Jordan Gerard Starck

All Publications

• Moralizing Consent: Three Field Studies Testing a Student-Led Intervention at University Parties. Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) Gantman, A. P., Duker, A., Starck, J. G., Sanchez, A., Paluck, E. L. 2025; 15 (8)

  Abstract

  Moralization is the process by which preferences become moral values. We investigated a practice that is changing its moral status on college campuses in the United States: affirmative consent to sexual activity. We tested whether messages given to students just before they entered a party impacted their thinking about consent in moral terms-i.e., as a clear issue, with broad consensus, and an imperative to action. At two social clubs on a college campus in 2017, we randomly assigned moralistic vs. informational messages about consent, delivered at the party's door. At the club that had pre-existing messaging about consent, the moralistic (vs. informational) message increased students' thinking about consent in moral terms. By contrast, in the club without prior consent messaging, the informational (vs. moralistic) pledge increased students' thinking about consent in moral terms. We then investigated and found weak evidence for a small reduction in administrative-level student conduct complaints compared to prior and subsequent years as a result of a one-night consent message treatment unique to each of the 12 clubs hosting a party. Theoretically, our findings make progress toward understanding processes of moralization. Pragmatically, they suggest the importance of locally tailored messages that reflect and shape the values of social groups.

  View details for DOI 10.3390/bs15081025

  View details for PubMedID 40867382

• Support for diversity and the racial status quo in lay and legal samples. Communications psychology Starck, J. G., Brown, N. D., Hurd, K., Plaut, V., Tian, H., Jacoby-Senghor, D. 2025; 3 (1): 67

  Abstract

  While attacks on diversity in higher education have clear ramifications for preserving the racial status quo in the U.S., the impact of embracing diversity is less clear. People may value diversity for some combination of the instrumental benefits diversity provides or their moral commitments to certain values. While decades of court precedent have contributed to the predominance of instrumental over moral rationales, little is known about the psychological factors underlying this differential popularity. Across two observational studies (NTotal = 1101) and one experiment (N = 197) with lay samples of White Americans, attitudes that favor the racial status quo undergirded participants' inclination toward instrumental over moral rationales. Studies 4 & 5 (NTotal = 285) yield a more complex picture of the potential association between an inclination towards instrumental rationales and endorsement of the status quo in judges' rulings and lawyers' defenses of universities' rights to race-conscious practices. These findings illustrate how university diversity practices-and the law governing them-can reflect dominant group preferences.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s44271-025-00242-5

  View details for PubMedID 40251322

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC12008222

• Interest convergence and the maintenance of racial advantage: The case of diversity in higher education JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES Starck, J. G., Hurd, K., Perez, M. J., Marshburn, C. K. 2024

  View details for DOI 10.1111/josi.12606

  View details for Web of Science ID 001197250400001

• Is your own team against you? Implicit bias and interpersonal regard in criminal defense JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Avery, J. J., Starck, J., Zhong, Y., Avery, J. D., Cooper, J. 2020: 543-559

  Abstract

  Racial disparities in conviction and incarceration have been lamentable features of legal systems for a long time. Research has addressed the attitudes and decisions of police, prosecutors, jurors, and judges in contributing to these disparities, but very little attention has been paid to defendants' own team members-i.e., criminal defense attorneys. Researchers have specifically identified this as a "scholarly gap". To address this, we conducted an empirical study of criminal defense attorneys practicing in forty-three U.S. states (N = 327). The attorneys completed both an implicit measure designed to capture racial bias (a race Implicit Association Test) and an explicit measure designed to capture interpersonal regard for clients. The results provided support for longstanding, but previously speculative, assertions of bias in criminal defense.

  View details for DOI 10.1080/00224545.2020.1845593

  View details for Web of Science ID 000596735400001

  View details for PubMedID 33252317