Christian Crandall

Christian S. Crandall is an American social psychologist, known for his research on prejudice, stigma, and discrimination. He is professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, where he has been a faculty member since 1992. Crandall was President of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), is a Fellow of the American Psychological Society, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and SPSSI.

Early life and education
Crandall was born in Seattle, attended Chief Sealth High School, and earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Washington, where he worked with Allen Edwards, Dick Rose, and spent more than a year in the lab of Robert C. Bolles (with Michael Fanselow and Mark Bouton). He earned a Ph.D. in 1987 in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan, working with Robert Zajonc, Eugene Burnstein, and Richard E. Nisbett.

Crandall was an NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow in Health Psychology at Yale University (1987–1988), working with Judith Rodin and Peter Salovey. At Yale, Crandall published, with Robert Coleman, what was the first social psychology study based entirely on HIV+ participants.

Crandall taught classes at Connecticut College and Yale University before serving three years as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Florida. He then joined the University of Kansas and was promoted to full Professor in 2004, and served as President of the University Senate.

Research and contributions
Crandall's first publication appeared in 1981, on learned taste preferences, and for years his research had a “food” focus, including social influence on binge eating, which led ultimately to studying prejudice against fat people.

Subsequent work, focused on prejudice in a broader way. The Justification-Suppression Model of the expression of prejudice, focuses on how a person's prejudice is modified and managed, comparing forces that suppress prejudice expression (including self-acknowledgement) and releasing suppressed prejudice. The Normative Window approach to prejudice focused on how social change at the societal level can translate to changes in prejudice levels in individuals, most often leading to lower levels of prejudice.

Recognition
Crandall has received the Distinguished Service to the Society Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the Distinguished Service to the Society Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Morton Deutsch Publication Award from the International Society for Justice Research. He has received grants from the National Science Foundation the Pediatric AIDS Foundation and other organizations for research on racism, discrimination, social and health psychology.

Crandall was the Senior Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (2017–2020), and Associate Editor at Social and Personality Psychology Compass and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. With Monica Biernat, he edited Dialogue (2000–2008) for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.