Gordon Blaine Moskowitz (born October 6, 1963) is a social psychologist working in the field of social cognition. He is currently a professor in the Department of Psychology at Lehigh University. His primary research interests are in examining: 1) social inferences which occur with neither the intention of forming an impression nor the awareness that one has done so (i.e., the extent to which social inferences, especially stereotypes, are spontaneous); and 2) the non-conscious nature of motivation and goals, with emphasis on how the goals to be egalitarian and creative are more efficiently pursued when one is not consciously trying to pursue them. This work has been applied to the question of how stereotypes impact medical diagnosis and treatment and contribute to health disparities, as well as to how medical training can implement what is known about controlling stereotyping and prejudice to reduce such bias and minimize health disparities.

Biography

Moskowitz was born in Brooklyn, New York to Howard and Geraldine Moskowitz. He attended McGill University (B.Sc. 1984) and New York University (Ph.D. 1993). His post-doctoral training was at the Max Planck Institute on Leopoldstrasse in Munich, Germany. From 1994 through 2001 he was an assistant professor of psychology at Princeton University.

Research topics

• the nature of stereotyping and the question of how people can prevent stereotypic thoughts from occurring or, if they do occur, prevent stereotypic thinking from influencing their evaluations of and actions toward others.
• the "snap judgments" made when hearing about, meeting, or observing others; the "automaticity" of human inferential processes and the extent to which goals and motives can be equally "automatic."
• the manner in which goals, operating outside of conscious awareness, control cognition, such as 1) egalitarian goals inhibiting one's stereotypes, and 2) creativity goals inhibiting typical thoughts in favor of more atypical and unique ones.
• the extent to which people are persuaded or influenced by minority messengers: the cognitive economy which directs initial thoughts toward minorities and how motives which instigate more elaborate thought processes lead to greater minority influence.
• a motive termed "the need for structure" and how the desire to control, understand, and structure the events and people which make up one's social world affects the way in which one perceives and acts.

Publications

References

• Gordon Moskowitz professional profile
• Lehigh University faculty page
• Rate My Professor Page