Anu Realo (born 15 February 1971) is an Estonian personality and cross-cultural psychologist. She is Professor in the Department of Psychology at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

, the United Kingdom, and a Visiting Professor at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

, Estonia.

Education and career

Realo received her doctoral degree in psychology from the

in 1999. She then worked for two years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

, Belgium. Upon return to Estonia, she worked as associate professor and senior research fellow in the Department of Psychology, University of Tartu for about 10 years. In 2012, she was awarded an Academy Research Professor position by the

Estonian Academy of Sciences Founded in 1938, the Estonian Academy of Sciences ( et, Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia) is Estonia's national academy of science in Tallinn. As with other national academies, it is an independent group of well-known scientists whose stated aim is to ...

for the period 2013-2015. In 2014-2019, she held a position of professor of personality and social psychology at the University of Tartu. In 2016, she was appointed as professor in the Department of Psychology,

. She has been a fellow-in-residence at three institutes for advanced study: at the

Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) is an institute for advanced study in Uppsala, Sweden. It is one of the ten member institutions of the Some Institutes for Advanced Study The Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS) consortium organi ...

(2002), at the

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is an independent research institute in the field of the humanities and social and behavioural sciences founded in 1970. The instit ...

(2005-2006, 2014-2015), and most recently at th
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
(2023).

Research interests

Realo's background is in

personality Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, mos ...

and

cross-cultural psychology Cross-cultural psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes, including both their variability and invariance, under diverse cultural conditions. Through expanding research methodologies to recognize cultural variance i ...

. She has conducted research on cultural and individual variation in personality traits, emotional experience, social capital and trust, individualistic-collectivistic attitudes, and subjective well-being.

Other professional activities

From 2012-2015, she was as the vice-chair of the evaluation board of the Estonian Research Council. She was a board member of the National Committee of the

European Social Survey The European Social Survey (ESS) is a social scientific endeavour to map the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of the various populations in Europe. ESS is listed in the Registry of Research Data Repositories re3data.org. Prof Rory Fitzge ...

(ESS), later becoming country representative in the ESS scientific advisory board, and a member of the scientific advisory board of the ESS ERIC (2013–2019). She was an action editor for the ''

Journal of Individual Differences The ''Journal of Individual Differences'' is an academic journal covering personality psychology published by Hogrefe Publishing. The editor in chief is Martin Voracek (University of Vienna). The ''Journal of Individual Differences'' publishes r ...

'' from 2009 to 2013 and an Associate Editor of the ''

European Journal of Personality The ''European Journal of Personality'' (EJP) is the official bimonthly academic journal of the European Association of Personality Psychology covering research on personality, published by SAGE Publishing. According to citation reports based on ...

'' (2013–2016). She is the principal investigator for the

World Values Survey The World Values Survey (WVS) is a global research project that explores people's values and beliefs, how they change over time, and what social and political impact they have. Since 1981 a worldwide network of social scientists have conducted r ...

(WVS) in Estonia and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the WVS. In 2020-2022, she served as President of th
European Association of Personality Psychology

Honours and awards

In 2010, Realo was awarded the

Estonian National Research Award Estonian National Research Awards ( et, Eesti teaduspreemiad) are Estonian science awards which are given annually to Estonian researchers and research teams. Winners are chosen by Government of Estonia The Government of the Republic of Estoni ...

in social sciences for her studies on personality and stereotypes from a cross-cultural perspective. In February 2016, she was awarded the

Order of the White Star The Order of the White Star ( et, Valgetähe teenetemärk; french: Ordre de l'Etoile Blanche) was instituted in 1936. The Order of the White Star is bestowed on Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic ...

(IV Class) by the president of Estonia for outstanding contribution to the Estonian state, which is primarily a testament to her academic achievements. She was listed among the top 12 most outstanding Estonian women in the world 2016 by '' Estonian World''. She is a member of the

and of th
Academia Europaea

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Realo, Anu Living people 1971 births Estonian women psychologists University of Tartu alumni Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 4th Class Academics of the University of Warwick People from Viljandi