معرفی
Benjamin A. Saunders is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Long Island University, Brooklyn, within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He founded and directs the Politics, Race, and Ideology Collaboratory (PRIDECo).
Dr. Saunders' educational background includes:
- B.A. from the University of Michigan
- M.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago
- Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago
His research examines how people reason about inequality, focusing on (1) how prejudice and discrimination stem from personality, and (2) how dispositional variability in appraisals of the status quo predict sociopolitical attitudes. His work covers authoritarianism, political ideology, system justification, immigration, climate change, racial policy, and the psychology of MAGA, using social cognitive methods and projective techniques.
Recent publications (2025-2004) span social and political psychology, with a focus on system justification, authoritarianism, and prejudice. Key themes include the psychological effects of racial system justification, critiques of left-wing authoritarianism, and the role of system-justifying beliefs in social issues like catcalling and stop-and-frisk policies, often bridging theory and real-world challenges.
Dr. Saunders has secured several research grants:
- Modern Multidimensional Authoritarianism: $15,000 SEED Grant (Principal Investigator, 2019)
- Coping with catcalling: $1,248 Psi Chi Undergraduate Research Grant (Co-investigator, 2015)
- Stereotype threat and academic disengagement: $920 Intramural Research Support (Principal Investigator, 2009)
He directs the Politics, Race, and Ideology Collaboratory (PRIDECo), which fosters interdisciplinary research on the intersections of politics, race, and ideology.
