Kent Harber
Associate Professor
Ph.D., Stanford University
Rutgers University, Psychology Department
101 Warren Street
Smith Hall Rm 356
Newark, NJ 07102.
Phone: (973) 353 5440 x229
Lab: (973) 353 5440 x254
Fax: (973) 353-1171
E-mail: kharber at(@) psychology.rutgers.edu
Research Interests
I am interested in risky communication, where the perceived benefits and costs of candid expression are high. I explore these dilemmas in two distinct domains: Interracial Feedback, and Coping and Social Support
Interracial Feedback: Performance feedback often involves a delicate balance between informational accuracy and social sensitivity. Achieving this balance may become more difficult when feedback suppliers and feedback recipients are from different social groups. In such situations feedback suppliers may be concerned that their candid criticisms will be viewed, by themselves or by others, as signs of social intolerance. These concerns may lead feedback suppliers to amplify the praise and minimize the criticism that they give to an "out group" feedback recipient. My research indicates that this kind of positive feedback bias does occur: I found that white feedback suppliers provide more positive feedback to an African American writer than to a white writer, for work of identical merit. The feedback bias appears to be better explained by social motives rather than by automatic, stereotype-based shifts in judgment. My ongoing studies more fully explore the overall extent, and the underlying causes, of the feedback bias.
Coping and Social Support: People who have undergone major events are often compelled to convey their experiences to others. Doing so appears to promote both mental and physical health. However, those who freely describe their own traumatic experiences often risk stigmatization and rejection. I am interested in the social dynamics that determine how and when people disclose upsetting experiences to others. This includes studies of collective coping following major disasters, and investigating how the need to disclose promotes information transfer across social networks. Measuring the nature and effects of directive vs. non-directive social support, and the values that guide social support delivery, are some of my other on-going interests in this area.
Selected Publications
Schnall, S., Harber, K.D., Stefanucci, J., & Proffitt, D. (in press). Social support and the perception of geographical slant. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Harber, K.D., Einav, M., & Porter, F. (in press). They Heard a Cry: Psycho-social resources moderate perception of negative social cues. European Journal of Social Psychology.
Harber, K.D., Jussim, L., Kennedy, K., Frieberg, R., & Baum, L. (2008). Social support values. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38, 1463-1505.
Reich, W., Harber, K.D., & Siegel, H. (in press) Self structure as a predictor of positive and negative well-being. Self and Identity.
Chouchourelou, A., Matsuka, T., Harber, K., & Shiffrar, M. (2006). The visual analysis of emotional action. Social Neuroscience, 1, 63-74.
Harber, K.D., Schneider, J.K., Everard, K., & Fisher, E. (2005). Nondirective support, directive support, and morale. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24, 691-722.
Harber, K., & Cohen, D. (2005). The emotional broadcaster model of social sharing. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 24, 382-400.
Jussim, L., Harber, K.D., Crawford, J. T., Cain, T.R., & Cohen, F. (2005) Social reality makes the social mind: Self-fulfilling prophesy, stereotypes, bias, and accuracy in social perception. Interaction Studies: Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems, 6, 85-102.
Harber, K.D. Self-Esteem and Affect as Information (2005). Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 276-288.
Harber, K.D., & Wenberg, K. (2005). Disclosure and closeness towards offenders. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 734-746.
Jussim, L., & Harber, K.D.(2005). Teacher expectations and self-fulfilling prophesies: Knowns and unknowns, resolve and unresolved controversies. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9, 131-155.
Loula, F., Prasad, S., Harber, K.D., & Shiffrar, M. (2005). Recognizing People From Their Movement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 31, 210-220.
Harber, K. (2004). The positive feedback bias as a response to out-group unfriendliness. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34, 2272-2297.
Harber, K., Zimbardo, P, & Boyd, J. (2003). Participant self-selection biases as a function of individual differences in time perspective. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 25, 255-264.
Harber, K. (1998). Is feedback to minorities positively biased? Psychological Science Agenda, 11, 8- 9. Reprinted in M.H. Davis (Ed.) Annual Editions: Social Psychology 1999/2000, Third Edition. Dushkin McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Harber, K. (1998). Feedback to minorities: Evidence of a positive bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 622-628. Reprinted in W.A. Lesko (Ed.). Readings in Social Psychology: General, Classic and Contemporary Section, (4th Edition). Allyn & Bacon, Inc. 2000.
Harber, K. (1994). Responses to traumatic disclosure: Collaboration vs. Contest. Proceedings of the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation, Stanford, CA.
Pennebaker, J., & Harber, K., (1993). A social stage model of collective coping: The Loma Prieta Earthquake and the Persian Gulf War. Journal of Social Issues, 49, (4), 125-145.
Harber, K. & Pennebaker, J. (1992). Overcoming traumatic memories. In S. A. Christainson (Ed.), The Handbook of emotion and memory, Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.
Harber, K. & Hartley, A. (1983). Meaningfulness and problem solving by younger and older adults. Experimental Aging Research, 9, 93-95.