Jennifer Eberhardt facts for kids

Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt (born January 1, 1965) is an American social psychologist. She is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University.

Dr. Eberhardt studies how people connect race and crime in their minds. She uses different research methods to understand these links. She also researches unconscious bias, which are hidden judgments people make without realizing it. Her work shows how racial ideas affect culture and society.

Her research has helped train police officers and other agencies. This training helps them make fairer decisions. She has also brought attention to unfair treatment in communities caused by these biases.

Dr. Eberhardt wrote a book called Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do. She received a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship in 2014. She was also named one of Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinkers. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2023, she joined the American Philosophical Society.

Early Life and Inspiration

Jennifer Eberhardt was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 1, 1965. She is the youngest of five children. She grew up in Lee–Harvard, a neighborhood with many African-American middle-class families.

When she was twelve, her family moved to Beachwood, Ohio. She graduated from Beachwood High School there. This move sparked her interest in race and fairness. She noticed big differences in resources and opportunities between her old and new neighborhoods. She also saw that her father and brothers were stopped by police more often than others. These experiences made her want to understand racial inequality better.

Education and Family

After high school, Jennifer Eberhardt went to the University of Cincinnati. She earned her Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1987. Then, she attended Harvard University. She received her Master of Arts (MA) in 1990 and her PhD in 1993.

She is married to Ralph Richard Banks, who is a law professor at Stanford University. They knew each other in elementary school and reconnected at Harvard. They live in the San Francisco Bay Area with their three sons.

Academic Career

From 1993 to 1994, Dr. Eberhardt was a researcher at the University of Massachusetts. There, she studied stereotyping and how different groups interact. From 1994 to 1995, she was a researcher at Stanford University. She looked at how stereotype threat affects how well students do in school.

From 1995 to 1998, she was an assistant professor at Yale University. She taught in the Psychology Department and African-American Studies. In 1998, she began teaching at Stanford University as an assistant professor. She became an associate professor in 2005 and later a full professor.

Dr. Eberhardt also helps lead Stanford's SPARQ program. SPARQ stands for "Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions." This program brings together leaders and researchers. They use ideas from psychology to inspire cultural changes. Through SPARQ, Dr. Eberhardt shows how racial ideas affect criminal justice, education, and business.

Key Research Areas

Dr. Eberhardt's research focuses on how hidden biases affect people's actions and society.

Understanding Implicit Bias

Dr. Eberhardt and her team have explored new ways to think about race. In 2008, she published a study about how beliefs about race affect social interactions. The study found that people who believe racial differences are biological are less open to interracial relationships. They are also more likely to support racial stereotypes. They may even defend inequalities by saying they are natural. This way of thinking can create barriers between groups. It can also harm people from historically disadvantaged racial groups.

Another study by Golby and Eberhardt looked at why people are better at recognizing faces of their own race. They used brain scans (fMRI) on African-American and European-American people. The scans showed more brain activity when people looked at faces of their own race. This suggests that our brains process same-race faces differently.

Bias in Education

Dr. Eberhardt has also studied how bias affects schools. In 2015, she and her colleague Okonofua looked at how teachers respond to student misbehavior. They found that Black students are more often labeled as "troublemakers" than White students. Even when students of color and White students do the same thing, the behavior is seen as more serious for students of color. Black students' misbehaviors are also more likely to be seen as a pattern. This means teachers might expect them to misbehave again.

In 2016, Okonofua, Walton, and Eberhardt reviewed many studies on this topic. They found that negative stereotypes can lead to a lack of trust between students of color and teachers. For example, if Black students are often called "troublemakers," they might feel judged. This can make them distrust teachers and even misbehave more. This creates a cycle of punishment and misbehavior. As a result, Black students may have fewer chances to learn.

The researchers suggested that schools should focus on building positive teacher-student relationships. They believe this is more important than just teaching social skills or strict rules.

Awards and Recognition

Dr. Eberhardt has received many awards for her important work.