Kidd studied print journalism and linguistics at the University of Southern California, where she earned a dual honors degree in 2007.
[8] She has studied why it is so difficult to shake a false belief, such as believing in flat earth or climate change denial.
[11] In 2016, Kidd alleged sexual harassment by T. Florian Jaeger, a tenured professor at the University of Rochester.
[14][15] In response, the university paid $4.5 million for an outside investigation led by Mary Jo White which confirmed all substantial allegations about the tenured professor, but suggested that the allegations did not meet the threshold for illegal sexual harassment or retaliation, and that the complainants' narrative was "largely without factual basis.
In 2020, a federal court disagreed with the conclusions of the Mary Jo White Report and upheld 16 of the 17 claims alleged by the plaintiffs.
[22][23] As part of the settlement, the university was required to remove the exonerating White report from its public webpage.