aim to make significant academic contributions and offer actionable insights into fostering a more inclusive and resilient society.

Biography

Dr. Jiin Jung is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lehigh University. She serves as an expert panel member for the RAND Corporation’s Gender Equity in Asia initiative, and is a board member of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas. 

Before joining Lehigh University, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with joint affiliation in the School of Public and International Affairs and the Department of Psychology at Princeton University, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Psychology at New York University, and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Brain, Behavior, and Quantitative Science Program of the Department of Psychology at the University of Kansas. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Claremont Graduate University , M.A. in Social Psychology from Sungkyunkwan University, and B.S. in Biology from Seoul National University.

​Before pursuing her academic career, she was an editor for the Toto Book publisher. As part of this work, she developed an environmental education program for youth, called ‘Wild Grass School.’ and helped eco-activist Dae-Kwon Hwang to run the school. This work was published in the children's magazine, ‘A Whale Told Me So.’ This program was part of Hwang's peace movement group that used the non-violence method to achieve social change. Later, she edited Mr. Hwang's related book, ‘Wild Grass School.’ This experience planted the seed for her research on tolerance, indirect minority influence, and social change.

Singer, D. J., Grim, P., Bramson, A., Holman, B., Jung, J., & Berger, W. J. (2024). The epistemic role of diversity in juries: An agent-based model, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 27(1). 

Jung, J. (2023). Two dual-categorization theories of tolerance: Commentary on Simon (2023). American Psychologist, 78, 745–747.

Jung, J. (2023). Change and persistence: A social psychological perspective on gender norms in South Korea. In Proceedings of Gender Equity in South Korea Forum. RAND Corporation.

Gaffney, A. M., Souter, S. S., Jung, J., & Crano, W. D. (2023). Contexts and conditions of outgroup influence. Psychology of Language and Communication, 27, 173‒198.

Berger, W. J., Singer, D. J., Bramson, A., Grim, P., Jung, J., & Holman, B. (2022). Philosophical Considerations of Political Polarization.  In d. Bordonaba, F. Castrom, & R. Vidal (Eds.), The Political Turn in Analytic Philosophy: Reflections on Social Injustice and Oppression, 11, 279.

Jung, J., Bramson, A., Crano, W., Page, S., Miller, J. H. (2021). Cultural drift, indirect minority influence, network structure, and their impacts on cultural change and diversity. American Psychologist, 76, 1039‒1053. 

Singer, D. J., Bramson, A., Grim, P., Holman, B., Kovaka, K., Jung, J., & Berger, W. J. (2021). Don’t forget forgetting: The social epistemic importance of how we forget. Synthese, 198, 5373–5394.

Singer, D. J., Bramson, A., Grim, P., Holman, B., Jung, J., & Berger, W. J. (2021). Epistemic networks and polarization. In M. Hannon & J. de Ridder (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Political Epistemology, (pp. 133‒144). New York, NY: Routledge.

Grim, P., Singer, D. J., Bramson, A., Berger, W. J., Jung, J., & Page, S. (2020). Representation in models of epistemic democracy. Episteme, 17, 498–518. 

Jung, J., Grim, P., Singer, D. J., Bramson, A., Berger, W. J., Holman, B., & Kovaka, K. (2019). A multidisciplinary understanding of polarization. American Psychologist, 74, 301‒314.

Singer, D. J. Bramson, A. Grim, P., Holman, B., Jung, J., Kovaka K, Ranginani, A., & Berger, W. J. (2019). Rational social and political polarization. Philosophical Studies, 176, 2243–2267.

Jung, J., Hogg, M. A., & Choi, H-S. (2019). Recategorization and ingroup projection: Two processes of identity-uncertainty reduction. Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology, 3, 97‒114.

Zhang, R. J., Liu, J. H., Milojev, P., Yamaguchi, S., Morio, H., Jung, J., Choi, H-S., Tian, X., & Wang, S-F. (2019). The structure of trust as a reflection of culture and institutional power structure: Evidence from 4 East Asian societies. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 59‒73.

Jung, J., Hogg, M. A., Livingstone, A. G., & Choi, H-S. (2019). From uncertain boundaries to uncertain identity: The effects of entitativity threat on identity-uncertainty and emigration. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 49, 623–633.

Choi, H-S., Lee, H-Y., & Jung, J. (2019). Relationship between nested social identity uncertainty, group identification, reconciliatory attitudes and intentions in Korea. Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 33, 45–59. 

Jung, J., Page, S. E., Miller, J. H., Bramson, A., & Crano, W. D. (2018). The impact of indirect minority influence on diversity of opinion and the magnitude, speed, and frequency of social change. In Proceedings of the 2018 conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas.

Jung, J., Hogg, M. A., & Lewis, G. J. (2018). Identity uncertainty and UK-Scottish relations: Different dynamics depending on relative identity centrality. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 21, 861‒873. 

Kerr, N. & Jung, J. (2018). Should jurors be allowed to discuss trial evidence before deliberation?: New research evidence. Law and Human Behavior, 42, 413‒426. 

Jung, J., Bramson, A., & Crano, W. D. (2018). An agent-based model of indirect minority influence on social change and diversity. Social Influence, 13, 18‒38. 

Wagoner, J., Belavadi, S., & Jung, J. (2017). Social identity uncertainty: Conceptualization, measurement, and construct validity. Self and Identity, 16, 505‒530.

Jung, J., Page, S. E., & Miller, J. H. (2017). Minority and diversity: Extension of indirect minority influence model. In Proceedings of the 2017 conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas.

Jung, J., Hogg, M. A., & Choi, H-S. (2016). Reaching across the DMZ: Identity uncertainty and reunification on the Korean peninsula. Political Psychology, 37, 341‒350.

Pulick, E., Korth, P., Grim, P., & Jung, J. (2016). Modeling interaction effects in polarization: Individual media influence and the impact of town meetings. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 19 (2) 1.

Jung, J. & Bramson, A. (2016). A recipe for social change: Indirect minority influence and cognitive rebalancing. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas.

Jung, J. & Bramson, A. (2014). An agent-based model of indirect minority influence on social change. In H. Sayama, J. Rieffel, S. Risi, R. Doursat, & H. Lipson (Eds.), Proceedings of the 14
Th International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, (pp. 400‒407). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 

Teaching

Social Psychology
Social Cognition