Rate My Professor Avi Ben-Zeev

Avi Ben-Zeev is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at San Francisco State University, where he joined the faculty in 2001. He earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Yale University in 1997. His research specializations lie within cognitive psychology, focusing on cognition, problem solving and reasoning, social cognition, gender identity, stereotype threat, mathematical reasoning, and stereotyping. As a faculty member in the Mind, Brain, and Behavior concentration of the Master of Arts in Psychological Science program, Ben-Zeev provides tutorial-based instruction, supervises independent studies, and guides student research in areas such as cognition and social cognition. He directs the Cognition and Social Equity Lab, exploring cognitive processes influenced by social contexts.

Ben-Zeev has significantly impacted the field through his work on stereotype threat and interventions to support underrepresented groups. He developed and tested the Speaking Truth to EmPower (STEP) intervention as part of the SF BUILD project at San Francisco State University, which protects underrepresented minorities' intellectual performance and sense of safety in STEM environments. Key publications include "Stereotypes Disrupt Probabilistic Category Learning" (Derreumaux, Elder, Suri, Ben-Zeev, Quimby, & Hughes, 2023), "'Speaking Truth' Protects Underrepresented Minorities’ Intellectual Performance and Safety in STEM" (Ben-Zeev, Paluy, Milless, Goldstein, & Wallace, 2017), "When an 'Educated' Black Man Becomes Lighter in the Mind's Eye: Evidence for a Skin Tone Memory Bias" (Ben-Zeev, Dennehy, Goodrich, Kolarik, & Geisler, 2014), "Flirting with Threat: Social Identity and the Perils of the Female Communality Prescription" (Ben-Zeev, Dennehy, & Geisler, 2011), and "A Threatening Intellectual Environment: Why Females Are Susceptible to Experiencing Problem-Solving Deficits in the Presence of Males" (Inzlicht & Ben-Zeev, 2000). With over 2,100 citations across more than 30 publications, his research informs efforts to reduce biases affecting intellectual performance. Ben-Zeev has presented findings in departmental brown bag seminars, such as on causal deviants (2020), illusory correlation (2020), and stereotype threat (2015). He serves as a Safe Zone ally, contactable at EP 327.