Jennifer L. Eberhardt

Eberhardt discovered basic perceptual processes that operate in race and inequality, especially in criminal justice contexts. Her work on looking deathworthy finds that black defendants with more stereotypically African faces are more than twice as likely to be on death row as other black defendants, controlling for facial attractiveness and relevant features of the crime. In laboratory experiments, students and police both instantly associate black faces with crime. She has worked with police departments on officers' split-second associations that can determine life or death. She is also the co-director of SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-world Questions), an initiative that uses social psychological research to address current problems within society. Honors include MacArthur Fellow (2014).