Chris Crandall, Ph.D.


Chris Crandall, Ph.D.
  • Professor
  • University of Kansas
He/him/his

Contact Info

Phone Number:
Fraser Hall, Room 454
Lawrence
1415 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045

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

Ph.D. in Psychology (Social), University of Michigan

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