ARU hosts European Association of Social Psychology conference

Conference delegates at ARU in Cambridge

The international conference on The Social Psychology of Gender Equality in the Digital Era took place at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge from 3–5 September 2025.

Bringing together researchers from around the world, the conference aimed to identify the barriers and opportunities in the digital age, share effective research methods, and promote impactful intervention strategies.

The overarching aim of the conference was to advance gender equality efforts by enhancing our understanding of the opportunities and barriers present in the digital world.

It was motivated by recognition that one reason for the relatively slow progress in social psychological research on gender (in)equality in the digital world is a lack of expertise. Research in the digital domain requires approaches and analytical methods in which social psychologists are often not trained in, such as large-scale data mining, machine learning, algorithm analysis, sentiment analysis, digital analytics, and the design of ethical intervention studies and experiments on social media platforms.

The main aims of the conference were to:

1. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the barriers and opportunities for gender equality in the digital era
2. Share best-practice research methods for investigating gender equality in the digital world and provide a toolkit for social psychologists operating in the digital space
3. Advance research on intervention studies within social media
4. Increase the cross-cultural generalisability of social psychology research
5. Stimulate interdisciplinary collaborations between social psychologists and experts in communication, information technology, and policy-making
6. Provide opportunities for early career researchers in this vital field
7. Produce a special issue on Researching Gender Equality in the Digital Era
8. Raise awareness of gender equality issues in the digital era through social media channels.

We secured three world-class keynote speakers and one impact guest speaker:

• Dr Tessa Charlesworth – on gender bias revealed through word embeddings in children’s books, historical texts, and contemporary language use
• Dr Khandis Blake – on using big data to understand prejudice and sex politics worldwide
• Prof Klaus Boehnke – on the challenges of comparing 'apples to oranges' in cross-cultural gender psychology
• Ella Smillie (former Advertising Standards Authority) – on how academic research contributed to the 2019 ban on harmful gender stereotypes in British advertising, which she led.

Colleagues from ARU were closely involved in the conference, including Dr Magdalena Zawisza, Dr Sarah Gradidge, and doctoral candidates Rachel Ownsworth and Alina Knuppel.