Nilanjana Buju Dasgupta

Provost Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Institute of Diversity Sciences University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Amherst MA

Nilanjana "Buju" Dasgupta studies how implicit or unconscious bias influences people’s first impressions and behavior toward others.

Contact

University of Massachusetts Amherst

View more experts managed by University of Massachusetts Amherst

Expertise

Women in STEM
Implicit Bias
STEM Education
Social Identity
Stereotypes
Diversity in Science
Gender Inequality in STEM Fields

Biography

Nilanjana "Buju" Dasgupta is a nationally recognized expert on diversifying academia.

Her research spotlights how implicit bias influences people’s first impressions and behavior toward others, as well as how implicit stereotypes influence individuals’ own academic and professional choices.

Dasgupta is particularly interested in identifying solutions that remedy implicit bias. Her recent research identifies solutions that can reduce the impact of implicit bias on gender gaps in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and career opportunities thereby closing gender gaps iand broadening participation of diverse individuals in STEM.

Social Media

Video

Education

Yale University

Ph.D.

Social Psychology

Yale University

M.Phil

Social Psychology

Yale University

M.S.

Social Psychology

Show All +

Select Recent Media Coverage

Better Known: Nilanjana Dasgupta

Better Known podcast  online

2025-01-05

Nilanjana (Buju) Dasgupta, director of faculty equity and inclusion at UMass Amherst, discusses her new book, “Change the Wallpaper,” which “reveals how to nudge local cultures toward positive structural change by moving people from individual action to collective action.”

View More

Why a ‘near peer’ can be the best kind of mentor

The Boston Globe Magazine  online

2022-10-28

A girl who wants to build a business or design a skyscraper shouldn’t find her goal harder to reach than a boy with the same ambitions. A society that values equality shouldn’t allow half of its population to be vastly underrepresented in the highest levels and fastest growing sectors of its workforce, says Nilanjana Dasgupta, principal investigator of the Implicit Social Cognition Lab at UMass Amherst. “We should care because, to the extent that we believe in equal opportunity for all, making sure that the people in this country are represented in the careers of the present and the future is the right thing to do,” she says.

View More

How to Get More Women Into Technology

The Wall Street Journal  print

2021-06-01

Nilanjana Dasgupta is quoted in an article about efforts to draw more women into STEM fields, and the obstacles they face. “The obstacles are not about ability,” she says. “It’s more about there are some things that are impeding girls’ interest and confidence that they’re good at it.”

View More

Select Publications

What the U.S. Presidential Election Results Tell Us

Psychology Today

Nilanjana Dasgupta

2025-01-20

Nilanjana Dasgupta writes that the results of the November election show that Americans of different income levels and social classes don’t understand each other. “If we want to change our country for the better, we need to step out of our bubbles and walk into new local spaces where we mix with people who are different from us,” she says.

View more

Change the Wallpaper: Transforming Cultural Patterns to Build More Just Communities

BOOK: Yale University Press

Nilanjana Dasgupta

2025-01-07

A social psychologist reveals how to nudge local cultures toward positive structural change by moving people from individual action to collective action.

View more

Neither liberal nor conservative approaches to racism work — this science-based solution is better

The Hill

Nilanjana Dasgupta

2024-12-15

Nilanjana Dasgupta writes that, “The standard antibias training and the conservative backlash to it form a bitter self-perpetuating cycle. These two approaches have an interesting similarity: both focus on individuals only and both underestimate the power of situations in shaping human behavior.”

View more

Show All +