Her research focuses on modern forms of discrimination that emerge in organizational contexts and how stereotypes can undermine performance. Some of Shapiro’s recent work looked at the ways in which overweight or obese shoppers were treated in retail stores. She and her research colleagues set up an elaborate series of tests, sending shoppers in to stores both as themselves and also while wearing obesity prosthetics to gauge how they were treated. This methodology was used to ensure that everything other than size was the same between the "two" shoppers. Also, secret observers were used to watch the interactions and tape recorders were used to document the exchanges. What Shapiro found was that the overweight shoppers were subtly discriminated when shopping: