Dr. Emerson Do Bú holds a five-year Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Psychology from the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG, Brazil), a Master’s degree in Social Psychology from the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB, Brazil)—recognized by both the University of Minho (Portugal) and ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon—and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Lisbon (FP-ULisbon, Portugal), carried out in collaboration with the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS-ULisboa) and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU, USA). During his doctoral training, he served as a Visiting Researcher at the Discrimination and Health Research Lab at VCU and participated in two European Association of Social Psychology (EASP) summer schools, held at the University of Surrey (England) and Uniwersytet SWPS (Poland). He also took part in three Erasmus+ programs (QHelp – Higher Learning Education for Quantitative Thinking) at KU Leuven (Belgium), the University of Padua (Italy), and the University of Lisbon (Portugal). He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences, and was a Junior Researcher at ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon.

Dr. Do Bú’s doctoral research focused on the Intergroup Time Bias (ITB) effect—a subtle but impactful form of discrimination in which healthcare providers invest more time with White patients than with Black patients. His studies, conducted in Brazil, Portugal, and the United States, demonstrated not only the existence of this bias but also its implications for diagnostic accuracy, clinical recommendations, and patient-provider communication. His contributions to this area of research earned him multiple distinctions, including Summa Cum Laude honors from FP-ULisbon and two prestigious dissertation awards in 2024: the Social Personality and Health Network Outstanding Dissertation Award and the Social Issues Dissertation Award from the Social Personality and Health Network and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (APA Division 9), respectively. He is also the recipient of the 2025 APP (Portuguese Psychological Association) Social Psychology Research Prize for Young Doctors (Maria Benedicta Monteiro Prize), which acknowledges and promotes significant contributions by emerging professionals in Social Psychology. During his postdoctoral training and time as a Junior Researcher, Dr. Do Bú focused on developing and evaluating interventions to reduce racial disparities in healthcare.

Currently, as a Research Fellow at ICS-ULisboa, he applies social psychological theories and novel methodologies—including virtual reality and physiological measures—to investigate both the mechanisms behind discriminatory behavior and the psychological consequences for those targeted by systemic bias. His work adopts a cross-cultural perspective, simultaneously examining both the oppressor perspective—investigating the psychosocial mechanisms of negative attitudes and discriminatory behaviors—and the oppressed perspective, exploring how systemic biases affect the mental health of minoritized individuals.^[1]

Keywords: Applied Psychology; Social Psychology; Health Psychology; Intergroup Relations; Psychological Assessment.

^[1] The terms oppressor and oppressed reflect Paulo Freire’s framework on systemic power imbalances.