Jennifer Richeson is a social psychologist who examines the behavioral and cognitive consequences of prejudice and racial stereotyping to reveal original insights into the dynamics of interracial interaction. Using a broad range of empirical methods, including fMRI measures, survey techniques, implicit cognitive processing measures, and self-report measures, Richeson analyzes the experiences of members of both minority and majority groups in their interactions with one another.

A key finding of her work is that such interactions require heightened self-control to combat expressions of prejudice, calling on increased cognitive effort and resulting in decreased effectiveness on other cognitive tasks. Her work provides a novel way of examining and calculating the "costs" associated with intergroup interactions.

Jennifer Richeson received an Sc.B (1994) in psychology from Brown University and a Ph.D. (2000) in social psychology from Harvard University. Since 2005, she has been an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University, where she is also a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research. Prior to joining the faculty at Northwestern, she was a visiting fellow at the Research Institute for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University (2004-2005) and an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth College (2000-2005).

Source: www.northwestern.edu/ipr/people/richeson.html