Personal statement

Dr Renata Bongiorno is a social psychologist who studies stereotypes, collective action and social change, particularly relating to gender.

Renata received her PhD from the Australian National University in 2010. She subsequently worked as a researcher and lectured in Australia for 6 years, primarily based at The University of Queensland. In 2017, Renata moved to the UK to work as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Exeter for 5 years. Renata also taught on the Psychology of Gender module at Exeter, receiving a Teaching Excellence Award.

She joined Bath Spa University in 2022 and is one of the leads for the Level 5 core module Biological and Social Psychology, and contributes to teaching in several other modules, including the Level 6 core module Contemporary Applications of Psychological Science. Renata also supervises undergraduate dissertation projects exploring topics such as attitudes towards the #MeToo social movement and gendered career aspirations. In 25/26, Renata will lead a new Psychology of Gender module for Level 6. 

Since 2024, Renata has been the Director of a new Identities and Equalities Research Cluster, and also works with several other groups across Bath Spa University to promote inclusive and equitable practice and policy for staff and students.

Renata’s published research spans multiple areas, including understanding prejudices towards women and privileges afforded to men in leadership, how people are mobilised to act on climate change, how identity and emotion contribute to biases when responding (or failing to respond) to gender-based violence, and effects of neoliberal feminism on women's protest motivation. 

Some of Renata’s ongoing projects include examining men’s engagement with the gender-equality cause (supported by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant), and advancing new theory and analysis to examine stereotype content, with projects on gender bias affecting leadership and gender and class biases in STEM fields.

Renata's research has received broad media coverage, including in Psychology Today, BBC, Forbes, The Huffington Post, Medium, and New Scientist. Renata has also written articles about her research for the general public and given invited presentations to community, industry and academic audiences in Australia, Europe, and North America.

Renata regularly acts as a reviewer for academic journals in the areas of social, political and organisational psychology, and gender studies.

Renata's office hours

In Semester 1 (2025) these are Thursdays 15:30-17:30.

Students at BSU can book a time to meet with Renata during these hours using the following meeting link:

Book a meeting time

Academic qualifications

  • PhD, Australian National University, 2010
  • BA (First Class Honours, Psychology), Australian National University, 2002
  • Renata also completed a major in Sociology and a minor in Anthropology.

Professional qualifications

  • Fellow - Higher Education Academy
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education.

Other external roles

  • Editorial Consultant, British Journal of Social Psychology
  • Committee member for the British Psychological Society's Psychology of Women and Equalities Section (POWES) 
  • Guest Editor for Frontiers in Psychology – Research Topic: Understanding Barriers to Workplace Equality: A Focus on the Target’s Perspective (2018)
  • Ad-hoc reviewing for Nature Reviews Psychology, Social Psychological and Personality Science, British Journal of Social Psychology, Group Processes and Inter-group Relations, Sex Roles, Psychology of Women Quarterly, Australian Journal of Psychology, European Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Social and Political Psychology, Social Cognition, Journal of Experimental Criminology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Social Psychology, Political Behavior, Social Justice Research.

Teaching subjects 

  • Stereotypes and discrimination
  • Gender and its interaction with other social identities
  • Prejudice and privilege
  • Power and leadership
  • Group processes and inter-group relations 
  • Collective action and social change.

Research impact

Selected Media Coverage:

  • Forbes, "Why Asking Women To Lean In Undermines Gender Equality Efforts" (August 16, 2024)  
  • Psychology Today, "5 reasons people blame victims" (September 4, 2023)
  • Forbes, "How much money is enough? New study says not as much as you think (Except for Americans)" (July 20, 2022)
  • Psychology Today, "Does PETA have a Porn Problem?" (June 1, 2022)
  • Medium, “Sex doesn’t sell” (May 9, 2021)
  • The Conversation, “I’m a sexual assault counsellor. Here’s why it’s so hard for survivors to come forward, and what happens when they do” (March 3, 2021)
  • Medium, “Computer vision tells us how the presidential candidates really feel” (22 October, 2020)
  • Forbes, “The dark side of empathy: Why women are blamed for being sexually harassed” (August 27, 2019)
  • BBC, “Sexual harassment and victim-blaming women: Why male 'empathy' could be key” (August 19, 2019)
  • Independent “Men more likely to victim-blame women who are sexually harassed, research indicates” (August 19, 2019)
  • The Raw Story, “A psychological scientist explains why GOP women are more willing to overlook sexual assault allegations”(October 10, 2018)
  • Slate, “One not-so-easy trick to persuade people to fight climate change” (September 24, 2017)
  • The Conversation, “Don’t believe the hype: sexually-charged advertising is not the best way to push a product” (June 29, 2017)
  • Daily Life, “The disturbing expectation on how female rape victims should act (March 17, 2016)
  • news.com.au, “New study shows our shocking double standards towards rape victims” (March 10, 2016)
  • The Huffington Post, “How to stop sexism at the ballot box” (February 24, 2016)
  • The Boston Globe, “Sexiness: Bad for the cause” (December 29, 2013)
  • Salon, “Surprise PETA! Sex doesn’t sell” (December 20, 2013)
  • Sydney Morning Herald, “Peeling back the layers, sexist ads don’t work” (December 20, 2013)
  • Forbes, “Team underperforming? Hire a female manager to take the blame” (October 10, 2013)

Other outputs

Preprints

Bongiorno, R., Bain, P.G., Ryan, M. K., Kroonenberg, P. M., Leach, C. W. (2021, May 18) Think Leader – Think (Immoral Power-Hungry) Man: An expanded Framework for Understanding Stereotype Content and Leader-Gender Bias. 10.31234/osf.io/p5uya

Outreach articles

Bongiorno, R. (October, 2018). “Brett Kavanaugh: why Republican women may be willing to overlook sexual assault allegations.” The Conversation (available online)

Bongiorno, R. (July, 2016). “Coalition’s lost ground on women MPs shows we need to tackle new gender biases”. The Conversation (available online)

Bongiorno, R. (July, 2013). “Female politicians pay a higher price for their flaws.” The Age (available online)

Research supervision

Renata is particularly interested in working with students on projects that examine:

  • the content and effects of gender stereotypes
  • how to improve bystander responding to support victims of gender-based violence
  • men's engagement with the gender equality cause.

Please get in contact with Renata if these or related areas of research interest you.

Research and academic outputs

Go to ResearchSPAce