Join | Login




Council Member 2011-14
Nilanjana (Buju) Dasgupta







I joined SPSSI as a graduate student because its mission was perfectly aligned with my reason for choosing social psychology as a career—I wanted to be involved in scientific research that could shed light on social problems and help generate policy solutions. In past years I have been honored to serve SPSSI as the Chair of the Dissertation Award Committee (2005-07) and as a Member of the Gordon Allport Prize Committee (2010). I have served our field in various other capacities as well. In the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, I served as Chair of the Diversity and Climate Committee (2008-2010) and earlier as its member (2006-08). I was Associate Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (2008-10) and currently serve on the Consulting Editorial Board of several journals—Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, European Review of Social Psychology, Social Psychological and Personality Science, and Social Cognition. I’ve served on a scientific review panel at the National Science Foundation and written ad hoc reviews for the National Institutes of Health.

My research focuses on prejudice, stereotyping, and the self-concept, with emphasis on the ways in which societal expectations unconsciously influence people’s attitudes and behavior toward others and, in the case of disadvantaged groups, influence their self-concept, professional and personal life decisions. I have examined these issues in relation to race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, and nationality. I am interested in identifying how implicit bias might be reduced by changing the structure of local environments and, in contrast, how such bias might get magnified by specific negative emotions. I am energized by opportunities to translate my research to shed light on real world problems. I have served as a consultant to the Southern Poverty Law Center to help develop an intervention to reduce subtle bias in K-12 teachers. I’ve presented research on how implicit bias affects women in science and engineering at an international conference of engineers. I have given talks at law conferences at UCLA Law School and UC Hastings. I have contributed to a documentary program that seeks to educate California State judges and court employees on implicit bias in the courtroom. I participated in a Science Leadership Advocacy Conference on Capitol Hill where my fellow scientists and I spoke to senators, state representatives, and their staff about the importance of federal funding for science and protecting peer review.