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Geoffrey Cohen

Photo of Geoffrey Cohen

Geoffrey Cohen

Professor

glc@stanford.edu

- Lab Website
- Google Scholar
- Personal Website

Assistant: Karen Hennessey

Office: CERAS 224

Biography

Professor Cohen's research examines processes that shape people's sense of belonging and self and implications for social problems. He studies the big and small threats to belonging and self-integrity that people encounter in school, work, and health care settings, and strategies to create more inclusive spaces for people from all walks of life. He believes that the development of psychological theory is facilitated not only by descriptive and observational research but by theory-driven intervention. He has long been inspired by Kurt Lewin's quip, "The best way to try to understand something is to try to change it."

He is the author of a forthcoming book about the causes and consequences of a sense of belonging in school, work, our politics, health care, and other arenas of social life, Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides (Norton, September 2022). Learn more about Geoff and his new book at www.geoffreylcohen.com.

Other Titles

Professor, Graduate School of Education
Professor, Psychology
Professor (By courtesy), Organizational Behavior
Faculty Affiliate, Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)

Program Affiliations

DAPS
Stanford Accelerator for Learning

Research Interests

Diversity and Identity | Motivation | Poverty and Inequality | Psychology | Social and Emotional Learning

See a full list of GSE Faculty research interests >

Recent Publications

Brady, S. T., Cohen, G. L., Jarvis, S. N., & Walton, G. M. (2020). A brief social-belonging intervention in college improves adult outcomes for black Americans. Science Advances, 6(18), eaay3689.

Milam, L. A., Cohen, G. L., Mueller, C., & Salles, A. (2019). Stereotype threat and working memory among surgical residents (vol 216, pg 824, 2018). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SURGERY, 218(3), 668.

Binning, K. R., Cook, J. E., Purdie-Greenaway, V., Garcia, J., Chen, S., Apfel, N., … Cohen, G. L. (2019). Bolstering trust and reducing discipline incidents at a diverse middle school: How self-affirmation affects behavioral conduct during the transition to adolescence. Journal of School Psychology, 75, 74–88.

Geoffrey Cohen in the News & Media

Professor Geoffrey L. Cohen offers practices for teachers, parents, and mentors to help young people feel seen and supported.
August 17, 2023
Illustration of large group with some outliers
September 8, 2021
Podcast
Picture of sign asking for money
January 9, 2019
Research Stories
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