About
Mahzarin R. Banaji is the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University and a Harvard College Professor. She is affiliated with the Department of Psychology and is a key figure in the Mind, Brain, and Behavior (MBB) Interfaculty Initiative. Her research is centered at the intersection of social cognition, implicit bias, and ethical behavior.
- Institution: Harvard University
- School: Harvard College
- Department: Psychology
- Email: banaji@fas.harvard.edu
Dr. Banaji earned her Ph.D. from Ohio State University and has been a leading scholar in the study of unconscious bias. Her work explores how implicit attitudes shape perception, judgment, and behavior outside conscious awareness. She co-developed the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a groundbreaking tool for measuring unconscious biases related to race, gender, age, and other social categories.
Her research spans social cognition, prejudice, stereotyping, moral psychology, and the neuroscience of social behavior. More recently, she has extended her work into the domain of artificial intelligence, investigating how human-like biases emerge in large language models.
The 15 most recent publications reflect a strong trend toward computational social science, combining psychological theory with natural language processing and AI. Her team analyzes bias in digital corpora, studies the transmission of stereotypes in AI systems, and develops tools to measure intersectional and implicit attitudes at scale. These works bridge psychology, ethics, and technology, highlighting the societal implications of implicit cognition.
Among her notable scientific honors are:
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- William James Fellow
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- Kurt Lewin Award (SPSSI)
- Harvard College Professorship
Dr. Banaji has advised numerous graduate students, including Tessa Charlesworth and Kerry Morehouse, many of whom are now active researchers in social and cognitive psychology. She has secured major grants through the Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative and has led interdisciplinary teams exploring bias in education, law, and technology. She is also the co-creator of OutsmartingHumanMinds.org, a public education platform on implicit bias.
Her lab serves as a hub for collaborative research on implicit social cognition, bringing together psychologists, neuroscientists, and computer scientists to understand and mitigate unconscious bias in human and artificial systems.
