Goldman School of Public Policy - University of California, Berkeley

Jack Glaser

Associate Professor of Public Policy

Areas of Expertise

  • Political Psychology
  • Stereotyping, Prejudice & Discrimination
  • Research Methods
  • Social Psychology
  • Hate Crime
  • Unconscious Social Cognition

Biography

Jack Glaser received his Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University in 1999. He is a social psychologist whose primary research interest is in stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. He studies these intergroup biases at multiple levels of analysis. For example, he investigates the unconscious operation of stereotypes and prejudice using modern, computerized methods, and is investigating the implications of such subtle forms of bias for discrimination law and law enforcement. He is also interested in the police practice of racial profiling, especially as it relates to the psychology of stereotyping, and the self-fulfilling effects of such stereotype-based discrimination. Additionally, Professor Glaser conducts research on a very extreme manifestation of intergroup bias - hate crime - and has carried out analyses of historical data as well as racist rhetoric on the Internet to challenge assumptions about economic predictors of intergroup violence. Another area of interest is in electoral politics and political ideology. He is specifically interested in the role of emotion (as experienced and expressed) in politics, and in the psychological underpinnings of liberalism and conservatism. Most recently, he has initiated research on capital punishment, the effect it has on legal decision making, and how that interacts with defendant race. In addition to teaching and conducting research at GSPP, Professor Glaser is involved in training California State judges in the psychology of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, and how they might operate implicitly, and undermine fairness, in the courtroom.

Website

Working Papers

  • Reverse Deterrence in Racial Profiling: Increased Transgressions by the Non-Profiled Group

    Co-author: Amy Hackney

    GSPP Working Paper: GSPP09-003 (September 2009)

    Abstract

    A controlled experiment tested the possibility that racial profiling – disproportionate scrutiny of minorities by sanctioned authorities – would have “reverse deterrent” effects on the illicit behavior of members of non-profiled groups (e.g., Whites). Research participants given a task involving extremely difficult anagrams were given the opportunity to cheat. White participants randomly assigned to a condition in which two Black confederates were obtrusively singled out for scrutiny by the study administrator cheated more than Whites in a White-profiling condition and a no-profiling control condition, and more than Black participants in all three conditions. Black participants cheated at comparable levels across the three experimental conditions. The effect of the profiling was therefore a net increase in cheating.

  • Possibility of Death Sentence Has Divergent Effect on Verdicts for Black and White Defendants

    Co-authors: Karin D. Martin, Kimberly Kahn

    GSPP Working Paper: GSPP09-002 (June 2009)

    Abstract

    When anticipating the administration of the death penalty, mock jurors may be less inclined to convict defendants. Furthermore, minority defendants have been shown to be treated more punitively. We conducted a survey-embedded experiment with a nationally representative sample to examine the effect of sentence severity as a function of defendant race, presenting respondents with a triple murder trial summary, manipulating the maximum penalty (death vs. life without parole) and the race of the defendant. Respondents who were told life-without-parole was the maximum sentence were not significantly more likely to convict Black (67.7%) than White defendants (66.7%). However, when death was the maximum sentence, respondents presented with Black defendants were significantly more likely to convict (80.0%) than were those with White defendants (55.1%). The results implicate threats to civil rights and to effective criminal incapacitation.

  • Implicit Motivation to Control Prejudice

    Co-author: Eric D. Knowles

    GSPP Working Paper: GSPP08-007 (December 2006)

    Abstract

    This research examines whether spontaneous, unintentional discriminatory behavior can be moderated by an implicit (nonconscious) motivation to control prejudice. We operationalize implicit motivation to control prejudice (IMCP) in terms of an implicit negative attitude toward prejudice (NAP) and an implicit belief that oneself is prejudiced (BOP). In the present experiment, an implicit stereotypic association of Blacks (vs. Whites) with weapons was positively correlated with the tendency to "shoot" armed Black men faster than armed White men (the "Shooter Bias") in a computer simulation. However, participants relatively high in implicit negative attitude toward prejudice showed no relation between the race-weapons stereotype and the shooter bias. Implicit belief that oneself is prejudiced had no direct effect on this relation, but the interaction of NAP and BOP did. Participants who had a strong association between self and prejudice (high BOP) but a weak association between prejudice and bad (low NAP) showed the strongest relation between the implicit race-weapons stereotype and the Shooter Bias, suggesting that these individuals freely employed their stereotypes in their behavior.

Selected Publications

  • Voter affect and the 2008 U.S. presidential election:  Hope and race really mattered.

    Finn, C., & Glaser, J. (2010).  Voter affect and the 2008 U.S. presidential election:  Hope and race really mattered.  Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy.

  • The existence of implicit bias is beyond reasonable doubt:  A refutation of ideological and methodol

    Jost, J.T., Rudman, L., Blair, I.V., Carney, D.R., Dasgupta, N., Glaser, J., & Hardin, C. (2009). The existence of implicit bias is beyond reasonable doubt:  A refutation of ideological and methodological objections and executive summary of ten studies that no manager should ignore. Research in Organizational Behavior, 29, 39-69.

    Abstract

    In this article, we respond at length to recent critiques of research on implicit bias, especially studies using the Implicit
    Association Test (IAT). Tetlock and Mitchell (2009) claim that ‘‘there is no evidence that the IAT reliably predicts class-wide
    discrimination on tangible outcomes in any setting,’’ accuse their colleagues of violating ‘‘the injunction to separate factual from
    value judgments,’’ adhering blindly to a ‘‘statist interventionist’’ ideology, and of conducting a witch-hunt against implicit racists,
    sexists, and others. These and other charges are specious. Far from making ‘‘extraordinary claims’’ that ‘‘require extraordinary
    evidence,’’ researchers have identified the existence and consequences of implicit bias through well-established methods based
    upon principles of cognitive psychology that have been developed in nearly a century’s worth of work. We challenge the blanket
    skepticism and organizational complacency advocated by Tetlock and Mitchell and summarize 10 recent studies that no manager
    (or managerial researcher) should ignore. These studies reveal that students, nurses, doctors, police officers, employment recruiters,
    and many others exhibit implicit biases with respect to race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, social status, and other distinctions.
    Furthermore—and contrary to the emphatic assertions of the critics—participants’ implicit associations do predict socially and
    organizationally significant behaviors, including employment, medical, and voting decisions made by working adults.
    # 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  • Implicit motivation to control prejudice moderates the effect of cognitive depletion on unintended

    Park, S.H., Glaser, J., & Knowles, E.D. (2008). Implicit motivation to control prejudice moderates the effect of cognitive depletion on unintended discrimination. Social Cognition, 26, 379-398.

    Abstract

    The role of Implicit motivation to Control prejudice (ImCp) in moderating
    the effect of resource depletion on spontaneous discriminatory behavior
    was examined. Cognitive resource depletion was manipulated by having
    participants solve either difficult or easy anagrams. A “Shooter Task” measuring unintended racial discriminatory behavior followed. participants
    then reported their subjective experiences in the task. Finally, ImCp and
    an implicit race-weapons stereotype were measured, both using Go/no-go
    Association Tasks (GnATs). ImCp moderated the effect of depletion on discriminatory behavior: depletion resulted in more racial bias in the Shooter
    Task only for those who scored low in our measure of ImCp, while high
    ImCp participants performed comparably in both the low and high depletion conditions.

  • Emotion and Prejudice: Specific Emotions Toward Outgroups

    Tapias, M.P., Glaser, J., Vasquez, K., Keltner, D., & Wickens, T. (2007). Emotion and prejudice: Specific emotions toward outgroups. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 10, 27-40.

    Abstract

    This research draws on ideas about emotion-related appraisal tendencies to generate and test
    novel propositions about intergroup emotions. First, emotion elicited by outgroup category
    activation can be transferred to an unrelated stimulus (incidental emotion effects). Second,
    people predisposed toward an emotion are more prejudiced toward groups that are likely to be
    associated with that emotion. Discussion focuses on the implications of the studies for a more
    complete understanding of the nature of prejudice, and specifi cally, the different qualities of
    prejudice for different target groups.

  • Contrast effects in automatic affect, cognition, and behavior

    Glaser, J. (2007). Contrast effects in automatic affect, cognition, and behavior.  In D. Stapel & J. Suls (Eds.), Assimilation and Contrast in Social Psychology.  New York: Psychology Press.

  • The effects of partisanship and candidate emotionality on voter preference. Imagination, Cognition,

    Stroud, L.R., Glaser, J., & Salovey, P. (2006). The effects of partisanship and candidate emotionality on voter preference. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 25, 25-44.

    Abstract

    In an experiment, Republican and Democratic participants viewed a video clip
    of an ostensible congressional candidate labeled as Republican, Democratic,
    or not given a party label delivering the same speech in an emotionally
    expressive or unexpressive manner. When the candidate was labeled a
    Democrat, he was rated more positively by Democratic participants; when
    labeled a Republican, he was preferred by Republicans. When party label
    was not provided, the emotionally expressive candidate was preferred;
    however, when either party label was provided, the unemotional candidate
    was preferred. These findings underscore the importance of partisanship cues
    and suggest that in the absence of such influential cues as partisanship, less
    prominent factors such as emotional expressiveness carry greater influence.

  • Compensatory Automaticity: Unconscious volition is not an oxymoron

    Glaser, J., & Kihlstrom, J. F. (2005). Compensatory Automaticity: Unconscious volition is not an oxymoron. In R. Hassin, J. S. Uleman, & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), The New Unconscious. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Abstract

    The concept of automaticity, long central in cognitive psychology,
    has come to occupy an important place in social psychology as well.
    It appears that unconscious vigilance for bias can lead to corrective
    processes that also operate without conscious awareness or intent.
    This chapter argues that the unconscious, in addition to being a passive
    categorizer, evaluator, and semantic processor, has processing goals (for
    example, accuracy, egalitarianism) of its own, can be vigilant for threats
    to the attainment of these goals, and will proactively compensate for
    such threats. One might call this “compensatory automaticity”: strategic
    yet nonconscious compensations for unintended thoughts, feelings, or
    behaviors. For some, this will pose a paradox because automaticity has
    been equated with lack of control or intent. This chapter entertains the
    possibility that intention operates at multiple levels of consciousness.
    There can be nonconscious intentions (for example, goals) that, when
    the potential for their imminent frustration becomes evident, automatic
    compensatory processes will promote and protect.

  • Prejudice, Discrimination, and the Internet

    Glaser, J., & Kahn, K. B. (2005). Prejudice, Discrimination, and the Internet.  In Y. Amichai-Hamburger (Ed.) The Social Net: Human Behavior in Cyberspace.  New York: Oxford University Press.

  • Intergroup Bias and Inequity: Legitimizing Beliefs and Policy Attitudes

    Glaser, J. (2005). Intergroup Bias and Inequity: Legitimizing Beliefs and Policy Attitudes. Social Justice Research, 18, 257-282.

    Abstract

    Policy attitudes relating to group-based inequities are in many cases founded on tenuous legitimizing beliefs which are contradicted by empirical evidence. Policy issues, and their attendant legitimizing beliefs, are considered, including affirmative action, colorblindness/“racial privacy,” hate crime legislation, samesex marriage, and, in greater depth, capital punishment and racial profiling. Primary themes underlying the legitimizing beliefs include denials that groupbased biases and inequities exist, overestimations of the societal costs of inequityreducing policies, valuing public safety above civil liberties, and discounting the adverse effects of inequity-reducing policies.

  • Reverse Priming: Implications for the (Un)conditionality of Automatic Evaluation

    Glaser, J. (2003). Reverse priming: Implications for the (un)conditionality of automatic evaluation. In J. Musch, & K. C. Klauer (Eds.), The Psychology of Evaluation: Affective Processes in Cognition and Emotion. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

  • Political conservatism as motivated social cognition

    Jost, J. T., Glaser, J., Sulloway, F., & Kruglanski, A.W. (2003).  Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339-375.

    Abstract

    Analyzing political conservatism as motivated social cognition integrates theories of personality (authoritarianism, dogmatism–intolerance of ambiguity), epistemic and existential needs (for closure,
    regulatory focus, terror management), and ideological rationalization (social dominance, system justification). A meta-analysis (88 samples, 12 countries, 22,818 cases) confirms that several psychological
    variables predict political conservatism: death anxiety (weighted mean r  .50); system instability (.47);
    dogmatism–intolerance of ambiguity (.34); openness to experience (–.32); uncertainty tolerance (–.27);
    needs for order, structure, and closure (.26); integrative complexity (–.20); fear of threat and loss (.18);
    and self-esteem (–.09). The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and justification
    of inequality and is motivated by needs that vary situationally and dispositionally to manage uncertainty
    and threat.

  • Exceptions that prove the rule: Using a theory of motivated social cognition to account for ideologi

    Jost, J. T., Glaser, J., Sulloway, F., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2003).  Exceptions that prove the rule: Using a theory of motivated social cognition to account for ideological incongruities and political anomalies (reply to Greenberg & Jonas).  Psychological Bulletin, 129, 383-393.

  • Studying hate crime with the Internet: What makes racists advocate racial violence

    Glaser, J., Dixit, S., & Green, D. P. (2002). Studying hate crime with the Internet: What makes racists advocate racial violence. Journal of Social Issues, 58, 177-193.

    Abstract

    We conducted semistructured interviews with 38 participants in White racist Internet chat rooms, examining the extent to which people would, in this unique environment, advocate interracial violence in response to purported economic and cultural threats. Capitalizing on the anonymity and candor of chat room interactions, this study provides an unusual perspective on extremist attitudes. We experimentally manipulated the nature and proximity of the threats. Qualitative and quantitative analyses indicate that the respondents were most threatened by interracial marriage and, to a lesser extent, Blacks moving into White neighborhoods. In contrast, job competition posed by Blacks evoked very little advocacy of violence. The study affords an assessment of the advantages and limitations of Internet-based research with clandestine populations.