Stanford psychologist named MacArthur Fellow

Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt has been named one of the 2014 fellows of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
(Courtesy of Stanford News Service)

Jennifer Eberhardt, associate professor of psychology, has been named a MacArthur Fellow for her research on racial biases in the criminal justice system. She was awarded a $625,000 stipend for five years.

Eberhardt’s work looks into racial associations that have real-world implications in law enforcement.

One of her studies found that when white subjects were shown a series of black faces, they were able to identify a blurry picture of a gun faster than when shown white faces. A pair of studies done with fellow researcher Rebecca Hetey revealed that whites were more likely to support policies that contributed to the disproportionate number of blacks in prison when shown statistics about the racial bias.

Eberhardt is currently working with the Oakland Police Department to sort through data on racial profiling and told the Stanford Report that the MacArthur Foundation stipend will allow her to work more closely with law enforcement officials in her research.

“I’m hopeful to bring about real social change,” she said.