Rate My Professor Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington

Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington is an Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University Abu Dhabi. She obtained her PhD in Psychology from Harvard University in 2014, an MSc in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Her research investigates the consequences of adversity and economic inequality on cognitive functioning, self-regulation, and perceived control, with downstream effects on decisions in health, education, and finance. She also examines the psychological foundations of political attitudes, including egalitarianism and populist sentiment, and how ideologies such as neoliberalism shape self-construals and social relations. Her work has been published in journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and funded by organizations such as the British Academy and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Sheehy-Skeffington previously served on the faculty at the London School of Economics and Political Science from 2016 to 2025 and is currently a Visiting Senior Fellow there, affiliated with the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science and the International Inequalities Institute. Her PhD thesis received the Harvard University Herrnstein Prize in 2015, and she was awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. She serves as Associate Editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology.