Samuel Sommers
Psychology Department
Tufts University
490 Boston Avenue
Medford, Massachusetts 02155
U.S.A.
Home Page
Phone: (617) 627-5293
Email: sam.sommers@tufts.edu
Dr. Sommers is a social psychologist interested in issues related to stereotyping, prejudice, and group diversity. His research focuses on two broad, often overlapping topic areas: 1) the influence of race-related norms and motivations on social cognition, judgment and decision-making, group dynamics, and interpersonal interaction; 2) the intersection of psychology and law. He is currently funded by the Russell Sage Foundation for his research on the effects of diversity on group decision-making processes. He teaches courses in Social Psychology, Experimental Psychology, and Psychology & Law. He is the creator and organizer of Tufts' Diversity & Cognition Colloquium Series.
- Apfelbaum, E. A., Sommers, S. R., & Norton, M. I. (in press). Seeing race and seeming racist? Evaluating strategic colorblindness in social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
- Norton, M. I., Sommers, S. R., Apfelbaum, E. P., Pura, N. & Ariely, D. (2006). Colorblindness and interracial interaction: Playing the "political correctness game." Psychological Science, 17, 949-953.
- Norton, M. I., Sommers, S. R., & Brauner, S. (2007). Bias in jury selection: Justifying prohibited peremptory challenges. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 20, 467-479.
- Norton, M. I., Sommers, S. R., Vandello, J. A., & Darley, J. M. (2006). Mixed motives and racial bias: The impact of legitimate and illegitimate criteria on decision-making. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 12, 1-20.
- Sommers, S. R. (2007). Race and the decision-making of juries. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 12, 171-187.
- Sommers, S. R. (2006). On racial diversity and group decision-making: Identifying multiple effects of racial composition on jury deliberations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 597-612.
- Sommers, S. R., & Douglass, A. B. (2007). Context matters: Alibi strength varies according evaluator perspective. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 12, 41-54.
- Sommers, S. R., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2001). White juror bias: An investigation of racial prejudice against Black defendants in the American courtroom. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 7, 201-229.
- Sommers, S. R., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2000). Race in the courtroom: Perceptions of guilt and dispositional attributions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1367-1379.
- Sommers, S. R., & Kassin, S. M. (2001). On the many impacts of inadmissible testimony: Selective compliance, need for cognition, and the overcorrection bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1368-1377.
- Sommers, S. R., & Norton, M. I. (in press). Race and jury selection: Psychological perspectives on the peremptory challenge debate. American Psychologist.
- Sommers, S. R., & Norton, M. I. (2007). Race-based judgments, race-neutral justifications: Experimental examination of peremptory use and the Batson challenge procedure. Law and Human Behavior, 31, 261-273.
- Sommers, S. R., & Norton, M. I. (2006). Lay theories about White racists: What constitutes racism (and what doesn’t). Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 9, 117-138.
- Sommers, S. R., Warp, L. S., & Mahoney, C. C. (in press). Cognitive effects of racial diversity: White individuals’ information processing in heterogeneous groups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
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