Saturday, April 21, 2007

Schindler Education Center

University of Northern Iowa

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Christian Crandall

Department of Psychology, The University of Kansas

Research Interests
 In our lab, we work collaboratively on a range of issues in two basic areas: Prejudice and Political Psychology. Both of these areas of research are ongoing, and have many more ideas and hypotheses than we have people to work on them.

In prejudice, our primary focus is on a broad approach exemplified by the Justification-Suppression Model (JSM) of prejudice. In the JSM, we look carefully at the processes that create a distinction between the prejudice people feel and the prejudice people express. This leads us to look at the justification of prejudice, particularly through ideology, values, and the kinds of explanations people make for bad outcomes. When people are seen to be responsible for their behavior and life outcomes, then discrimination, hatred, and rough treatment is not only justified, but seen as natural, ethical, and good.

In political psychology, our lab works on two distinct problems. The first is political legitimacy, and our work is focused on basic problems in political psychology and the perception of political leaders as legitimate. We have carried out research on the impeachment of President Clinton, the legitimacy of Saddam Hussein and "evil" leaders and the effect of constructing a mental connection between the events of 9/11 and Iraq. The second problem is the issue of the promotion of the status quo, and the many, many different ways natural, normal, basic cognitive and social processes end up supporting the status quo—psychologically, socially, economically, and politically.