Council Member 2015-2018

Sam Gaertner is a social psychologist who is interested in intergroup relations and in particular, how prejudice, discrimination racism can be reduced.  Sam also continues to study Aversive Racism (i.e., hidden biases) among ‘Well-intentioned’ people, who often express negative racial attitudes in subtle, rationalizable ways that preclude them from recognizing their racial biases. 

At the University of Delaware, Sam is Trustees’ Distinguished Professor in Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Director of the Social Psychology Graduate Program. He received a BA (1964) and MA (1967) from Brooklyn College, and a Ph.D. (1970) from the Graduate Center: The City University of New York.

Sam Gaertner has been awarded the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize (1985 & 1998), the Kurt Lewin Memorial Award (2004) and a Distinguished Service Award (2007) from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. In 2012, he received the Career Contribution Award (2012) from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology.   Sam has served on the editorial boards of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and, and as co-editor of SPSSI’S Social Issues and Policy Review.