Social Psychologist Spotlight: Dr. Jennifer Richeson

 Why I chose this person:

For this week’s blog, I chose a Social Psychologist to write about. I selected Jennifer Richeson because she is from Baltimore Maryland, which is where I grew up! Baltimore is a diverse area and was one of my favorite places to visit. I wanted to see if growing up in the area influenced Dr. Richeson in any way.

Background:

Dr. Richeson received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Brown University in 1994. Then, she earned her Masters and Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Harvard University in 1997 and 2000, respectively. Since 2016, Dr. Richeson has been a professor at Yale University. Previously, she has worked at Dartmouth College, Stanford University, and Northwestern University. When researching her, I was impressed by the prestige of the institutions Dr. Richeson graduated from and taught at. Additionally, she has received awards such as the Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology from the APA in 2009 and was recently accepted into the American Philosophical Society. Another interesting fact I wanted to note is that Dr. Richeson is on President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology!

 

Research:

            Dr. Richeson’s research explores cultural diversity, stereotypes, discrimination, interracial relations, and how being a member of a minority group can impact someone. A study conducted by Richeson and others in 2017 found that Whites and Blacks of diverse economic backgrounds tend to overestimate the equality between White and Black wealth (Kraus et al., 2017). Additionally, Blacks tend to underestimate while Whites overestimate the past inequality of White and Black wealth (Kraus et al., 2017). They had participants answer economic and social diversity questions on a six-point scale (Kraus et al., 2017). These findings are important because this optimism toward the racial wealth gap can impact legislation and hinder improvement (Kraus et al., 2017).

 

I find that this study’s findings resonate with what is happening in my college and more widely in the US. Many White people perceive that racism is gone or has been significantly reduced and is no longer an issue. However, racist discrimination still actively happens, even on my campus, in shocking and blatant ways. Dr. Richeson and her colleagues also explain that optimism about racial equality is prevalent due to people wanting to view the world as fair (Kraus et al., 2017). More recently, Dr. Richeson has conducted research on structural racism in the criminal justice system of America (Rucker & Richeson, 2021). I find Dr. Richeson’s work interesting and potentially helpful in order to enact institutional changes to combat our nation’s racist norms.

 

Personal Information:

            In addition to an impressive background and research, Dr. Richeson is interested in politics and enjoys the beach. Contradictory to Richeson’s path in high education, she described herself as an underachieving student as a kid! I find it fascinating that someone who cared little about school in their early years attended such prestigious universities. I also found it interesting that in addition to having a Ph.D., Richeson has an honorary doctorate from Brown University, where she was an undergraduate. I enjoyed learning about Dr. Jennifer Richeson and her research and I believe she has and will continue to make a great impact on the field of Social Psychology!

 

References

Kraus, M.W., Rucker, J.M., & Richeson, J.A. (2017). Americans misperceive racial economic equality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(39), 10324-31. https://spcl.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Kraus_etal17(1).pdf

Rucker, J.M., & Richeson, J.A. (2021). Toward an understanding of structural racism: Implications for criminal justice. Science. 10.1126/science.abj7779

Jennifer Richeson’s vita: https://psychology.yale.edu/sites/default/files/richesoncv_sept23.pdf

Jennifer Richeson’s biography: https://www.nsf.gov/sbe/advmembios/Richeson.pdf

Jennifer Richeson’s website: https://spcl.yale.edu/ & https://psychology.yale.edu/people/jennifer-richeson

Other website with background info: https://www.whitehouse.gov/pcast/members/jennifer-richeson/ & https://twitter.com/jaricheson & https://www.factsnippet.com/site/facts-about-jennifer-richeson.html

 

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I have acted with honesty and integrity in producing this work and am unaware of anyone who has not. – Mara Strohl