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Kimberly Barsamian Kahn

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:

Other Publications:

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

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