David A. Pizarro is an American

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

and

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

er. He is a Professor of

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. He is also the Chief Science Officer of BEworks, a

behavioral economics Behavioral economics studies the effects of psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural and social factors on the decisions of individuals or institutions, such as how those decisions vary from those implied by classical economic theory. ...

consulting firm, and is the co-host of the ''Very Bad Wizards''

Podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

. His research focuses on the psychological underpinnings of human morality, as well as on the influence of emotions on

decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...

, particularly on the emotion of

disgust Disgust (Middle French: ''desgouster'', from Latin ''gustus'', "taste") is an emotional response of rejection or revulsion to something potentially contagious or something considered offensive, distasteful, or unpleasant. In ''The Expression o ...

. Pizarro has made appearances on several radio and television documentaries to discuss his work. In 2023, he started co-hosting a podcast called Psych, with Paul Bloom.

Early life and education

Pizarro graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from

Pacific Union College Pacific Union College (PUC) is a private university, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Angwin, California. It is the only four-year college in Napa County, California, Napa County. It is a coeducational r ...

in 1997 and received his Ph.D in social psychology from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 2002 (under the supervision of

Peter Salovey Peter Salovey (; born February 21, 1958) is an American social psychologist and current President of Yale University. He previously served as Yale's Provost, Dean of Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Dean of Yale College. Salovey i ...

and Paul Bloom).

Career

After receiving his PhD, Pizarro became a

post-doctoral fellow A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

. Since 2006, Pizarro has been a professor in the department of psychology at Cornell University. Pizarro’s research focuses on broadening the understanding regarding the nature of human morality—especially on how humans arrive at moral judgments about people and actions (such as judgments of character, responsibility, blame, and praise), and in how emotions (especially disgust) influence moral judgments. In his 2012

TED talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

, The ''Strange Politics of Disgust'', he provided an overview of his working linking individual differences in the degree to which people are easily disgusted to differences in political orientation. Pizarro was interviewed about his work on disgust by

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...

for his documentary '' Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life''. Since 2012, Pizarro has been co-host of the

''Very Bad Wizards'', along with the philosopher

Tamler Sommers Tamler Sommers is an American philosopher and writer. He is the son of the American philosopher Fred Sommers and the stepson of Christina Hoff Sommers. Sommers specializes in ethics and free will, and has commented on the ethics of the Alex Rodrigu ...

, from the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

Awards and recognition

Pizarro was the Nannerl Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor,

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

and

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 2014. In 2021 he was the recipient of the Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award from

in 2021. He is a Fellow of the

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

Bibliography

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References

External links

Very Bad WizardsPeez Is My Name
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pizzaro, David A. Living people 21st-century American psychologists Cornell University faculty Year of birth missing (living people) American podcasters Yale University alumni