Dr. Natalie D. Smoak is a social psychologist whose primary areas of research include intergroup bias, implicit attitudes, the impact of romantic relationships on health behaviors, and gender stereotypes. While at Purdue University, Dr. Smoak's research focused on emotion-based intergroup bias. In particular, in her dissertation, she examined how lessening the implicit associations between negative emotions and outgroup members would influence nonverbal behaviors within an intergroup interaction. Additionally, she has examined the role of relationship commitment in contraceptive behaviors and the malleability of implicit gender stereotypes. While at the University of Connecticut as a post-doctoral research associate, she examined the role of implicit associations between condoms, sexuality, and positivity as related to HIV risk behaviors. In addition, she also meta-analytically examined the effectiveness of HIV interventions delivered through mass media, the effectiveness of HIV interventions in developing countries and the role of condom distribution on sexual frequency. Her newest line of research involves using virtual reality technology to study health behaviors.