The Role of Race and Culture on Social Behavior

Growing up on the U.S.-Mexico border in a community where almost everyone is bicultural, I witnessed people’s multidimensional identities blending every day, including my own. Now, as an experienced psychology researcher, I understand that complex questions about race, culture, and identity cannot be comprehensively answered without moving beyond approaches that examine each of these phenomena in isolation. This is why my research centers on viewing race and culture as dynamic systems that guide how people perceive their social world and themselves. In brief, race is defined as the malleable social construct that exists wherever there are social, political, and ideological practices that manufacture differential status between racialized social groups (Bonilla-Silva, 1999). On the other hand, a person’s culture is the result of one’s environment shaping their mind and one’s mind in-turn shaping their environment (Markus & Kitayama, 2010).

Using experiments, developmental studies, and mixed-methods, I identify when racial identity, cultural context, or their interaction most strongly predicts social preferences, norm perceptions, political behavior, and self-classification. Importantly, my work is aimed at identifying a mechanism for why and when these choices in identification occur. I achieve this through two complementary lines of research (see full research statement here).

(1) Across Group Comparisons

My research explores how race and culture influence who people perceive to be their in-group members and how social preferences are developed. I also demonstrate how differences in social perceptions can exist between racial groups in the U.S., like how cultural differences exist across countries 

  • *indicating co-first authorship

    *Muñoz,M. A., *E. A., Enright.,Gaither, S. E., Halim, M. D., Pauker, K. Olson, K. R. & Dunham, Y. (2025).Children’s Use of Race in their Social Judgements: A Large, Multi-site, Multi-racial Group Comparison. Collabra Psychology.https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.132489.

    Albuja, A. F., Muñoz, M. A., Kinzler, K., Woodward, A., & Gaither, S. E. (2023). Hypodescent or Ingroup Overexclusion?: Children's and Adults’ Racial Categorization of Ambiguous Black/White Biracial Faces. Developmental Science, e13450. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13450.

    Muñoz, M. A., Orvell, A., & Salvador, C. E. (2026). One Country, One People? Racial Ethnic Minorities in the United States Perceive Their Community Norms Stronger Than European Americans. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672251408108

    Naidu, E. S., Zhou, J., Muñoz, M. A., Wiswall, M. S., Gaither, S. E. (in prep). Living with Other-Race Roommates Opens Doors to Flexible Thinking.

    *Wiswall, M. S.,Muñoz, M.A., Naidu, E. S., Gaither, S. E. (in prep). Distinctly Ambiguous: How Monoracial South Asian and Latine Faces are Miscategorized and Mis-stereotyped

  • Muñoz,M. A., Orvell, A. & Salvador, C. E. (2024 October). The Role of Interdependence in Perceived Strength of Norms and Norm Adherence in Latine Americans. Talk presented at the National Latinx Psychological Association (NLPA) Conference, San Juan, PR. (Symposium title: Expressions of Interdependence in Latine people: Perspectives from Social, Developmental, and Cultural Psychology).

    Salvador, C. E. & Muñoz,M. A. (2022 October). One Country, One People? Cultural Variation in the Strength of Norms Among Ethnic Groups in the United States. Talk presented for the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP), Philadelphia, PA.

    Muñoz,M. A. (2022 April). One Country, One People? Cultural Variation in the Strength of Norms Among Ethnic Groups in the United States. Talk presented for the Duke University Social Psychology Brownbag, Durham, NC.

    Albuja, A., Muñoz,M. A., Kinzler, K. D.,Woodward, A. L. & Gaither, S. E. (2021 October). Seeing Black, Seeing White: Ambiguous Categorization Outcomes for White and Black Children and their Parents. Talk presented forSociety of Southeastern Social Psychologists (SSSP) Annual Virtual Conference.

  • *indicating undergraduate research mentee

    Muñoz,M. A., Enright, E. A., Gaither, S. E., Halim, M. D., Pauker, K., Olson, K. R. & Dunham, Y. (2024 March). Children’s In-Group Preferences: A Large-Scale Analysis on Racially Diverse Children’s Race-Based Social Judgements. PosterPresented at the Cognitive Development Society (CDS) Biennial Conference, San Diego, CA.

    Muñoz,M. A., Orvell, A. & Salvador, C. E. (2024 February). One Country, One People? Cultural Variation in the Strength of Norms Among Racial Ethnic Groups in the United States. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Convention 2024, San Diego, CA.

    *Raj, S., Wiswall, M. S, Muñoz, M. A. & Gaither, S. E. (2023 July). Perceptions of Emergent Minorities: An Exploration of Ingroup vs Outgroup Stereotype Incongruences. Poster presented at Duke University VIP poster session, Durham, NC.

     Wiswall, M. S, Muñoz, M. A., *Jaffe, T. & Gaither, S. E. (2023 June). Distinctly Ambiguous: An Exploration of South Asian and Latino Perceptions. Poster presented for Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) Annual Convention, Denver, CO.

(2) Within-Group Differences

In the second line of my research, I explore how people within the same racial group can develop different perceptions of their world. Specifically, I specialize in investigating Latine identity and how people can develop distinct mental representations of the same racial and cultural identity.

  • +indicating an undergraduate research mentee

    Muñoz, M. A. & Gaither, S. E. (2025). Considering Multiplicity in Racial Ethnic Socialization. Annual Review, Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-111323-115125

    Muñoz, M. A., Jenkins, S. H., Carbajal, I., & Gaither, S. E. (2026). Intersecting Identities and Ideologies: Sociodemographic Predictors of 2024 Voting Among Mexican and Cuban Americans. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 26, e70046. https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.70046

    Muñoz, M. A., +Piedra, N., +Jurewicz A., Gaither, S. E. (in prep). Ethnicity or Race: Latine Young Adults’ Reflections on their Racial and Ethnic Latine Identity.

  • *indicating undergraduate research mentee

    Muñoz, M. A., Salvador, C. E. & Gaither, S. E. (2025 May). The Role of Skin-Tone in Race and Ethnicity Self-Identification in Latine Children. Talk presented to the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Biennial Meeting. Minneapolis, MN. (Symposium title: Exploring Latine and Indigenous Latine Identity: How Environmental Factors Influence Racial-Ethnic Identity).

    *Jimenez, C., Muñoz, M. A. & Gaither, S. E., (2025 March). Shades of Latino Identity: Ethnicity, Race, Skin Color, and Discrimination. Talk presented at the ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference, Pittsburg, PA

    Muñoz, M. A., Salvador, C. E. & Gaither, S. E. (2024 March). Race or Ethnicity: Latino Identification Complexities and Considerations. Talk presented at the Cognitive Development Society (CDS) Biennial Conference Pre-Conference: Why Basic Cognitive Developmental Science Needs Diversity: Theoretical Value and Practical Considerations, San Diego, CA.

    Muñoz, M. A. & Gaither, S. E., (2023 February). What is your Race? Examining Racial Self-Identification in Latinx Children. Talkpresented for Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Convention 2023, Atlanta, GA.

  • *indicating undergraduate mentee

    *Piedra, N., Muñoz, M. A. & Gaither, S. E. (2025 February). Race or ethnicity? Latinx Identity Complexity Through Focus Groups. Poster presented for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Convention 2025, Denver, CO.

    *Jimenez, C., Muñoz, M. A. & Gaither, S.E. (2024 July). Shades of Latino Identity: Ethnicity, Race, Skin Color, and Discrimination. Poster presented at the Duke Summer Research Showcase, Durham, NC.

    *Piedra, N., Muñoz, M.A. & Gaither, S. E. (2024 June). Factors Influencing Latinx College Students’ Demographic Form Choices. Poster presented at the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) Annual Convention 2024, Philadelphia, PA. 

    *Izquierdo, N., Muñoz, M. A. & Gaither, S. E. (2023 November). Exploring Racial & Ethnic Identity in Hispanic/Latino Families. Poster presented at the Society for Southeast Social Psychologists (SSSP) Annual Conference, Charlotte, NC.

    *Piedra, N., Muñoz, M. A. & Gaither, S. E. (2023 July). Factors Influencing Latinx College Students’ Demographic Form Choices. Poster presented at Duke University Summer Research Symposium, Durham, NC.

    *Tobon, D., Muñoz, M. A. & Gaither, S. E. (2023 February). What Characteristics Make You Hispanic/Latino?: Examining Latino Identity Development. Poster presented for Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Convention 2023, Atlanta, GA.