Chris Crandall, Ph.D.
- Professor
- University of Kansas
Contact Info
Lawrence
1415 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
Personal Links
Biography —
I started out my research career at the University of Washington studying how rats learn taste preferences and how culture normalizes sexual assault. At the University of Michigan I studied taste preferences among humans, and began studying social influence on eating disorders and prejudice against fat people, and earned a Ph.D. At Yale University I completed a two-year health psychology training program, and started working on health stigma. At the University of Florida I did more of all of these things! At the University of Kansas, where I've spent most of my adult professional life, I've worked on stigma, prejudice, preference for the status quo, how friendships develop, how consistency motives can lead to US engagin in covert warfare, and how science and democracy are close neighbors who share their essential needs and goals.
I've built a boat or two or ten.
Education —
Research —
Our lab is working on issues related to how the expression of prejudice is different from the underlying "genuine" prejudice. We began studying prejudice against fat people as a starting point to understand a wide variety of prejudices; in addition to the usual study of racism and sexism, we are studying prejudice against socially unacceptable groups or groups in the "middle ground," such as murderers, and adult sex workers.
We are interested in social norms of prejudice, in how ideology plays a role in causing, and more importantly, in justifying prejudice. We run experiments, collect data in the field, and sample populations over long periods of time on many different prejudices.
Teaching —
Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination
Graduate Social Psychology
Group Dynamics
Research methods
Social Influence
Meta-Theoretical Issues in Science and Psychology
Selected Publications —
Crandall, C., & White, M., II. (2016). Trump and the social psychology of prejudice. https://undark.org/2016/11/17/trump-social-psychology-prejudice-unleash….
Crandall, C. S., Cox, O., Beasley, R., & Omelicheva, M. (2016). Covert operations, wars, detainee destinations, and the psychology of democratic peace. Journal of Conflict Resolution.
Crandall, C. S., & Sherman, J. W. (2016). On the scientific superiority of conceptual replications for scientific progress. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 93–99.
Eidelman, S., & Crandall, C. S. (2014). The intuitive traditionalist: How biases for existence and longevity promote the status quo. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 50, 53–104.
Crandall, C. S., Ferguson, M. A., & Bahns, A. J. (2013). When we see prejudice: The normative window and social change. In Stereotyping and Prejudice (pp. 53–69). Psychology Press.
Crandall, C. S., Bahns, A., Warner, R., & Schaller, M. (2011). Stereotypes as justifications of prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1488–1498.
Crandall, C. S., & Eshleman, A. (2003). A justification-suppression model of the expression and experience of prejudice. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 414–446.
Crandall, C. S., Eshleman, A., & O’Brien, L. T. (2002). Social norms and the expression and suppression of prejudice: The struggle for internalization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 359–378.
Awards & Honors —
President, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues 2016-2018
Service —
President (Elected), University Senate, University of Kansas
Committee on Undergraduate Studies and Advising, Chair (Elected), University of Kansas
Board Member, Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Distinguished Service to the Society Award, Society for Personality and Social Psychology
President (Elected), Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues
Distinguished Service to the Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues Award