Observers almost always say they see the quizmaster as more intelligent, despite knowing that's simply because the host already has the answers. She introduced the class to the quizmaster test, in which one student poses as a quiz show host, like Alex Trebek on Jeopardy!, and another poses as a contestant. Still, she hadn't planned to study race until the issue came up while she was a teaching assistant. in cognitive psychology at Harvard University. Those memories never left her as she made her way through her undergraduate years at the University of Cincinnati and her Ph.D. It also became clear to her how different her world was from that of her classmates-how her relatives routinely got pulled over by the police, for example, whereas those of her classmates almost never did. So she trained herself to recognize features she had never paid attention to before-"eye color, various shades of blond hair, freckles," she wrote in her book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do. But as much as she tried to reciprocate their attention, she had trouble telling them apart. Contrary to her fears, her new classmates were welcoming. ![]() After growing up in a black Cleveland neighborhood, she had a formative experience in middle school when her family moved to a predominantly white suburb. Eberhardt has been part of that."Įberhardt has an earnest manner that suggests a deep sense of mission. "She has been working tirelessly on this issue and brought a whole new series of concepts to the department," says Jim Chanin, an attorney whose class action suit prompted the court order and who has seen the department's record improve. Eberhardt has been especially active in criminal justice, playing a key role in the court-ordered reform of the Oakland police department, which has a history of toxic community relations. At Stanford, she co-directs Social Psychological Answers to Real-world Questions, a group of researchers who aim to solve problems in education, health, economic mobility, and criminal justice. But she dares to go where other people don't."Įberhardt, a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" award winner in 2014, has long been putting her insights to work. "She's not the only one working in social cognition or on police issues or on implicit bias. "What's distinctive about her work is how bold she is," says Susan Fiske, a psychologist at Princeton University who wrote the authoritative textbook about social cognition. race relations, such as the role of bias in police shootings. "She is taking this world that black people have always known about and translating it into the principles and building blocks of universal human psychology," adds Phillip Atiba Goff, a former graduate student of Eberhardt's who runs the Center for Policing Equity at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.Įberhardt hasn't shied away from some of the most painful questions in U.S. Eberhardt's studies are "strong methodologically and also super real-world relevant," says Dolly Chugh of New York University's Stern School of Business, a psychologist who studies decision-making. In cleverly designed experiments, she has shown how social conditions can interact with the workings of our brain to determine our responses to other people, especially in the context of race. Over the decades, Eberhardt and her Stanford team have explored the roots and ramifications of unconscious bias, from the level of the neuron to that of society. It stems from our brain's tendency to categorize things-a useful function in a world of infinite stimuli, but one that can lead to discrimination, baseless assumptions, and worse, particularly in times of hurry or stress. Eberhardt has written that the phrase "they all look alike," long the province of the bigot, "is actually a function of biology and exposure." There's no doubt plenty of overt bigotry exists, Eberhardt says but she has found that most of us also harbor bias without knowing it. "That is one of the most horrible, fantastic stories ever!" said Noah, a black South African.īut it was true. When police asked the teens why they targeted that neighborhood, they said the Asian women, when faced with a lineup, "couldn't tell the brothers apart." In Oakland, California, a gang of black teenagers caused a mini–crime wave of purse snatchings among middle-aged women in Chinatown. Criminals have learned to exploit the effect, she told Noah. Discussing unconscious racial bias, which she has studied for years, the Stanford University psychologist mentioned the "other-race effect," in which people have trouble recognizing faces of other racial groups. ![]() When Jennifer Eberhardt appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah in April 2019, she had a hard time keeping a straight face.
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