Department of Psychology, Tufts University

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Sam Sommers
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2002
sam.sommers@tufts.edu
Sommers Lab Web Site

Professor Sommers grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio before receiving his B.A. from Williams College in 1997 and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2002. He joined the faculty at Tufts in the Fall of 2003, and teaches courses in Social Psychology, Experimental Psychology, and Psychology & Law. He lives in Medford with his wife, Marilyn, and two daughters, Abigail and Sophia. As demonstrated by his office decor, he has not succumbed to normative social influence while in Boston, as he continues to be an avid Yankees fan. In his free time he hits lead-off for the Psychology Department softball team, competes in fantasy sports leagues with Professors Maddox and Carlin, and exerts far more effort than he should digitizing Seinfeld clips for PSY 13 and 32 lectures.

Professor Sommers is a social psychologist interested in race, stereotyping, and group diversity. His research focuses on two broad, often overlapping topic areas: 1) the influence of race-related norms and motivations on social cognition, judgment and decision-making, group dynamics, and interpersonal interaction; 2) the intersection of psychology and law. In other words, he is interested in the ways in which race influences people's judgments and behavior in a wide range of social situations. He is currently funded by the Russell Sage Foundation for his work on the effects of diversity on group decision-making processes. He is the creator and organizer of Tufts' Diversity & Cognition colloquium series and an inductee to the Tufts Hall of Diversity. For more details regarding publications, ongoing projects, and media coverage of his research, please see his lab web site.

Professor Sommers is always looking for motivated, responsible, and creative students to assist with research projects. Undergraduates in his lab assist with a wide range of duties, including library research, study design, participant recruitment, data collection, data coding/entry, and data analysis. Contact him directly for more information about earning course credit through a research assistant position.

Representative Publications

* = Tufts Graduate Student
# = Tufts Undergraduate Student

Norton, M. I., Sommers, S. R., *Apfelbaum, E. P., #Pura, N. & Ariely, D. (2006). Colorblindness and interracial interaction: Playing the political correctness game. Psychological Science, 17, 949-953.

Sommers, S. R., *Apfelbaum, E. P., *Dukes, K. N., *Toosi, N., & *Wang, E. J. (in press). Race and media coverage of Hurricane Katrina: Analysis, implications, and future research questions. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy.

Sommers, S. R., & Douglass, A. B. (2007). Context matters: Alibi strength varies according evaluator perspective. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 12, 41-54.

Sommers, S. R., & Norton, M. I. (in press). Race-based judgments, race-neutral justifications: Experimental examination of peremptory use and the Batson challenge procedure. Law and Human Behavior.

Sommers, S. R. (2006). On racial diversity and group decision-making: Identifying multiple effects of racial composition on jury deliberations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 597-612.

Sommers, S. R., & Norton, M. I. (2006). Lay theories about White racists: What constitutes racism (and what doesn’t). Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 9, 117-138.

Sommers, S. R., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2003). How much do we really know about race and juries? A review of social science theory and research. Chicago-Kent Law Review, 78, 997-1031.

Sommers, S. R., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2001). White juror bias: An investigation of racial prejudice against Black defendants in the American courtroom. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 7, 201-229.

Sommers, S. R., & Kassin, S. M. (2001). On the many impacts of inadmissible testimony: Selective compliance, need for cognition, and the overcorrection bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1368-1377.

Sommers, S. R., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2000). Race in the courtroom: Perceptions of guilt and dispositional attributions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1367-1379.