Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt
Racial-Bias Disruptor

Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt is a psychology professor at Stanford University and the leading scientific expert on unconscious racial bias.

Using a variety of investigative techniques from innovative fieldwork to statistical analysis to brain-imaging studies, Eberhardt has documented the dispiriting extent to which racial bias has led to disparities in education, employment, housing, and the criminal justice system. Much of her work has focused on the unconscious association between Blackness and crime. Using a large database of criminal defendants convicted of a capital crime, Eberhardt showed that among defendants convicted of murdering a white victim, defendants whose appearance was more stereotypically Black were sentenced more harshly and, in particular, were more likely to be sentenced to death than those whose features were less stereotypically Black.

The author of Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, Professor Eberhardt believes that, as entrenched and pernicious as racial bias is in our society, it is something we can overcome. She is working with the Oakland police department and other law enforcement groups on evidence-based ways to disrupt the race-crime mental association.

Named a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers, Eberhardt has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.