Kimberly Barsamian Kahn
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Dr. Kimberly Barsamian Kahn is an Associate Professor of Social Psychology at Portland State University. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, with minors in Sport Psychology and Quantitative Psychology. She received her M.A. in Social Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Kahn was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center for Social Research and Intervention at Lisbon University Institute in Lisbon, Portugal.
Dr. Kahn’s research addresses contemporary forms of subtle bias and prejudice. Specifically, she examines hidden forms of bias such as stereotype threat, phenotypic racial stereotypicality bias, masculinity threat, and implicit bias. Her work moves beyond studying broad categorical distinctions between groups to provide a more nuanced and fine-grained analysis of modern prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. Using experimental social psychological methods with diverse samples, her work addresses the psychological effects of subtle bias from multiple perspectives: the perceivers’ perspectives, the targets’ perspectives, and the social context.
She is currently investigating the following lines of research:
1) How racial stereotypes affect behavior within the criminal justice domain. As a member of the Center for Policing Equity (www.policingequity.org), Dr. Kahn conducts research on the role of stereotyping and social identity threat on police behavior with minority suspects, as well as police/community perceptions and responses to racial profiling.
2) How social identity threats impact behavior. Dr. Kahn’s research focuses on the ways in stereotype threat and masculinity threat negatively impact academic performance and outcomes within the criminal justice system.
3) Within-group differences in bias. A major focus looks at the ways in which individuals within stigmatized groups differentially experience bias based on subtle factors like phenotypic racial stereotypicality or intersectional identities.
4) Confronting prejudicing. A line of research assesses the social costs -- including interpersonal, intergroup, emotional, and cognitive costs-- that targets of discrimination encounter when they confront an individual who expresses prejudice.
Primary Interests:
- Aggression, Conflict, Peace
- Applied Social Psychology
- Attitudes and Beliefs
- Culture and Ethnicity
- Gender Psychology
- Intergroup Relations
- Internet and Virtual Psychology
- Law and Public Policy
- Person Perception
- Prejudice and Stereotyping
- Self and Identity
- Sexuality, Sexual Orientation
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What Can Implicit Bias Teach Us About Racialized Policing?
Journal Articles:
- Becker, J.C., Barreto, M., Kahn, K.B., & de Oliveira Laux. (2015). The collective value of ‘me’ (and its limitations): Towards a more nuanced understanding of individual versus collective coping with prejudice. Journal of Social Issues. 71, 497-516.
- Glaser, J., Martin, K., & Kahn, K. B. (2015). Possibility of death sentence has divergent effect on verdicts for Black and White defendants. Law and Human Behavior, 39, 539-546. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000146
- Goddard, T*., Kahn, K. B., & Adkins, A.* (2015). Racial bias in driver yielding behavior at crosswalks. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 33, 1-6.
- Goff, P. A., Di Leone, B. A. L., & Kahn, K. B. (2012). Racism leads to pushups: How racial discrimination threatens subordinate men's masculinity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
- Goff, P. A., & Kahn, K. B. (2013). How psychological science impedes intersectional thinking. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 10, 365-384.
- Goff, P. A., & Kahn, K. B. (2012). Racial bias in policing: Why we know less than we should. Social Issues and Policy Review, 6, 177-210.
- Kahn, K. B., Barreto, M., Kaiser, C., & Rego, M. (2016). How members of high status groups become allies for social change. British Journal of Social Psychology, 55, 27-43. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12117
- Kahn, K. B., & Davies, P. G. (2011). Differentially dangerous? Phenotypic racial stereotypicality increases implicit bias among ingroup and outgroup members. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 14, 569-580.
- Kahn, K. B., & Fingerhut, A. W. (2011). Essentialist beliefs and sexual prejudice against gay men: Divergence at the levels of categories versus traits. Psychology and Sexuality, 2, 137-146.
- Kahn, K. B., Goff. P. A., Lee. J.K., & Motamed, D. (2016). Protecting Whiteness: White phenotypic racial stereotypicality reduces police use of force. Social Psychological and Personality Science. Online first: doi: 10.1177/1948550616633505
- Kahn, K. B., Ho, A., Sidanius, J., & Pratto, F. (2009). The space between us and them: Perceptions of status differences. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 12, 591-604.
- Kahn, K. B. & Martin, K.M. (2016). Policing and Race: Disparate treatment, perceptions, and policy responses. Social Issues and Policy Review, 10, 82-121. doi: 10.1111/sipr.12019
- Kahn, K.B. & McMahon, J.M.* (2015). Shooting deaths of unarmed racial minorities: Understanding the role of racial stereotypes on decisions to shoot. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 1, 310-320. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tps0000047
- Kahn, K. B., Unzueta, M., Davies, P. G., Alston, A*., & Lee, J.K.* (2015). Will you value me and do I value you? The effect of phenotypic racial stereotypicality on organizational evaluations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 59, 130-138.
- Lee, J. K.*, Alston, A. T*., & Kahn, K. B. (2015). Identity threat in the classroom: Women’s motivational experiences in the sciences. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 1, 321-330. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tps0000050
- McMahon, J. & Kahn, K.B. (2016). Benevolent racism? The impact of target race on ambivalent sexism. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 19, 162-183. doi: 10.1177/1368430215583153
- Mendoza-Denton, R., Kahn, K. B., & Chan, W. (2008). Can fixed views of ability boost performance in the context of favorable stereotypes? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1187-1193.
Other Publications:
- Glaser, J., & Kahn, K. B. (2005). Prejudice and discrimination and the Internet. In Y. Amichai-Hamburger (Ed.), The Social Net: Human behavior in cyberspace (pp. 247-274). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Kahn, K.B., Goff, P.A. & McMahon, J.M.* (2016). Intersections of prejudice and dehumanization: Charting a research trajectory. In Wulf D. Hund, Charles W. Mills, Silvia Sebastiani (eds.): Simianization. Apes, Gender, Class, and Race. [Racism Analysis | Yearbook 6, 2015-2016]. (pp. 223-241). Berlin: Lit Verlag.
- Kahn, K. B., Spencer, K., & Glaser, J. (2013). Online discrimination and prejudice: From dating to hating. In Y. Amichai-Hamburger (Ed.), The Social Net: Human behavior in cyberspace, 2nd Edition (pp. 201-219). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Courses Taught:
- Intergroup Relations
- Introductory Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Sport Psychology
- The Psychology of Race and Gender in Sport
Kimberly Barsamian Kahn
Department of Psychology
Portland State University
P.O. Box 751
Portland, Oregon 97207-0751
United States of America