Donald I. Templer was an American psychologist best known for ideas on race and intelligence, and his association with the white nationalist group American Renaissance. He was formerly a professor of psychology at

Alliant International University Alliant International University, often called Alliant, is a private for-profit university with its main campus in San Diego and other campuses in California. It offers programs in six California campuses – in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Ang ...

in Fresno,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Education and career

Templer received his Ph.D. from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

in 1967. He was a professor of psychology at

in Fresno,

Research

Death Anxiety Scale

Templer developed the Death Anxiety Scale, the best-known scale used to measure death anxiety, in 1970.

Race and intelligence

Templer's most recent studies focused on race and intelligence and he spoke on the subject at white nationalist American Renaissance conferences. Templer and Hiroko Arikawa argued in a 2006 study that colder climates favor higher IQs because it is more difficult to live in such areas. Templer described "race realists" as modern-day Galileos, and argued that the compensated sterilization of welfare recipients would be cost saving, and prevent "burdens" on society.

Retraction of 2012 article

On 17 June 2020, publisher

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...

announced it was retracting an article that Templer and

J. Philippe Rushton John Philippe Rushton (December 3, 1943 – October 2, 2012) was a Canadian psychologist and author. He taught at the University of Western Ontario until the early 1990s, and became known to the general public during the 1980s and 1990s for resea ...

had published in 2012 in the Elsevier journal ''Personality and Individual Differences''. The article claimed that there was scientific evidence that skin color was related to aggression and sexuality in humans.

Penis size

In 2002, he published the book ''Is Size Important?'', which focuses on variations in human penis size and preferences for penises of certain sizes. He appeared on the Howard Stern Show to discuss this subject in 2007, where Stern referred to him as "Dr. Penis".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Templer, Donald I. Alliant International University faculty 20th-century American psychologists American psychology writers Intelligence researchers Race and intelligence controversy Proponents of scientific racism University of Kentucky alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)