Dr. Starzyk runs the personality and justice lab in the University of Manitoba's psychology department. Her research focuses on determining the factors that lead people to support reparations for historical intergroup harms.

Dr. Starzyk addresses the psychological bases of people's responses to injustice. In one project, she is investigating the effects of ethnicity and the perceived potential benefit of providing reparations. This research demonstrates that people are less likely to perceive significant benefit to providing reparations for harms against Aboriginal people, compared to other minorities. When people perceive providing reparations will have little benefit, they judge past harms more benignly, experience less empathy and support potential reparations less.

In another project, Dr. Starzyk is investigating the impact of accounts of suffering (e.g. Indian Residential Schools) on intergroup relations. She is also conducting a meta-analysis to examine the relationship between belief in a just world and responses to victims.

She hopes to conduct research, in collaboration with Winnipeg's new Canadian Museum for Human Rights, to evaluate and ultimately increase the museum's effectiveness in inspiring people to take action.