Eric D. Knowles

When does inequality seem like inequity? Broadly speaking, my research examines how people perceive and react to the fact that some groups in society have more than others. I am especially interested in how different types of motivations -- e.g., to bolster the hierarchy, to see oneself as a good and deserving person -- lead people to deny the existence of inequity, dis-identify with their ingroup, or form attitudes likely to reduce intergroup disparities.

Selected Publications

• Knowles, E. D., & Ditto, P. H. Preference, principle, and political casuistry. To appear in J. Hanson (Ed.), Ideology, psychology, and law.
• Knowles, E. D., Lowery, B. S., Schaumberg, R. L. (2009). Racial prejudice predicts opposition to Obama and his health care reform plan. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
• Knowles, E. D., Lowery, B. S., Schaumberg, R. L. (2009). Anti-egalitarians for Obama? Group-dominance motivation and the Obama vote. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 965-969.
• Knowles, E. D., Lowery, B. S., Chow, R. M., & Hogan, C. M. (2009). On the malleability of ideology: Motivated construals of color-blindness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 857-869.
• Park, S., Glaser, J., & Knowles, E. D. (2008). Implicit Motivation to Control Prejudice moderates the effect of cognitive depletion on unintended discrimination. Social Cognition, 26, 401-419.
• Chow, R. M., Lowery, B. S., & Knowles, E. D. (2008). The two faces of dominance: The differential effect of ingroup superiority and outgroup inferiority on dominant-group identity and group-esteem. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1073-1081.
• Glaser, J., & Knowles, E. D. (2008). Implicit motivation to control prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 164-172.
• Unzueta, M. M., Lowery, B. S., & Knowles, E. D. (2008). How believing in affirmative action quotas protects White men's self-esteem. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 105, 1-13.
• Lowery, B. S., Knowles, E. D., & Unzueta, M. M. (2007). Framing inequality safely: Whites' motivated perceptions of racial privilege. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1237-1250.
• Lowery, B. S., Unzueta, M. M., Knowles, E. D., & Goff, P. A. (2006). Concern for the ingroup and opposition to affirmative action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 961-974.
• Knowles, E. D. & Peng, K. (2005). White selves: Conceptualizing and measuring a dominant-group identity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 223-241.
• Peng, K., & Knowles, E. D. (2003). Culture, education, and the attribution of physical causality. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1272-1284.
• Knowles, E. D., Morris, M. W., Chiu, C.-y., & Hong, Y.-y. (2001). Culture and the process of person perception: Evidence for automaticity among East Asians in correcting for situational influences on behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1344-1356.
• Peng, K., Ames, D. R., & Knowles, E. D. (2001). Culture and human inference: Perspectives from three traditions. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), Handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 245-264). New York: Oxford University Press.