Mahzarin Banaji taught at Yale University from 1986-2002 where she was Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Psychology. In 2002 she joined the Department of Psychology at Harvard University as the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, and in 2014 was named a Harvard College Professor. She serves as the George A. and Helen Dunham Cowan Chair in Human Dynamics at the Santa Fe Institute from 2011-2014. She also served as the first Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard from 2002-2008 and as the George A. and Helen Dunham Cowan Chair in Human Dynamics at the Santa Fe Institute, 2011-2015. She is currently Senior Advisor to the Dean of the FAS on Faculty Development and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.

In 2016 Banaji received the William James Fellow Award for “a lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology” from the APS, an organization of which she also served as president. In 2017 Banaji received the APA’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution. Her contributions have been recognized by Barnard College’s highest honor, the Medal of Distinction (2014) and the Distinguished Cognitive Scientist Award from University of California, Merced (2017). Banaji has also received honorary degrees from Smith College (2015), Colgate University (2016), the University of Helsinki (2016) and Carnegie-Mellon University (2017).

Banaji studies the disparities between conscious expressions of values, attitudes and beliefs on the one hand, and less conscious, implicit representations of mental content. She has primarily studied social attitudes and beliefs in adults and children, relying on multiple methods including cognitive/affective behavioral measures, computational approaches, and neuroimaging. Her work has called for greater consistency between cherished national and personal values on the one hand and policies and individual behavior on the other. In addition to research and university teaching, Banaji’s current efforts are focused on applying evidence from the science of social cognition to improving organizational practices. Her book with Anthony Greenwald, Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, was published by Delacorte Press. Her educational project can be found at outsmartinghumanminds.org.

For more information on her research and teaching, see www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~banaji.