Brittany Tausen, Ph.D.

Education

• Post-doctoral Research Fellow, University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
• Ph.D., Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
• MSc, Social Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
• B.A., Psychology, Carroll College

Biography

BIC Courses: Social World, Natural World

Dr. Brittany M. Tausen is an assistant professor of social psychology in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC) with a secondary appointment in the department of Psychology and Neuroscience since January 1, 2026. Prior to this role, she was an associate professor and the director of undergraduate research at Seattle Pacific University. Dr. Tausen earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, specializing in social cognition, and completed visiting graduate assistantships at Dartmouth College and a post-doctoral appointment at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Her teaching load in the BIC is a 2/2. She is responsible for two core BIC sequence courses: Social World I and II as well as Natural World I and II. She will also be contributing to the colloquium series. 

Dr. Tausen’s research spans several branches of social cognition and virtue science that include dehumanization, character education, self-concept construal and moral identity formation. Examining how people think about and treat one another, Dr. Tausen investigates both the causes and consequences of dehumanization and strategies for fostering humanizing perceptions—particularly toward individuals experiencing homelessness. Her work also probes the “why” and “how” of cultivating virtues like neighbor love so that loving intentions more readily translate into loving actions. 

Widely published in social psychology, education, and interdisciplinary journals, Dr. Tausen has co-led projects securing nearly $2 million in grant funding to advance character and faith formation practices. Dr. Tausen is coauthor of Love Your Neighbor: How Psychology Can Enliven Faith and Transform Community (Eerdmans, 2026) and directs Classrooms that Cultivate Character, an initiative equipping educators with research-based tools for integrating virtue formation into their teaching and mentoring.

She serves her guild and community in many ways. She regularly reviews journal articles for peer-review for national and international journals. She staffs new student visit days, advises honors theses students, and is the principal investigator of an undergraduate research lab to provide undergraduate students with unique research experiences. She has also served as an Advisory Council member for World Relief Western Washington, where she was involved with their fundraising, philanthropy and strategic planning efforts. Recently she has begun giving talks at church conferences related to marriage and parenting to help bridge the gap between the academy and the church and illuminate research that can help strengthen relationships. 

Outside of the classroom, Dr. Tausen can often be found paddle boarding, binging podcasts, practicing yoga, hiking, or making pizzas with her family.