Benjamin Valen, a social psychology Ph.D. candidate in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), was recently announced as one of the six winners of a 2025 Heritage Dissertation Research Award. The awards, bestowed annually by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), are intended to aid graduate students with the costs of conducting dissertation research in the field of personality and social psychology.

Valen’s dissertation examines the effects of bias attribution, target identity and perceived political ideology on moral judgments of employers who discriminate against employees. He expects to graduate in Spring 2026.

Founded in 1974, SPSP is the world’s largest organization of personality and social psychologists. The Heritage Dissertation Research Awards are part of SPSP’s Heritage Initiative, which aims to ensure the field of personality and social psychology’s future by assisting its next generation of scholars.