Advances in Cultural Psychology Pre-Conference
Join us in person at the Advances in Cultural Psychology Pre-Conference prior to the next Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference 6-8pm, Wednesday, February 25, 2026, in Chicago.
2026 Theme
Let’s Not Talk About AI for Two Hours:
Cultural Differences in Values, Faces, and Hunting Impala
AI is everywhere these days. If you’re like us, you could use a break. So let’s set aside two hours of our lives to talk about anything but AI, LLMs, and ChatGPT. Trust us: AI will be waiting for you when the two hours are up. But for those two hours, we’ll talk about the whole wild world out there outside of AI! Can regular Americans tell which hunter-gatherers can bring down more impalas just by looking at their faces? Does culture shape how people read personality into faces? Join us for the latest research on people still hunting their own food and looking at real human faces push, plus a lightning round of data blitz talks.
New Time and Location!
The culture pre-conference will be the night BEFORE most pre-conferences.
Date: Wednesday, February 25th, 2026
Food Served: 5:30pm
Main Program: 6-8pm
Posters, Dessert, Social: 8-9 pm
Cost: Free! Suggested donation for professors
Location: Community Room, 1901 S Calumet Ave, Chicago, IL 60616
Just two blocks from the Marriott conference hotel!
Registration
Registration is now full!
We are accepting signups for the waitlist:
Registration for the culture pre-conference is NOT on the SPSP website. Please use the link above.
Advance registration is required. We cannot accommodate unregistered guests or same-day registrations.
Submit Your Research!
The submission deadline passed. We are no longer accepting submissions.
Apply now to share your research. We are accepting:
Posters
5-minute data blitz talks
Graduate students, postdocs, and untenured professors are welcome to apply. All presenters are expected to attend the conference in person. Registration is full, but any submissions accepted will be allowed to register!
Submissions are open through Thursday, October 23, 2025, 11:59 pm Pacific Time.
Submit posters or data blitzes here: tinyurl.com/CulturePreCon2026Submissions
Award for Outstanding Contribution to Cultural Psychology
We are collecting nominations for the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Cultural Psychology. This award recognizes a scholar (or group of scholars) whose work has added substantially to the body of knowledge in cultural psychology and whose sustained contributions in research, teaching, and/or service have significantly advanced the field.
Nomination materials must include:
1. A recommendation letter detailing how the nominee’s (or nominees’) work fits the criteria
2. The nominee’s (or nominees’) current CV
Send materials in one email to SPSPCulturalPsych@gmail.com by December 1, 2025. Awardees will give an award talk at the pre-conference. Self-nominations are welcome.
Pre-conference co-chairs
Cynthia Levine (cslevine@uw.edu), University of Washington
Jinkyung Na (jinkyung@sogang.ac.kr), Sogang University
Thomas Talhelm (talhelm@uchicago.edu), University of Chicago