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Landon Reid, Assistant Professor of Psychology

The origins of my desire to be a professor can be traced to two sources. The first was the sudden realization during my sophomore year of college that the literature of social psychology on racism and prejudice largely omitted the perspectives of people of color.

The second occurred when I was a research assistant on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University. My research mentor, the noted historian Clayborne Carson, pointed out that we are all consumers of knowledge, but there are very few producers of knowledge. I was enamored of the idea of being a producer and communicator of knowledge. Both of these ideas continue to serve as motivations for my teaching and research.

Landon ReidIn the broadest sense, my research is concerned with elucidating the behavioral mechanics that perpetuate racism. One of the most important reasons why racism continues to be a major social problem is that members of different racial groups see racism in different ways.
Although conventional wisdom asserts that members of different racial groups should perceive racism differently, this prediction has been tested by few empirical studies. Further, no research to date explains why members of different racial groups might perceive racism differently. The aim of my program of research is to delineate the experiential and cognitive factors associated with the perception of racial discrimination. More specifically, I examine whether the perception of racism is related to individual differences in cognitive complexity.

Race can be thought of as a proxy for cognitive complexity. In that sense, racial minorities and Whites are analogous to experts and non-experts within the domain of racism. More cognitively complex racial minorities are likely to have more experience with various forms of racism relative to Whites. In turn, this suggests that racial minorities may have a more complex mental representation of racism than Whites. Given this, it is then possible that cognitively complexity generally may facilitate the perception of racism both across and within racial groups.

In 1904, W.E.B. DuBois predicted that the problem of the 20th century would be the color-line. Over a century later, the nation and the world are struggling to learn how individuals on different sides of the color, gender, and sexual orientation lines can constitute a civil, democratic society. I believe that Colgate is a crucible for testing and addressing these larger issues. I hope that my teaching, research, and service will contribute to Colgate's efforts to create what Martin Luther King, Jr. described as a beloved community of teachers and learners.

Contact Information

Office: Psychology
Current Courses
Mail: 105A Olin Hall
Phone: (315)228-7353
 Email: lreid@colgate.edu

 Department Affiliation

Psychology Department

Teaching & Research

Title
Assistant Professor of Psychology (2002)

Degree
Social Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Teaching Experience
Research Methods in Psychology, Personality & Social Psychology, The Psychology of Oppression (CORE SP), Race, Racism & Film, Senior Research Seminar in Social & Personality Psychology, Prejudice & Racism