Jennifer Richeson Wins MacArthur Award

Social psychologist Jennifer Richeson, Northwestern University, is the recipient of a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship award, known informally as a “Genius Grant.” Distributed by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the MacArthur Fellowships highlight creativity in all its forms and are designed to allow awardees to work freely, unencumbered by financial concerns or the oversight of their institution or funders. Awardees receive $500,000, given quarterly over five years with no stings attached. The large monetary amount, along with the closed nature of the selection process — a group of anonymous nominators hand-picks possible candidates and a separate anonymous selection committee makes final recommendations to the Board of the MacArthur Foundation  — generates considerable media attention and brings sudden fame to awardees. This year’s group includes not only academics representing many varied fields, but also writers, musicians, painters, and even a country doctor.

Richeson “was…quite shocked” when she heard she was being given the award and was not aware that she had been nominated.  According to the MacArthur Foundation Web site, “bringing new life to the topic of intergroup relations, Richeson takes the lead in highlighting and analyzing major challenges facing all races in America and the continuing role played by prejudice and stereotyping in our lives.” Using a variety of methods, Richeson investigates interracial interaction and has shed new light on what transpires when members of different groups communicate. Among her findings is the idea that “pluralistic ignorance” and efforts to avoid seeming prejudiced make interracial communication more cognitively taxing.

Richeson hopes that the prize will allow her to continue this line of research and that all the attention she’s receiving along with the award will “open eyes to all the amazing research that is currently being conducted by social psychologists.”

In previous years, psychologist Howard Gardner and the late researchers Bela Julesz, David Rumelhart, and Amos Tversky were all named MacArthur Fellows. Learn more at www.macfound.org.