Overview
Dr. Bridgette Hard is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University as well as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Psychology. Her first professional passion is teaching. She specializes in curriculum development for introductory psychology, the first (and often only) course that students take within the discipline. She has also devoted herself to helping PhD students and advanced undergraduates to develop their teaching skills and discover creative ways to integrate research and teaching. Dr. Hard also co-organizes two conferences for psychology teachers, the Psychology One Conference and the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (NITOP).
Dr. Hard’s second professional passion is exploring the intersection of psychology and pedagogy: She uses data from the classroom to extend psychological theories and uses insights from psychology to inform new classroom practices. Her research is conducted in collaboration with psychologists from diverse institutions around the U.S.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
The Gardener and the Coach: How Metaphor Use Shapes Impression Formation
Journal Article Journal of Language and Social Psychology · October 1, 2025 Using the classroom context as a case study, we investigated whether a novel linguistic cue—the use of self-referential metaphors—shapes person perception in metaphor-congruent ways. Across three experiments, current and former college students (N = 1,630) ... Full text CiteConnecting Introductory Psychology to Climate Change Can Empower Students
Journal Article Teaching of Psychology · January 1, 2025 Background: Introductory psychology courses provide a unique opportunity to educate students in ways that can inform how they will address major issues of the day. Objective: We tested whether an integrative, last-day-of-class activity in which students ap ... Full text CiteWhat Does “Success” Mean to Students at a Selective University? Individual Differences and Implications for Well-Being
Journal Article Journal of Postsecondary Student Success · July 10, 2023 This study investigated how college students (N = 376) at a private, selective university (a) define success in college in their own words, and how conceptions of success (b) relate to differences in motivation and other individual differences, and (c) pre ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
An experimental study of the impact of smartphones on classroom enjoyment, attention, and learning
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Association for Psychological Science · 2020 - 2022Causal impact of smartphones on attention, enjoyment, and learning in the classroom
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Society for Personality and Social Psychology · 2019 - 2021View All Grants