Dr. McGlone (Ph.D., Princeton University, 1994) investigates the cognitive, cultural and psychological foundations of interpersonal communication and persuasion. He has two principal research programs. One explores the linguistic devices people use to overcome communication challenges ? i.e., how people talk about things that are difficult to talk about. He has studied how people use metaphors to describe abstract concepts (time, intelligence, justice, etc.), use euphemisms to describe embarrassing topics (bodily functions, prejudice, death, etc.), and resort to "contextomy" (selective quotation) to discuss complicated sociopolitical issues in self-serving ways. A second program explores the role of social stereotypes in interpersonal interaction. In particular, he is interested in how people's awareness of self-relevant stereotypes can impair their communication with others, a phenomenon known as "stereotype threat."