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Unveiling the Unseen: Exploring Salary Transparency and How it Contributes to the Gender Pay Gap

Jul 31, 2023

1 min

Dustin J. Sleesman


We have all heard about the gender pay gap, but do we truly understand the underlying factors that contribute to this inequality? A common proposal for reducing the pay gap between men and women is to increase pay transparency — letting job seekers know up front how much the job pays.


But does the way the information is presented have an impact? University of Delaware associate professor Dustin Sleesman's recent research sheds light on salary requests from male and female job seekers, and how those change based on the framing of the salary information.


Sleesman, affiliated with UD's Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics, studies the psychology of decision-making, including why people become committed to their decisions and how biases can influence them. Second, he focuses on negotiation and conflict resolution — and especially how they are affected by our thoughts and perceptions. Third, he studies team effectiveness, such as understanding how the motivation and personality of team members influence their interactions.


Connect with:
Dustin J. Sleesman

Dustin J. Sleesman

Associate Professor, Management

Dr. Sleesman studies the psychology of decision-making, negotiation and conflict resolution, as well as team effectiveness.

MotivationTeamwork DynamicsNegotiationDecision-MakingConflict Resolution

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3 min

Researchers race to detect Alzheimer's sooner using $3.9M grant

Too often, people learn they have Alzheimer’s disease when it’s too late. The changes in the brain that lead to the disease manifesting with symptoms have already been occurring for decades. Researchers at the University of Delaware will attempt to detect the disease sooner through a new study that examines changes in the arteries and brain tissue in midlife adults in their 50s and 60s. The findings of this work, funded by a nearly $4 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), could identify the earliest mechanisms linking vascular aging to the loss of brain tissue integrity, leading to new targets for interventions aimed at preventing age-related cognitive impairment. “People who develop high blood pressure or stiffening of the aorta and carotid arteries in midlife are at a much higher risk for developing cognitive impairment or dementia in late life,” said Christopher Martens, the principal investigator of the study. Martens, an associate professor of kinesiology and applied physiology in UD's College of Health Sciences and director of the Delaware Center for Cognitive Aging (DECCAR), is working closely with Curtis Johnson, an associate professor of biomedical engineering in the College of Engineering and leader of the neuroimaging biomarker core within DECCAR, on research funded by a nearly $4 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “A lot happens as we age, so we’re aiming to pinpoint the timing and exact mechanisms that cause these changes in midlife adults,” Martens said. This latest grant extends DECCAR’s ongoing Delaware Longitudinal Study for Alzheimer’s Prevention (DeLSAP), which seeks to study how risk and protective factors for dementia are related and change over time. Those eligible for DeLSAP could also meet the criteria for participating in the new study. In his Neurovascular Aging Laboratory, Martens studies mechanisms leading to the stiffening of arteries, while Johnson is specifically interested in measuring the stiffness of the brain. “As a person ages, the brain gets softer and breaks down, and we’re looking to see whether changes in arterial stiffness and patterns of blood flow in the brain cause this decline,” Johnson said. Changes in blood flow to the brain come from controllable factors. Smoking, cardiovascular health, diet and exercise all impact blood flow positively and negatively. “A lot of aging research is done at the end of life,” Johnson said. “We want to look at midlife and try to predict what happens later in life so we can prevent it.” While the brain gets softer with age, arteries get stiffer. “We hypothesize that midlife increases in stiffness in blood vessels cause damaging pulsatile pressure to enter the brain,” Martens said. “We believe this is one of the reasons we start to develop cognitive issues at an older age because the brain is exposed to increased pressure; that pressure is likely inflicting damage on surrounding brain tissue.” In Johnson’s Mechanical Neuroimaging Lab, researchers will use high-resolution magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) to determine where brain damage occurs and what specific brain structures may be affected. “From an MRI perspective, most researchers look at AD and other neurodegenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis with an emphasis on detection in a hospital setting,” Johnson said. “Using highly specialized techniques we’ve developed, we focus on the earlier side and how these changes progress into disease from the neuroscience side, emphasizing prevention.” Together, they’ll seek to learn whether arterial stiffness causes the kind of cognitive impairment seen in AD or whether the decline is associated with a loss in the integrity of brain tissue. “If we can prove arterial stiffness is playing a causal role in cognitive aging, that would provide further support for focusing on blood vessel health as an intervention for delaying AD or other forms of dementia versus solely focusing on the brain,” Martens said.

1 min

International Education Week: University of Delaware leads the way in global studies

The University of Delaware has a lot to boast about in regards to International Education Week, which takes place from Nov. 18-22. This includes a four-year academic program that immerses students in both culture and classrooms of host countries; a mentoring program for international students on UD's campus; and the oldest study abroad program in the nation. UD's World Scholars program offers students a four-year global education that begins with a semester of study in Greece, Italy, England, New Zealand or Spain where students earn credits in their majors while becoming immersed in the culture and history of the respective host country. The 101-year-old Study Abroad Program – the oldest program founded by a U.S. institution – offers programs in 40 countries. More than 30 percent of UD undergraduates study abroad at least once, and while one in 10 American students study abroad, at UD the number is 3 in 10. Finally, UD’s Center for Global Programming and Services offers the iBuddy Mentoring Program, which pairs incoming international students with trained and experienced UD student mentors. After undergoing iBuddy training, these mentors offer friendship and guidance on academic matters, social life, housing options and more. They also organize events to help them get socialized.

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