Black History Month Profile Series: Jennifer Eberhardt

This month, DPIC celebrates Black History Month with weekly profiles of notable Black Americans whose work affected the modern death penalty era. The second in the series is Professor Jennifer Eberhardt. 

Jennifer Eberhardt, a professor of Psychology at Stanford University and a recipient of a  MacArthur “genius grant,” studies the relationship between race and sentencing. Her book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, uncovers implicit biases in all aspects of life, specifically in the criminal justice system. Dr. Eberhardt’s research exposes how racial perceptions and bias in death penalty sentencing disproportionally prejudice Black defendants. 

Dr. Eberhardt investigates the race-crime association in capital punishment cases. In a groundbreaking 2006 study, she and her colleagues at Stanford found that Black defendants convicted of capital crimes against white victims were more likely to be sentenced to death if they had more stereotypical Black features, controlling for relevant variables. Dr. Eberhardt and colleagues concluded that stereotypical features of Black people may be a cue to “deathworthiness” for juries. 

Her research on the association between Black people and apes shines a light on the dehumanization of Black people in our society. In a series of studies, Dr. Eberhardt found that the perceptions of people who implicitly link Black people to apes affect their judgment of Black defendants. Her research found that the same people support harsher consequences for Black defendants because of their perceived connection with apes, controlling for implicit anti-Black bias. Furthermore, portrayals of Black defendants in association with apes in the media were associated with jury death sentences.

Her recent research extends to racial profiling, observing the consequences of implicit bias in police stops through analysis of body camera footage. A recent study showed that escalation by police officers at the beginning of the interaction led to escalated outcomes such as arrests and detentions. Police stops that result in escalation are more likely to begin with officers using commands or refusing to inform drivers why they were pulled over. Such approaches from police officers were also found to cause negative emotions in Black men, specifically fear that officers would use excessive force.

As a co-director of SPARQ, a behavioral science research center at Stanford University, Dr. Eberhardt works with law enforcement agencies such as the Oakland Police Department to analyze their policies for racial effects and find reasonable solutions. These initiatives foster stronger relationships between the police and the community and enhance people’s awareness of their own implicit biases. SPARQ continues to use a data-driven approach to uncover and eliminate race-based disparities in the criminal justice system.

Dr. Eberhardt stresses the importance of uncovering our implicit biases. Today, implicit bias is often conflated with being racist, even though researchers like Dr. Eberhardt do not equate the terms. In her book, Dr. Eberhardt discusses how implicit biases affect us all, even herself, and how it is our responsibility to address them. Vice President Kamala Harris described her book as “critical information that can help leaders better understand how biases can impact our judgment and how we are perceived by the communities we are sworn to serve.” Author of bestseller Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, called Biased “groundbreaking” and “a work with power and craft to make us see why overcoming racial bias is so critical.”

Jennifer Eberhardt received her B.A. from the University of Cincinnati, and an A.M. and Ph.D. from Harvard University in Psychology. She currently is a professor of Psychology at Stanford University, co-director of SPARQ, and on the board of directors for the Innocence Project