Joachim I. Krueger
Professor:
Psychology
Phone: 401 863 2503
Joachim@brown.edu
The goal of my research is to understand the interplay between people's views of themselves and their social beliefs. In the area of self-perception, I have been particularly interested in the egocentric processes, such as social projection and self-enhancement. In the area of social perception, my interests have been focused on social categorization and stereotyping. Rather than studying these topics in isolation, my research strategy is to try to understand the linkages among them.
Biography
I received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Oregon in 1988, and I have been at Brown since 1991. My research interests focus on inductive reasoning in social context. This includes the areas of self-perception, intergroup perception and relations, as well as behavior in social dilemmas. I am particularly interested in the processes of social projection, which determine how and when people assume that others will behave as they themselves do. I have found that social projection can increase the accuracy of social perception, and make people more willing to cooperate with others. However, social projection also contributes to ingroup favoritism and conflict between groups. I regularly teach an Introduction to Social Psychology (PY21) and a laboratory course in social cognition (PY154). At intervals, I teach topical courses to graduate students and seminars to advanced undergraduates.
Interests
• The Hyphenated Self: Self-Esteem, Self-Enhancement, and Self-Effacement
. . . and all the children are above average. —Garrison Keillor
Most people have positive self-images. According to findings from a variety of research programs, these self-images are inflated in the sense that many people irrationally enhance their egos. But no single measure is yet accepted as the best index of self-enhancement. Do people see themselves more positively than they see the average other person, do they see themselves more positively than they are seen by their peers, or do they see themselves more positively than they really are according to objective measures (e.g., test scores)? As a fourth measure, I have proposed that people self-enhance by judging their own traits—whatever these might be—more positively than these traits are judged by those people who do not claim to possess them (Krueger, PSPB, 1998). My colleagues and I have explored the differences and dependencies among these alternative measures (Krueger & Mueller, JPSP, 2002; Sinha & Krueger, JRP, 1998). Just how self-enhancement is being conceptualized and measured can have surprising implications for studies seeking to understand whether this bias is beneficial or detrimental to mental health and adjustment. A psychometric analysis of this issue is under way.
Self-esteem? Nein danke?! Most people report high self-esteem (and they think their own self-esteem is higher than that of the average person). Is high self-esteem good for you, aside from the triviality that it feels good to feel good about yourself? The American Psychological Society convened a Task Force to review the literature on this question. Our report (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003) appeared in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. In short, we found that low self-esteem is associated with fewer risks and high self-esteem is associated with higher risks (e.g., aggression) than is commonly assumed. On a lighter note, you can check out an essay on why self-esteem may constitute a social dilemma when we depend on others for affirmation of our selves (George Street Journal, 2003).
• Social Projection, Categorization, and Stereotyping
We don't see things as they are; we see things as we are. —The Talmud
Social projection leads to—sometimes exaggerated—perceptions of similarity between the self and others. This phenomenon cannot be fully understood without considering the moderating role of social categorization. Our research, and that of many others, shows that people generalize their own thoughts, behaviors, and feelings primarily to others who belong to the same social group (i.e., ingroup members). Projection to outgroups is far more limited (Clement & Krueger, JESP, 2002). This asymmetry in projection can explain the much older finding of ingroup bias. Because most people have highly favorable self-images (see above), selective projection to ingroups yields a fairly positive set of beliefs. By not reaping the benefits of projection, outgroups end up being described less positive. Currently, we are studying whether the ingroup-outgroup asymmetry in projection is further moderated by the majority or minority status of the group.
NB: Perceptions of similarity (projection) and perceptions of difference (self-enhancement) only seem to be contradictory (see Krueger, 2000, in Handbook of Social Comparison if curious).
Men are from Mars, but then, aren't we all? My current work on stereotyping focuses on the dual question of whether people overestimate gender differences in descriptions of personality (they do) and whether these perceived differences uniquely predict whether a particular attribute is perceived as typical of the target gender (not really; see Krueger, Hasman, Acevedo, & Villano, PSPB, 2003). We are following up this work by exploring the effect of conversational norms (and violations of these) on expressions of stereotypes.
• Going Overboard on Bias?
To study psychology is to study the limitations of human thought. —Mick Rothbart (paraphrased)
The interest in biases and errors is characteristic of research in social psychology. Recently, I have begun to question the wisdom of equating negative, or undesirable, phenomena with interesting phenomena. My first approach to this problem has been to examine the effects of the typical study design and data analysis on substantive conclusions concerning the quality of social perception. It seems to me that in a typical study, rational (or unbiased) social perception is equated with the truth of a null hypothesis (Krueger, AP, 2001). Because most studies are designed to reject null hypotheses, rationality cannot be demonstrated in the standard paradigm. When, for example, p > .05, we do not conclude that perceptions are unbiased, but rather that (a) we cannot tell whether they are biased, that (b) we have insufficient statistical power to conclude otherwise, or that (c) our data merely contain statistical noise. Some reflections on this topic have appeared (Krueger, Psycoloquy, 1998), and a more comprehensive analysis will appear in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Krueger & Funder, BBS).
Degrees
Ph.D.
Awards
Fulbright Scholar, 1983 - 1985
Society of Experimental Social Psychology, 1994
Fellow of the Francis Wayland Collegium for Liberal Learning, 1997
American Psychological Society's 'Task Force on Self-esteem,' 2000 - 2002
Fellow of the American Psychological Society, 2002
Humboldt Research Prize, 2008 - 2009
Affiliations
American Psychological Society (Charter Member and Fellow)
Behavioral and Brain Sciences Association
Society for Experimental Social Psychology
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
International Society for Self and Identity
International Social Cognition Network
Teaching
Social Psychology (PY21) is a general introductory lecture course.
Laboratory on Social Cognition (PY154) typically features three projects that upper-division students conduct, analyze, and report on.
Seminar on Stereotyping and Intergroup Relations (PY172) reviews and discusses current original work in these areas.
Seminar on Political Psychology (PY173) focuses on topics at the intersection of social psychology and political science (e.g., voting behavior).
I teach selected social-psychological topics to graduate students. Toics include: social influence, judgment and decision-making, philosophy of science and statistics.
Funded Research
Brown University:
Egocentric biases in social perception,
Small Grant Award ($1,000), 1994 - 1995
How automatic is social projection? Salomon Research Award
($10,000), 1996 - 1998
How fundamental is the fundamental attribution error? (Sponsor)
Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) to J. Gordon Wright ($2,200), 1997
Revision of seminar "Stereotyping and intergroup relations"
Odyssey grant to Shelley Han ($3,000), 2003
Social Projection Can Explain Cooperation in
One-Shot Prisoner's Dilemma Games Small Grant Award ($800), 2000
Sponsor, Winston, Howard Hughes Minority Faculty Fellow ($(7,700), 2001
Course transformation and travel grant ($2,500), 2003
American Psychological Society:
Festschrift conference for Robyn M. Dawes ($5,000), 2005
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates:
Festschrift conference for Robyn M. Dawes ($5,000), 2005
Carnegie Mellon University:
Festschrift conference for Robyn M. Dawes ($4,000), 2005
Society for Judgment and Decision Making
Festschrift conference for Robyn M. Dawes ($500), 2005
Sponsor: Department of Health and Human Services:
Causality in social projection, Predoctoral Award to
Russell W. Clement, MH10800-01 1F31 ($13,008), 1994 - 1995
Curriculum Vitae
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