Samuel Sommers

Samuel R. Sommers (1976 – March 16, 2025) was an American social psychologist and professor of psychology at Tufts University. He was known for his research on implicit racial stereotyping and color-blind racism. For example, he published multiple studies on the effects of increased racial diversity in mock juries. With Michael Norton, he also published a study in 2011 showing that, on average, white people think more racism against them exists than exists against black people. L. Jon Wertheim and Sommers wrote the book This Is Your Brain on Sports: The Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and What We Can Learn from the T-Shirt Cannon to explore how psychological and neuroscience principles explain many phenomena in sports (Sports Psychology). Sommers died on March 16, 2025, at the age of 49.

Honors and awards Sommers had been a fellow of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues since 2011. In 2009, he received the Gerald R. Gill Professor of the Year Award from Tufts. In 2008, he received the Saleem Shah Award for Early Career Excellence from the American Psychology–Law Society.