Sohad Murrar

Dr. Sohad Murrar is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago. She received her PhD (2018) and her MS (2014) in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she specialized in Social Psychology. She completed an MA (2011) in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago with a focus in Comparative Human Development. She received her BA (2010) from Northwestern University where she majored in Psychology and Asian and Middle East Studies.

Dr. Murrar’s research focuses on social interventions and intergroup relations. Her interests include testing and evaluating entertainment media and narratives to reduce prejudices toward social minorities including Muslims in the U.S. context, creating and evaluating social norms message campaigns to foster diversity and promote inclusion, and identifying biases in medical science toward women and racial minorities. Dr. Murrar consults on the representation of Muslims and other minority groups in Hollywood films and television. She also works with organizations to develop effective diversity and inclusion strategies using evidence-based approaches for social change.

Education

BA, Northwestern University; MA, University of Chicago; MS, PhD, Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Areas of Expertise

Publications

Murrar, S., Baqai, B., Padela, A. (2023). Predictors of discrimination in medical settings among Muslim women. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

Murrar, S., Azam, L., Davila, O., Baqai, B., & Padela, A. (2022). The impact of practicing both medicine and religion: Muslim identity as a predictor of discrimination, accommodation, and career outcomes in academic medicine. Academic Medicine, 97(11S), S169.

Murrar, S., Johnson, P., Lee, Y. G., & Carnes, M. (2021). Research conducted in women is deemed more impactful but less publishable than the same research conducted in men. Journal of Women’s Health.

Murrar, S., Campbell, M., & Brauer, M. (2020). Creating an inclusive climate with information about peer pro-diversity attitudes and behaviors. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(9), 889-897.

Murrar, Sohad, and Markus Brauer. “Overcoming Resistance to Change: Using Narratives to Create More Positive Intergroup Attitudes.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 28, no. 2 (2019): 164–9.

Murrar, Sohad. “’Roseanne’ Takes on Islamophobia.” The Norman Lear Center Blog, 2018.

Murrar, Sohad, and Markus Brauer. “Entertainment-Education Effectively Reduces Prejudice.” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 21, no. 7 (2018): 1053–1077.

Murrar, Sohad. “Can Social Norms Communicated through Entertainment Television Media Reduce Prejudice?.” PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2018.

Murrar, Sohad, Sarah Gavac, and Markus Brauer. “Application: Reducing Prejudice.” In Social Psychology: How Other People Influence Our Thoughts and Actions, edited by Randal W. Summers, 361–83. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2017.

Murrar, Sohad. “Modern Muslims and Moral Lives.” Islamic Horizons (March/April 2012): 19–22.