Katherine B Starzyk
Biographic Data
| ID | 3615306 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katherine B Starzyk |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katherine B |
| FAMILY NAME | Starzyk |
| SIGNATURE | STARZYK K B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manitoba |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8885-1894 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 29 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
A mixed methods investigation of Indigenous university students’ experiences with and strategies to challenge racism
Anti-Indigenous racism happens with alarming regularity at the institution and negatively impacts Indigenous participants, though participants actively push back against racism. We discuss the implications and future research directions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
The impact of education about historical and current injustices, individual racism and systemic racism on anti‐Indigenous racism
Anti‐Indigenous racism is a pressing issue in Canada. Education on historical and contemporary Indigenous topics is a common strategy to challenge such racism. Despite the existence of education‐based programmes intended to address anti‐Indigenous racism, there is limited evidence that they are effective. To this end, we report the results of two longitudinal experiments ( N 1 = 639, N 2 = 1099) assessing the effect of education on anti‐Indigenou…
Zero to 60 Laughs per Hour
“I definitely felt like I was there”
We examine how 20 university students interacted with a virtual Residential School that was designed in partnership with a group of Indigenous Survivors of Canada’s Residential Schools system. We begin by offering a brief history of Canada’s Residential Schools system as well as the origins and ambitions of the Embodying Empathy project. We also reflect on the idea of empathy as it has been taken up both in the design and testing phases of the pr…
The More You Know
The pursuit of intergroup reconciliation often includes efforts to educate with the goal of fostering empathy. Yet little empirical evidence demonstrates whether and why greater knowledge might increase empathy. In this research, we investigated whether more critical historical knowledge about a harmed outgroup increases empathy for them, and we explored whether perceptions of privity, the extent to which a past harm continues to cause suffering …
"Is Water a Human Right?"
Many First Nations homes in Canada do not have adequate water services. This issue is unlikely to be resolved without public pressure on the government. Thus, we investigated one strategy to increase non-Indigenous Canadians’ support for government action: framing water as a human right. Informed by a partnership with Indigenous community members and multidisciplinary collaborators, we conducted seven experiments that sampled non-Indigenous Canad…
The effects of potential benefit on support for reparations for intergroup harm
Barriers to and Strategies for Engaging Non-Indigenous Canadians in First Nations Water Rights
Many First Nations homes lack adequate water and sanitation services. One way to address these conditions is to develop effective public engagement strategies. Thus, in this qualitative interview study, we explored how 22 non-Indigenous Canadians from one city interpreted this issue and their interest in it. We analyzed the transcribed data using thematic coding and constant comparison. Though most participants were aware of the issue and express…
Political solidarity
Political solidarity is often key to addressing societal injustice. Yet social and political psychology are without a common definition or comprehensive measure of this construct, complicating advancements in this burgeoning field. To address these gaps, we advance a novel understanding and measure of this construct. We conceptualized political solidarity as a construct consisting of three factors—allyship with a minority outgroup, a connection t…
The case for and causes of intraminority solidarity in support for reparations
In three studies, we examined how racial/ethnic majority (i.e., White) and non-Indigenous minority participants in Canada responded to reparations for Indigenous peoples in Canada. Our goal was to understand whether and why there may be intraminority solidarity in this context. In Study 1, with a large, national survey (N = 1,947), we examined the extent to which participants agreed the government should be responsible for addressing human rights…
How feeling connected to one’s own community can increase support for addressing injustice impacting outgroup communities
How can agents of social change increase public support for minority communities? In three studies, we demonstrate how heightened feelings of community connection can predict support for addressing injustice in minority communities. Community connection, when experimentally evoked (Study 1) or measured (Study 3), was associated with heightened support for the government addressing substandard conditions in an African American housing project (Stu…
The Validity of Self-Report Measures in Assessing Historical Knowledge
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) strives to increase public education regarding residential schools. A baseline measure of the public’s residential school knowledge could be useful to evaluate the progress of the TRC. The National Benchmark Survey, Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study, and Canadian Public Opinion on Aboriginal Peoples Report are three existing surveys that provide such a baseline, though each use only self-report…
The personal acquaintance measure
The authors developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the 18-item Personal Acquaintance Measure (PAM) and investigated how the PAM relates to self- other agreement in personality ratings. Results support that 6 factors represent the PAM (Duration, Frequency of Interaction, Knowledge of Goals, Physical Intimacy, Self-Disclosure, Social Network Familiarity), which showed evidence of internal consistency, test-retest reliability over 3 …
Associations between the Holden Psychological Screening Inventory and the Personality Assessment Screener in a Nonclinical Sample
Associations between two screening inventories of psychopathology were investigated using a sample of 156 first-year undergraduates. Analyses supported the reliability and validity of all Holden Psychological Screening Inventory scales, but only of some of the Personality Assessment Screener scales. Orthogonal dimensions of Depression, General Distress, and Antisocial Tendencies represented the common latent structure of the two inventories
The More You Know
The pursuit of intergroup reconciliation often includes efforts to educate with the goal of fostering empathy. Yet little empirical evidence demonstrates whether and why greater knowledge might increase empathy. In this research, we investigated whether more critical historical knowledge about a harmed outgroup increases empathy for them, and we explored whether perceptions of privity, the extent to which a past harm continues to cause suffering …
The case for and causes of intraminority solidarity in support for reparations
In three studies, we examined how racial/ethnic majority (i.e., White) and non-Indigenous minority participants in Canada responded to reparations for Indigenous peoples in Canada. Our goal was to understand whether and why there may be intraminority solidarity in this context. In Study 1, with a large, national survey (N = 1,947), we examined the extent to which participants agreed the government should be responsible for addressing human rights…
The personal acquaintance measure
The authors developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the 18-item Personal Acquaintance Measure (PAM) and investigated how the PAM relates to self- other agreement in personality ratings. Results support that 6 factors represent the PAM (Duration, Frequency of Interaction, Knowledge of Goals, Physical Intimacy, Self-Disclosure, Social Network Familiarity), which showed evidence of internal consistency, test-retest reliability over 3 …
Political solidarity
Political solidarity is often key to addressing societal injustice. Yet social and political psychology are without a common definition or comprehensive measure of this construct, complicating advancements in this burgeoning field. To address these gaps, we advance a novel understanding and measure of this construct. We conceptualized political solidarity as a construct consisting of three factors—allyship with a minority outgroup, a connection t…
The impact of education about historical and current injustices, individual racism and systemic racism on anti‐Indigenous racism
Anti‐Indigenous racism is a pressing issue in Canada. Education on historical and contemporary Indigenous topics is a common strategy to challenge such racism. Despite the existence of education‐based programmes intended to address anti‐Indigenous racism, there is limited evidence that they are effective. To this end, we report the results of two longitudinal experiments ( N 1 = 639, N 2 = 1099) assessing the effect of education on anti‐Indigenou…
How feeling connected to one’s own community can increase support for addressing injustice impacting outgroup communities
How can agents of social change increase public support for minority communities? In three studies, we demonstrate how heightened feelings of community connection can predict support for addressing injustice in minority communities. Community connection, when experimentally evoked (Study 1) or measured (Study 3), was associated with heightened support for the government addressing substandard conditions in an African American housing project (Stu…
Associations between the Holden Psychological Screening Inventory and the Personality Assessment Screener in a Nonclinical Sample
Associations between two screening inventories of psychopathology were investigated using a sample of 156 first-year undergraduates. Analyses supported the reliability and validity of all Holden Psychological Screening Inventory scales, but only of some of the Personality Assessment Screener scales. Orthogonal dimensions of Depression, General Distress, and Antisocial Tendencies represented the common latent structure of the two inventories
The personal acquaintance measure
The authors developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the 18-item Personal Acquaintance Measure (PAM) and investigated how the PAM relates to self- other agreement in personality ratings. Results support that 6 factors represent the PAM (Duration, Frequency of Interaction, Knowledge of Goals, Physical Intimacy, Self-Disclosure, Social Network Familiarity), which showed evidence of internal consistency, test-retest reliability over 3 …
The Validity of Self-Report Measures in Assessing Historical Knowledge
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) strives to increase public education regarding residential schools. A baseline measure of the public’s residential school knowledge could be useful to evaluate the progress of the TRC. The National Benchmark Survey, Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study, and Canadian Public Opinion on Aboriginal Peoples Report are three existing surveys that provide such a baseline, though each use only self-report…
How feeling connected to one’s own community can increase support for addressing injustice impacting outgroup communities
How can agents of social change increase public support for minority communities? In three studies, we demonstrate how heightened feelings of community connection can predict support for addressing injustice in minority communities. Community connection, when experimentally evoked (Study 1) or measured (Study 3), was associated with heightened support for the government addressing substandard conditions in an African American housing project (Stu…
Barriers to and Strategies for Engaging Non-Indigenous Canadians in First Nations Water Rights
Many First Nations homes lack adequate water and sanitation services. One way to address these conditions is to develop effective public engagement strategies. Thus, in this qualitative interview study, we explored how 22 non-Indigenous Canadians from one city interpreted this issue and their interest in it. We analyzed the transcribed data using thematic coding and constant comparison. Though most participants were aware of the issue and express…
Political solidarity
Political solidarity is often key to addressing societal injustice. Yet social and political psychology are without a common definition or comprehensive measure of this construct, complicating advancements in this burgeoning field. To address these gaps, we advance a novel understanding and measure of this construct. We conceptualized political solidarity as a construct consisting of three factors—allyship with a minority outgroup, a connection t…
The case for and causes of intraminority solidarity in support for reparations
In three studies, we examined how racial/ethnic majority (i.e., White) and non-Indigenous minority participants in Canada responded to reparations for Indigenous peoples in Canada. Our goal was to understand whether and why there may be intraminority solidarity in this context. In Study 1, with a large, national survey (N = 1,947), we examined the extent to which participants agreed the government should be responsible for addressing human rights…
The effects of potential benefit on support for reparations for intergroup harm
"Is Water a Human Right?"
Many First Nations homes in Canada do not have adequate water services. This issue is unlikely to be resolved without public pressure on the government. Thus, we investigated one strategy to increase non-Indigenous Canadians’ support for government action: framing water as a human right. Informed by a partnership with Indigenous community members and multidisciplinary collaborators, we conducted seven experiments that sampled non-Indigenous Canad…
Zero to 60 Laughs per Hour
“I definitely felt like I was there”
We examine how 20 university students interacted with a virtual Residential School that was designed in partnership with a group of Indigenous Survivors of Canada’s Residential Schools system. We begin by offering a brief history of Canada’s Residential Schools system as well as the origins and ambitions of the Embodying Empathy project. We also reflect on the idea of empathy as it has been taken up both in the design and testing phases of the pr…
The More You Know
The pursuit of intergroup reconciliation often includes efforts to educate with the goal of fostering empathy. Yet little empirical evidence demonstrates whether and why greater knowledge might increase empathy. In this research, we investigated whether more critical historical knowledge about a harmed outgroup increases empathy for them, and we explored whether perceptions of privity, the extent to which a past harm continues to cause suffering …
The impact of education about historical and current injustices, individual racism and systemic racism on anti‐Indigenous racism
Anti‐Indigenous racism is a pressing issue in Canada. Education on historical and contemporary Indigenous topics is a common strategy to challenge such racism. Despite the existence of education‐based programmes intended to address anti‐Indigenous racism, there is limited evidence that they are effective. To this end, we report the results of two longitudinal experiments ( N 1 = 639, N 2 = 1099) assessing the effect of education on anti‐Indigenou…
A mixed methods investigation of Indigenous university students’ experiences with and strategies to challenge racism
Anti-Indigenous racism happens with alarming regularity at the institution and negatively impacts Indigenous participants, though participants actively push back against racism. We discuss the implications and future research directions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Psychology (13 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Indigenous (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (6 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Geography (4 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (3 works)