Monica Biernat
Department of Psychology
1415 Jayhawk Blvd., 426 Fraser Hall
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas 66045
U.S.A.
Home Page
Phone: (785) 864-9815
Fax: (785) 864-5696
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My research efforts focus on the areas of stereotyping and prejudice. I have been concerned with topics ranging from stereotype development and change, to the effects of group context (e.g., numerical presence of minority relative to majority group members) on memory and judgment, to examining the role of American values (e.g., Protestant Work Ethic and egalitarian values) in both promoting and defusing prejudice. Most recently, my graduate students and I have been working on developing and testing our model of "shifting standards." This model examines the role that stereotypes play in leading perceivers to use separate judgment standards to evaluate members of different social groups. For example, the stereotypes that men are more aggressive than women and that African Americans are more athletic that White Americans may direct judges to adjust what they mean by descriptors such as "very aggressive," or "rather athletic," depending on which category of individuals the adjectives are being used to describe. Behavior that is labeled "very aggressive" in a woman may be seen as only "moderately aggressive" in a man; Black and White individuals who are each described as "very athletic" may nonetheless be seen to differ systematically because they are judges against athletic standards of differing "harshness." Shifts in meaning are particularly likely to occur when target judgments are made on response scales that are "slippery" or "subjective" in nature, and less likely to occur when judgments are made in "objective" units. This work has implications for measurement, for understanding assimilation and contrast effects, and for predicting behavioral manifestations of stereotypes.
 Books:
 Adams, G., Biernat, M., Branscombe, N. R., Crandall, C. S., & Wrightsman, L. S. (Eds.). (2008). Commemorating Brown: The social psychology of racism and discrimination. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Journal Articles:
- Biernat, M., & Kobrynowicz, D. (1997). Gender- and race-based standards of competence: Lower minimum standards but higher ability standards for devalued groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 544-557.
- Biernat, M., & Manis, M., & Kobrynowicz, D. (1997). Simultaneous assimilation and contrast effects in judgments of self and other. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 254-269.
- Biernat, M., Vescio, T. K., & Green, M.L. (1996). Selective self-stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1194-1209.
- Biernat, M., Vescio, T. K., & Theno, S. A. (1996). Violating American values: A "value congruence" approach to understanding outgroup attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 32, 387-410.
- Kobrynowicz, D., & Biernat, M. (1997). Decoding subjective evaluations: How stereotypes provide shifting standards. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 579-601.
Other Publications:
- Biernat, M., Vescio, T. K., & Manis, M. (1998). Judging and behaving toward members of stereotyped groups: A shifting standards perspective. In C. Sedikides, J. Schopler, & C.A. Insko (Eds.), Intergroup cognition and intergroup behavior, pp. 151-175. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
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