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Eric D. Knowles

Eric D. Knowles

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When does inequality seem like inequity? Broadly speaking, my research examines how people perceive and react to the fact that some groups in society have more than others. I am especially interested in how different types of motivations (e.g., to bolster the hierarchy, to see oneself as a good and deserving person), lead people to deny the existence of inequity, dis-identify with their ingroup, or form attitudes likely to reduce intergroup disparities.

Primary Interests:

  • Person Perception
  • Political Psychology
  • Prejudice and Stereotyping
  • Self and Identity

Research Group or Laboratory:

Journal Articles:

  • Chow, R. M., Lowery, B. S., & Knowles, E. D. (2008). The two faces of dominance: The differential effect of ingroup superiority and outgroup inferiority on dominant-group identity and group-esteem. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1073-1081.
  • Glaser, J., & Knowles, E. D. (2008). Implicit motivation to control prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 164-172.
  • Knowles, E. D., Lowery, B. S., Chow, R. M., & Hogan, C. M. (2009). On the malleability of ideology: Motivated construals of color blindness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 857-869.
  • Knowles, E. D., Lowery, B. S., & Schaumberg, R. L. (2009). Anti-egalitarians for Obama? Group-dominance motivation and the Obama vote. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 965-969.
  • Knowles, E. D., Lowery, B. S., & Schaumberg, R. L. (2009). Racial prejudice predicts opposition to Obama and his health care reform plan. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 420-423.
  • Knowles, E. D., Morris, M. W., Chiu, C.-y., & Hong, Y.-y. (2001). Culture and the process of person perception: Evidence for automaticity among East Asians in correcting for situational influences on behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1344-1356.
  • Knowles, E. D., & Peng, K. (2005). White selves: Conceptualizing and measuring a dominant-group identity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 223-241.
  • Lowery, B. S., & Knowles, E. D., & Unzueta, M. M. (2007). Framing inequality safely: Whites’ motivated perceptions of racial privilege. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1237-1250.
  • Lowery, B. S., Unzueta, M. M., Knowles, E. D., & Goff, P. A. (2006). Concern for the ingroup and opposition to affirmative action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 961-974.
  • Nelson, K. J., Laney, C., Fowler, N. B., Knowles, E. D., & Loftus, E. F. (2011). Change blindness can cause mistaken eyewitness identification. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 16, 62-74.
  • Park, S., Glaser, J., & Knowles, E. D. (2008). Implicit motivation to control prejudice moderates the effect of cognitive depletion on unintended discrimination. Social Cognition, 26, 401-419.
  • Peng, K., & Knowles, E. D. (2003). Culture, education, and the attribution of physical causality. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1272-1284.
  • Unzueta, M. M., Lowery, B. S., & Knowles, E. D. (2008). How believing in affirmative action quotas affirms White men’s self-esteem. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 105, 1-13.

Other Publications:

  • Knowles, E. D., & Ditto, P. H. Preference, principle, and political casuistry. To appear in J. Hanson (Ed.), Ideology, psychology, and law.
  • Peng, K., Ames, D. R., & Knowles, E. D. (2001). Culture and human inference: Perspectives from three traditions. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), Handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 245-264). New York: Oxford University Press.

Courses Taught:

  • Attribution Theory Graduate Seminar
  • Cultural Psychology
  • Cultural Psychology Graduate Seminar
  • Dominant-Group Identity and the Experience of Privilege
  • Research Design
  • Research Seminar in Psychology and Social Behavior
  • The Social Animal
  • Workshop in Behavioral Research

Eric D. Knowles
Department of Psychology
New York University
6 Washington Place
New York, New York 10003
United States of America

  • Phone: (949) 824-1730
  • Fax: (949) 824-3002

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