GEOFFREY COHEN

Research Areas:
Dr. Cohen’s primary area of research links social (i.e., group) identity to a general account of motivation. It focuses on the experience of individuals operating in settings where their group is negatively stereotyped. This work begins with the premise that being targeted by a negative stereotype causes mistrust--one cannot assume the good will of other people in one's social environment, because they could be biased by the stereotype. Mistrust, in turn, worsens achievement, because the expectation of bias discourages motivation. Dr. Cohen finds that interventions that create trust (for example, by conveying to students from historically underrepresented groups that they will neither be judged nor treated stereotypically) improve motivation and performance, reducing and sometimes even eliminating race and gender based gaps in achievement.
Selected Publications
• Cohen, G. L. (2003). Party over policy: The dominating impact of group influence on political beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 808-822.
• Walton, G., & Cohen, G. L. (2003). Stereotype lift. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 456-467.
• Cohen, G. L., & Steele, C. M. (2002). A barrier of mistrust: How negative stereotypes affect cross-race mentoring. In J. Aronson (Ed.), Improving Academic Achievement: Impact of Psychological Factors on Education. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
• Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (2002). Accepting threatening information: Self-affirmation and the reduction of defensive biases. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 119-123.
• Cohen, G. L., Steele, C. M., & Ross, L. D. (1999). The mentor's dilemma: Providing critical feedback across the racial divide. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 1302-1318.