Explanipedia

Racial Biases in Officers’ Decisions to Frisk Are Amplified for Black People Stopped Among Groups Leading to Similar Biases in Searches, Arrests, and Use of Force Open

Erin Cooley, Neil Hester, William Cipolli, Laura I. Rivera, Kaitlin Abrams , et al. · 2025

Violent encounters between police and Black people have spurred debates about how race affects officer decision-making. We propose that racial disparities in police–civilian interactions are amplified when police interact with Black civili…

Who Gets to Vote? Racialized Mental Images of Legitimate and Illegitimate Voters Open

Jazmin L. Brown‐Iannuzzi, Erin Cooley, William Cipolli, B. Keith Payne · 2025

When people support voter identification (ID) laws, who do they imagine they are keeping in and out of the voting booth? We investigated this question across three studies. First, using a traditional survey approach, we found support for v…

Groups amplify the perceived threat and justification for using force against Black people protesting for racial equality—especially among social conservatives Open

Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown‐Iannuzzi, B. Keith Payne, Jennifer Steele, William Cipolli · 2025

Although most antiracism protests of 2020 were peaceful, at times, there was extreme use of force. Drawing on research that groups amplify intergroup threats, we test whether use of force is perceived as particularly justified against grou…

Learning While Learning: Psychology Case Studies for Teaching Regression Open

Ciaran Evans, Alex Reinhart, Erin Cooley, William Cipolli · 2025

Psychology

In this article, we explore the use of two published datasets for teaching a wide range of students about regression models, with a particular focus on interaction terms. The two datasets come from recent psychology studies on beliefs abou…

Is Discrimination Widespread or Concentrated? Evaluating the Distribution of Anti-Black Discrimination in Judicial, Hiring, and Housing Decisions. Open

Manuel J. Galvan, Gabriella Alvarez, William Cipolli, Erin Cooley, Keely A. Muscatell , et al. · 2024

Economics Environmental science Mathematics

Is anti-Black discrimination concentrated among a discriminatory few, or widespread across many decision-makers? The handful of studies that have addressed this question have reached divergent conclusions, with some suggesting that discrim…

White Americans who perceive themselves to be “last place” in the racial status hierarchy are most drawn to alt-right extremism Open

Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown‐Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, William Cipolli · 2024

Psychology Sociology Political science

Economic inequality and alt-right extremism have reached historic highs in the U.S. We propose that high economic inequality may uphold stereotypes that white people are wealthy which may lead some white Americans to feel in the precarious…

Children automatically encode race and gender simultaneously Open

Ryan F. Lei, Ravenel Davis, Aaron J. Cohen, Erin Cooley · 2022

Psychology Computer science Sociology

Previous work suggests that children automatically encode gender by the preschool years and race by early childhood. However, whether children automatically encode race and gender simultaneously is unknown. Two studies (NTotal = 309, Mage …

Is Discrimination Widespread or Concentrated? Evaluating the Distribution of Hiring and Housing Discrimination Against Black Americans Open

Manuel J. Galvan, Gabriella Alvarez, William Cipolli, Erin Cooley, Keely A. Muscatell , et al. · 2022

Economics Sociology Mathematics

Is anti-Black racial discrimination due to “a few bad apples”? Or, is there a larger pattern of widespread discrimination? This question about the distribution of discrimination is fundamental for understanding the causes of discrimination…

Who gets to vote? Racialized mental images of legitimate and illegitimate voters Open

Jazmin L. Brown‐Iannuzzi, Keith B. Payne, Erin Cooley, Will Cipolli · 2020

Psychology Political science

When people support voter ID laws, who do they imagine they are keeping in and out of the voting booth? We investigated this question across three studies. First, using a traditional survey approach, we found support for voter ID laws was …

Math and language gender stereotypes: Age and gender differences in implicit biases and explicit beliefs Open

Heidi A. Vuletich, Beth Kurtz‐Costes, Erin Cooley, B. Keith Payne · 2020

Psychology

In a cross-sectional study of youth ages 8-15, we examined implicit and explicit gender stereotypes regarding math and language abilities. We investigated how implicit and explicit stereotypes differ across age and gender groups and whethe…

Math and language gender stereotypes: Age and gender differences in implicit biases and explicit beliefs Open

Heidi A. Vuletich, Beth Kurtz‐Costes, Erin Cooley, B. Keith Payne · 2020

In a cross-sectional study of youth ages 8-15, we examined implicit and explicit gender stereotypes regarding math and language abilities. We investigated how implicit and explicit stereotypes differ across age and gender groups and whethe…

Groups as justification for blatant race stereotyping Open

Erin Cooley · 2019

Psychology Political science Sociology

Research has shown that groups are perceived as more aggressive and less trustworthy than individuals and Blacks are perceived as more aggressive than Whites. In two studies, I examined how these biases interact, leading to especially nega…

More People But Less Mind: How Number Affects Mind Perception and Decisions to Harm Open

Erin Cooley · 2019

Psychology

Most moral codes agree that harming another person is wrong. However, instances in which people cause widespread harm abound. One reason for this discrepancy between moral values and behavior may be that people have difficulty imagining gr…

The Fluid Perception of Racial Identity Open

Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown‐Iannuzzi, Darren Agboh, Brian Enjaian, Rachel B. Geyer , et al. · 2017

Psychology Sociology Chemistry

Scholars view racial identity as a fluid social construction that can shift with time and context. But outside of academia, do people intuitively see racial identity as fluid or fixed? Four studies reveal that people see racial identity as…

Reducing implicit racial preferences: II. Intervention effectiveness across time. Open

Calvin K. Lai, Allison L. Skinner, Erin Cooley, Sohad Murrar, Markus Bräuer , et al. · 2016

Psychology Political science Computer science

Implicit preferences are malleable, but does that change last? We tested 9 interventions (8 real and 1 sham) to reduce implicit racial preferences over time. In 2 studies with a total of 6,321 participants, all 9 interventions immediately …

Study 2 Image Generation - NonRecipient Condition Open