Jennifer L Eberhardt
Biographic Data
| ID | 3457097 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jennifer L Eberhardt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jennifer L |
| FAMILY NAME | Eberhardt |
| SIGNATURE | EBERHARDT J L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stanford University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1687-8128 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 550 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Racial and Ethnic Representation in Literature Taught in US High Schools
We quantify the representation, or presence, of characters of color in English Language Arts (ELA) instruction in the United States to better understand possible racial/ethnic emphases and gaps in literary curricula. We contribute two datasets: the first consists of books listed in widely-adopted Advanced Placement (AP) Literature & Composition exams, and the second is a set of books taught by teachers surveyed from schools with substantial Black…
Racial Disparities in the Discretionary Context of Traffic Stops: How Organizational Practices Shape Institutional Interactions
Traffic stops are common and consequential for citizens’ legal socialization and for racial gaps in police‐community trust. Efforts to change the tenor of police interactions, however, may discount the discretionary context of stops—the degree of choice in the decision to stop a driver—and how organizations influence those circumstances. Discretionary stops entail more choice and thus create more ambiguity for the driver regarding the officer's i…
When the Cruiser Lights Come On”: Using the Science of Bias & Culture to Combat Racial Disparities in Policing
In this essay, we highlight the interplay between individuals' psychological processes and sociocultural systems in producing and maintaining racial bias. We use a conceptual tool we call the culture cycle to map these dynamics, and illustrate them with research and in-depth examples from our work reducing racial disparities in routine policing in Oakland, California. We feature the most common police encounter – the vehicle stop – and highlight …
We built this culture (so we can change it): Seven principles for intentional culture change
Calls for culture change abound. Headlines regularly feature calls to change the "broken" or "toxic" cultures of institutions and organizations, and people debate which norms and practices across society are now defunct. As people blame current societal problems on culture, the proposed fix is "culture change." But what is culture change? How does it work? Can it be effective? This article presents a novel social psychological framework for inten…
The thin blue waveform: Racial disparities in officer prosody undermine institutional trust in the police
How do routine police encounters build or undermine community trust, and how might they contribute to racial gaps in citizen perceptions of the police? Procedural justice theory posits that officers' interpersonal communication toward the public plays a formative role, but experimental tests of this hypothesis have been constrained by the difficulties of measuring and manipulating this dimension of officer-citizen interactions. Officer-worn body …
Language from police body camera footage shows racial disparities in officer respect
Significance Police officers speak significantly less respectfully to black than to white community members in everyday traffic stops, even after controlling for officer race, infraction severity, stop location, and stop outcome. This paper presents a systematic analysis of officer body-worn camera footage, using computational linguistic techniques to automatically measure the respect level that officers display to community members. This work de…
A Vicious Cycle: A Social–Psychological Account of Extreme Racial Disparities in School Discipline
Can social–psychological theory provide insight into the extreme racial disparities in school disciplinary action in the United States? Disciplinary problems carry enormous consequences for the quality of students’ experience in school, opportunities to learn, and ultimate life outcomes. This burden falls disproportionately on students of color. Integrating research on stereotyping and on stigma, we theorized that bias and apprehension about bias…
Polluting Black space.
Social psychologists have long demonstrated that people are stereotyped on the basis of race. Researchers have conducted extensive experimental studies on the negative stereotypes associated with Black Americans in particular. Across 4 studies, we demonstrate that the physical spaces associated with Black Americans are also subject to negative racial stereotypes. Such spaces, for example, are perceived as impoverished, crime-ridden, and dirty (St…
Victims’ Race and Sex Leads to Eyewitness Misidentification of Perpetrator’s Phenotypic Stereotypicality
Eyewitness misidentification is the primary cause of wrongful convictions in North America. Discovering a discernible pattern to these errors is a critical step toward creating procedures that reduce the occurrence of these tragic mistakes. To these ends, we hypothesized that both the victims’ race and the victims’ sex may impact eyewitness identification for perpetrators of certain crime types. In two experiments, we demonstrated that a Black ma…
Two Strikes: Race and the Disciplining of Young Students
There are large racial disparities in school discipline in the United States, which, for Black students, not only contribute to school failure but also can lay a path toward incarceration. Although the disparities have been well documented, the psychological mechanisms underlying them are unclear. In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that such disparities are, in part, driven by racial stereotypes that can lead teachers to escalate their …
Racial Disparities in Incarceration Increase Acceptance of Punitive Policies
During the past few decades, punitive crime policies have led to explosive growth in the United States prison population. Such policies have contributed to unprecedented incarceration rates for Blacks in particular. In this article, we consider an unexamined relationship between racial disparities and policy reform. Rather than treating racial disparities as an outcome to be measured, we exposed people to real and extreme racial disparities and o…
From Agents to Objects: Sexist Attitudes and Neural Responses to Sexualized Targets
Agency attribution is a hallmark of mind perception; thus, diminished attributions of agency may disrupt social–cognition processes typically elicited by human targets. The current studies examine the effect of perceivers' sexist attitudes on associations of agency with, and neural responses to, images of sexualized and clothed men and women. In Study 1, male (but not female) participants with higher hostile sexism scores more quickly associated …
The role of social meaning in inattentional blindness: When the gorillas in our midst do not go unseen
The Neural Underpinnings of Group Life
International audience
Biological conceptions of race and the motivation to cross racial boundaries
The present studies demonstrate that conceiving of racial group membership as biologically determined increases acceptance of racial inequities (Studies 1 and 2) and cools interest in interacting with racial outgroup members (Studies 3-5). These effects were generally independent of racial prejudice. It is argued that when race is cast as a biological marker of individuals, people perceive racial outgroup members as unrelated to the self and ther…
Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences
Historical representations explicitly depicting Blacks as apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental association between Blacks and apes remains. Here, the authors demonstrate that U.S. citizens implicitly associate Blacks and apes. In a series of laboratory studies, the authors reveal how this association influences study participants' basic cognitive processes and significantly alters their judgments in criminal justice…
Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes
Researchers previously have investigated the role of race in capital sentencing, and in particular, whether the race of the defendant or victim influences the likelihood of a death sentence. In the present study, we examined whether the likelihood of being sentenced to death is influenced by the degree to which a Black defendant is perceived to have a stereotypically Black appearance. Controlling for a wide array of factors, we found that in case…
Imaging race
Researchers have recently begun to use the tools of neuroscience to examine the social psychological responses associated with race. This article serves as a review of the developing literature in this area. It advances the argument that neuroscience studies of race have the potential to shape fundamental assumptions about race, and the interplay between social and biological processes more generally
Seeing Black: Race, Crime, and Visual Processing
Using police officers and undergraduates as participants, the authors investigated the influence of stereotypic associations on visual processing in 5 studies. Study 1 demonstrates that Black faces influence participants' ability to spontaneously detect degraded images of crime-relevant objects. Conversely, Studies 2-4 demonstrate that activating abstract concepts (i.e., crime and basketball) induces attentional biases toward Black male faces. Mo…
Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences
Historical representations explicitly depicting Blacks as apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental association between Blacks and apes remains. Here, the authors demonstrate that U.S. citizens implicitly associate Blacks and apes. In a series of laboratory studies, the authors reveal how this association influences study participants' basic cognitive processes and significantly alters their judgments in criminal justice…
Seeing Black: Race, Crime, and Visual Processing
Using police officers and undergraduates as participants, the authors investigated the influence of stereotypic associations on visual processing in 5 studies. Study 1 demonstrates that Black faces influence participants' ability to spontaneously detect degraded images of crime-relevant objects. Conversely, Studies 2-4 demonstrate that activating abstract concepts (i.e., crime and basketball) induces attentional biases toward Black male faces. Mo…
Biological conceptions of race and the motivation to cross racial boundaries
The present studies demonstrate that conceiving of racial group membership as biologically determined increases acceptance of racial inequities (Studies 1 and 2) and cools interest in interacting with racial outgroup members (Studies 3-5). These effects were generally independent of racial prejudice. It is argued that when race is cast as a biological marker of individuals, people perceive racial outgroup members as unrelated to the self and ther…
Imaging race
Researchers have recently begun to use the tools of neuroscience to examine the social psychological responses associated with race. This article serves as a review of the developing literature in this area. It advances the argument that neuroscience studies of race have the potential to shape fundamental assumptions about race, and the interplay between social and biological processes more generally
We built this culture (so we can change it): Seven principles for intentional culture change
Calls for culture change abound. Headlines regularly feature calls to change the "broken" or "toxic" cultures of institutions and organizations, and people debate which norms and practices across society are now defunct. As people blame current societal problems on culture, the proposed fix is "culture change." But what is culture change? How does it work? Can it be effective? This article presents a novel social psychological framework for inten…
The thin blue waveform: Racial disparities in officer prosody undermine institutional trust in the police
How do routine police encounters build or undermine community trust, and how might they contribute to racial gaps in citizen perceptions of the police? Procedural justice theory posits that officers' interpersonal communication toward the public plays a formative role, but experimental tests of this hypothesis have been constrained by the difficulties of measuring and manipulating this dimension of officer-citizen interactions. Officer-worn body …
The role of social meaning in inattentional blindness: When the gorillas in our midst do not go unseen
When the Cruiser Lights Come On”: Using the Science of Bias & Culture to Combat Racial Disparities in Policing
In this essay, we highlight the interplay between individuals' psychological processes and sociocultural systems in producing and maintaining racial bias. We use a conceptual tool we call the culture cycle to map these dynamics, and illustrate them with research and in-depth examples from our work reducing racial disparities in routine policing in Oakland, California. We feature the most common police encounter – the vehicle stop – and highlight …
Racial Disparities in the Discretionary Context of Traffic Stops: How Organizational Practices Shape Institutional Interactions
Traffic stops are common and consequential for citizens’ legal socialization and for racial gaps in police‐community trust. Efforts to change the tenor of police interactions, however, may discount the discretionary context of stops—the degree of choice in the decision to stop a driver—and how organizations influence those circumstances. Discretionary stops entail more choice and thus create more ambiguity for the driver regarding the officer's i…
The Neural Underpinnings of Group Life
International audience
Seeing Black: Race, Crime, and Visual Processing
Using police officers and undergraduates as participants, the authors investigated the influence of stereotypic associations on visual processing in 5 studies. Study 1 demonstrates that Black faces influence participants' ability to spontaneously detect degraded images of crime-relevant objects. Conversely, Studies 2-4 demonstrate that activating abstract concepts (i.e., crime and basketball) induces attentional biases toward Black male faces. Mo…
Imaging race
Researchers have recently begun to use the tools of neuroscience to examine the social psychological responses associated with race. This article serves as a review of the developing literature in this area. It advances the argument that neuroscience studies of race have the potential to shape fundamental assumptions about race, and the interplay between social and biological processes more generally
Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes
Researchers previously have investigated the role of race in capital sentencing, and in particular, whether the race of the defendant or victim influences the likelihood of a death sentence. In the present study, we examined whether the likelihood of being sentenced to death is influenced by the degree to which a Black defendant is perceived to have a stereotypically Black appearance. Controlling for a wide array of factors, we found that in case…
The Neural Underpinnings of Group Life
International audience
Biological conceptions of race and the motivation to cross racial boundaries
The present studies demonstrate that conceiving of racial group membership as biologically determined increases acceptance of racial inequities (Studies 1 and 2) and cools interest in interacting with racial outgroup members (Studies 3-5). These effects were generally independent of racial prejudice. It is argued that when race is cast as a biological marker of individuals, people perceive racial outgroup members as unrelated to the self and ther…
Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences
Historical representations explicitly depicting Blacks as apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental association between Blacks and apes remains. Here, the authors demonstrate that U.S. citizens implicitly associate Blacks and apes. In a series of laboratory studies, the authors reveal how this association influences study participants' basic cognitive processes and significantly alters their judgments in criminal justice…
The role of social meaning in inattentional blindness: When the gorillas in our midst do not go unseen
From Agents to Objects: Sexist Attitudes and Neural Responses to Sexualized Targets
Agency attribution is a hallmark of mind perception; thus, diminished attributions of agency may disrupt social–cognition processes typically elicited by human targets. The current studies examine the effect of perceivers' sexist attitudes on associations of agency with, and neural responses to, images of sexualized and clothed men and women. In Study 1, male (but not female) participants with higher hostile sexism scores more quickly associated …
Racial Disparities in Incarceration Increase Acceptance of Punitive Policies
During the past few decades, punitive crime policies have led to explosive growth in the United States prison population. Such policies have contributed to unprecedented incarceration rates for Blacks in particular. In this article, we consider an unexamined relationship between racial disparities and policy reform. Rather than treating racial disparities as an outcome to be measured, we exposed people to real and extreme racial disparities and o…
Two Strikes: Race and the Disciplining of Young Students
There are large racial disparities in school discipline in the United States, which, for Black students, not only contribute to school failure but also can lay a path toward incarceration. Although the disparities have been well documented, the psychological mechanisms underlying them are unclear. In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that such disparities are, in part, driven by racial stereotypes that can lead teachers to escalate their …
A Vicious Cycle: A Social–Psychological Account of Extreme Racial Disparities in School Discipline
Can social–psychological theory provide insight into the extreme racial disparities in school disciplinary action in the United States? Disciplinary problems carry enormous consequences for the quality of students’ experience in school, opportunities to learn, and ultimate life outcomes. This burden falls disproportionately on students of color. Integrating research on stereotyping and on stigma, we theorized that bias and apprehension about bias…
Polluting Black space.
Social psychologists have long demonstrated that people are stereotyped on the basis of race. Researchers have conducted extensive experimental studies on the negative stereotypes associated with Black Americans in particular. Across 4 studies, we demonstrate that the physical spaces associated with Black Americans are also subject to negative racial stereotypes. Such spaces, for example, are perceived as impoverished, crime-ridden, and dirty (St…
Victims’ Race and Sex Leads to Eyewitness Misidentification of Perpetrator’s Phenotypic Stereotypicality
Eyewitness misidentification is the primary cause of wrongful convictions in North America. Discovering a discernible pattern to these errors is a critical step toward creating procedures that reduce the occurrence of these tragic mistakes. To these ends, we hypothesized that both the victims’ race and the victims’ sex may impact eyewitness identification for perpetrators of certain crime types. In two experiments, we demonstrated that a Black ma…
Language from police body camera footage shows racial disparities in officer respect
Significance Police officers speak significantly less respectfully to black than to white community members in everyday traffic stops, even after controlling for officer race, infraction severity, stop location, and stop outcome. This paper presents a systematic analysis of officer body-worn camera footage, using computational linguistic techniques to automatically measure the respect level that officers display to community members. This work de…
The thin blue waveform: Racial disparities in officer prosody undermine institutional trust in the police
How do routine police encounters build or undermine community trust, and how might they contribute to racial gaps in citizen perceptions of the police? Procedural justice theory posits that officers' interpersonal communication toward the public plays a formative role, but experimental tests of this hypothesis have been constrained by the difficulties of measuring and manipulating this dimension of officer-citizen interactions. Officer-worn body …
We built this culture (so we can change it): Seven principles for intentional culture change
Calls for culture change abound. Headlines regularly feature calls to change the "broken" or "toxic" cultures of institutions and organizations, and people debate which norms and practices across society are now defunct. As people blame current societal problems on culture, the proposed fix is "culture change." But what is culture change? How does it work? Can it be effective? This article presents a novel social psychological framework for inten…
When the Cruiser Lights Come On”: Using the Science of Bias & Culture to Combat Racial Disparities in Policing
In this essay, we highlight the interplay between individuals' psychological processes and sociocultural systems in producing and maintaining racial bias. We use a conceptual tool we call the culture cycle to map these dynamics, and illustrate them with research and in-depth examples from our work reducing racial disparities in routine policing in Oakland, California. We feature the most common police encounter – the vehicle stop – and highlight …
Racial and Ethnic Representation in Literature Taught in US High Schools
We quantify the representation, or presence, of characters of color in English Language Arts (ELA) instruction in the United States to better understand possible racial/ethnic emphases and gaps in literary curricula. We contribute two datasets: the first consists of books listed in widely-adopted Advanced Placement (AP) Literature & Composition exams, and the second is a set of books taught by teachers surveyed from schools with substantial Black…
Racial Disparities in the Discretionary Context of Traffic Stops: How Organizational Practices Shape Institutional Interactions
Traffic stops are common and consequential for citizens’ legal socialization and for racial gaps in police‐community trust. Efforts to change the tenor of police interactions, however, may discount the discretionary context of stops—the degree of choice in the decision to stop a driver—and how organizations influence those circumstances. Discretionary stops entail more choice and thus create more ambiguity for the driver regarding the officer's i…
Psychology (17 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (10 works) · Criminology (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Cognitive psychology (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Developmental psychology (4 works)