List of social psychologists
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academician An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. In syst ...
s, both past and present, who are widely renowned for their groundbreaking contributions to the field of
social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the r ...
.


A

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Dominic Abrams Dominic Abrams, is a Professor of Social Psychology and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Group Processes in the School of Psychology at the University of Kent. His research examines social identity, social cohesion, inclusion and e ...
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Lauren Alloy Lauren B. Alloy (born Lauren Helene Bersh; November 22, 1953) is an American psychologist, recognized for her research on mood disorders. Along with colleagues Lyn Abramson and Gerald Metalsky, she developed the hopelessness theory of depression. ...
*
Icek Ajzen Icek Ajzen (born 1942) is a social psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and is best known for his work, with Martin Fishbe ...
*
Floyd Allport Floyd Henry Allport (August 22, 1890 – October 15, 1979) was an American psychologist who is often considered "the father of experimental social psychology", having played a key role in the creation of social psychology as a legitimate field of ...
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Gordon Allport Gordon Willard Allport (November 11, 1897 – October 9, 1967) was an American psychologist. Allport was one of the first psychologists to focus on the study of the personality, and is often referred to as one of the founding figures of personal ...
* Irwin Altman *
Craig A. Anderson Craig A. Anderson is an American professor and director at the Department of Psychology, Iowa State University in Ames. He obtained his PhD at Stanford University in 1980. He has carried out influential research regarding the effects of violent v ...
*
Norman H. Anderson Norman Henry Anderson (July 23, 1925 — August 29, 2022) was an American social psychologist and the founder of Information integration theory. Anderson was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, where he ...
* Michael Argyle *
Elliot Aronson Elliot Aronson (born January 9, 1932) is an American psychologist who has carried out experiments on the theory of cognitive dissonance, and invented the Jigsaw Classroom, a cooperative teaching technique which facilitates learning while reducing ...
*
Solomon Asch Solomon Eliot Asch (September 14, 1907 – February 20, 1996) was a Polish-American Gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social psychology. He created seminal pieces of work in impression formation, prestige suggestion, conformity, and many othe ...
*
Berit Ås Berit Ås (born ''Skarpaas'', 10 April 1928 in Fredrikstad, Norway) is a Norwegian politician, psychologist, and feminist, who is currently Professor Emerita of social psychology at the University of Oslo. She was the first leader of the Social ...


B

* Anna Costanza Baldry *
Mahzarin Banaji Mahzarin Rustum Banaji FBA (born 1956) is an American psychologist of Indian origin at Harvard University, known for her work popularizing the concept of implicit bias in regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, and other factors. Educati ...
*
Albert Bandura Albert Bandura (; December 4, 1925 – July 26, 2021) was a Canadian-American psychologist who was the David Starr Jordan Professor in Psychology at Stanford University. Bandura was responsible for contributions to the field of education and to ...
- Canadian psychologist known for
social learning theory Social learning is a theory of learning process social behavior which proposes that new behaviors can be acquired by observing and imitating others. It states that learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and can occur p ...
(or
social cognitive theory Social cognitive theory (SCT), used in psychology, education, and communication, holds that portions of an individual's knowledge acquisition can be directly related to observing others within the context of social interactions, experiences, and ...
) and self efficacy *
John Bargh John A. Bargh (; born 1955) is a social psychologist currently working at Yale University, where he has formed the Automaticity in Cognition, Motivation, and Evaluation (ACME) Laboratory. Bargh's work focuses on automaticity and unconscious proce ...
- known for having several priming experiments that failed subsequent attempts at direct replication * Robert A. Baron *
Daniel Batson C. Daniel Batson (born March 15, 1943) is an American social psychologist. He has two doctoral degrees, in theology (from Princeton Theological Seminary) and psychology (from Princeton University's Department of Psychology). Batson obtained his ...
*
Martin Bauer Martin W. Bauer is a Professor of social psychology. He directs the MSc in Social and Public Communication at the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE. Martin Bauer was a Research Fellow in 'Public Understanding of Science' ...
*
Roy Baumeister Roy F. Baumeister (; born May 16, 1953) is an American social psychologist who is known for his work on the self, social rejection, belongingness, sexuality and sex differences, self-control, self-esteem, self-defeating behaviors, motivation, a ...
* Howard Becker *
Daryl Bem Daryl J. Bem (born June 10, 1938) is a social psychologist and professor emeritus at Cornell University. He is the originator of the self-perception theory of attitude formation and change. He has also researched psi phenomena, group decision ...
- proposed
self-perception theory Self-perception theory (SPT) is an account of attitude formation developed by psychologist Daryl Bem. It asserts that people develop their attitudes (when there is no previous attitude due to a lack of experience, etc.—and the emotional respon ...
of attitude change, competitor to Leon Festinger's
cognitive dissonance theory In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. ...
*
Ellen S. Berscheid Ellen S. Berscheid (born 1936) is an American social psychologist who is currently a Regents professor at the University of Minnesota, where she earlier had earned her PhD in 1965. Berscheid conducted research on interpersonal relationships, emo ...
*
Michael Billig Michael Billig (born 1947) is a British academic. He is Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at Loughborough University, working principally in contemporary social psychology although much of his work crosses disciplinary boundaries in the social ...
* Hart Blanton * Marilynn Brewer * Roger Brown *
Brad Bushman Brad J. Bushman (born May 14, 1960, in Salt Lake City, Utah) is the Margaret Hall and Robert Randal Rinehart Chair of Mass Communication Professor at Ohio State University. He also has an appointment in psychology. He has published extensively on t ...


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John Cacioppo John Terrence Cacioppo (June 12, 1951 – March 5, 2018) was the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He founded the University of Chicago Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience and was ...
* Donald T. Campbell *
Merrill Carlsmith James Merrill Carlsmith (April 12, 1936 – April 19, 1984) was an American social psychologist perhaps best known for his collaboration with Leon Festinger and Elliot Aronson in the creation and development of cognitive dissonance theory. He als ...
*
Nicholas Christenfeld Nicholas Christenfeld is a former professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego until his dismissal in 2019. He first joined the department in 1991 and was a full professor from 2003 to 2019. Among other research, he has promulg ...
*
Robert Cialdini Robert Beno Cialdini (born April 27, 1945) is an American psychologist and academic. He is the Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and was a visiting professor of marketing, business and psychology ...
- known for his research on influence processes * Ronald L. Cohen * Peter T. Coleman *
Terri Conley Terri Conley is an American social psychologist who studies gender differences in sexuality, consequences of departures from monogamy, and the consequences of masculinity threat. She is currently an associate professor of psychology and women's ...
* Stuart W. Cook *
Charles Horton Cooley Charles Horton Cooley (August 17, 1864 – May 7, 1929) was an American sociologist and the son of Michigan Supreme Court Judge Thomas M. Cooley. He studied and went on to teach economics and sociology at the University of Michigan, was a found ...
*
Nora Cortiñas Nora Morales de Cortiñas (born March 22, 1930 in Buenos Aires), better known as Nora (or "Norita") Cortiñas, is a social psychologist, activist and defender of Argentine human rights. She is a co-founder of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and later ...
*
William Crano William Dean Crano (born 1942) is an American psychologist. He is the Oskamp Distinguished Professor of Psychology in the Division of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences (DBOS), Claremont Graduate University. He has also written almost 200 ...


D

* James M. Dabbs, Jr. * John M. Darley *
Edward L. Deci Edward L. Deci (; born in 1942) is a Professor of Psychology and Gowen Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Rochester, and director of its human motivation program. He is well known in psychology for his theories of intrinsic and ...
- co-founder of
Self-Determination Theory Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation and personality that concerns people's innate growth tendencies and innate psychological needs. It pertains to the motivation behind people's choices in the absence of extern ...
*
Morton Deutsch Morton Deutsch (February 4, 1920 – March 13, 2017) was an American social psychologist and researcher in conflict resolution. Deutsch was one of the founding fathers of the field of conflict resolution. A '' Review of General Psychology'' surve ...
*
Ed Diener Edward Francis Diener (July 25, 1946 – April 27, 2021) was an American psychologist, professor, and author. Diener was a professor of psychology at the University of Utah and the University of Virginia, and Joseph R. Smiley Distinguished Profe ...
*
Carol Dweck Carol Susan Dweck (born October 17, 1946) is an American psychologist. She is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Dweck is known for her work on motivation and mindset. She was on the faculty at Columbia ...


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Phoebe C. Ellsworth Phoebe C. Ellsworth is an American social psychologist and professor at the University of Michigan, holding dual appointments at the Psychology Department and in the Law School. Biography Ellsworth received her B.A. from Radcliffe College in 1 ...
*
Jennifer Eberhardt Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt (born 1965) is an American social psychologist who is currently a professor in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University. Eberhardt has been responsible for major contributions on investigating the consequences o ...


F

* Steven Fein *
Leon Festinger Leon Festinger (8 May 1919 – 11 February 1989) was an American social psychologist who originated the theory of cognitive dissonance and social comparison theory. The rejection of the previously dominant behaviorist view of social psychology ...
- originator of
cognitive dissonance theory In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. ...
and
social comparison theory Social comparison theory, initially proposed by social psychologist Leon Festinger in 1954, centers on the belief that there is a drive within individuals to gain accurate self-evaluations. The theory explains how individuals evaluate their own o ...
*
Susan Fiske Susan Tufts Fiske (born August 19, 1952) is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University. She is a social psychologist known for her work on social cognition, stereotypes, an ...
*
Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the U ...


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Stanley O. Gaines Stanley O. Gaines Jr. is a Social Psychologist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Brunel University. Gaines is the lead author of ''Culture, Ethnicity, and Personal Relationship Processes'', published by Routledge Routledg ...
* Laszlo Garai - developed theory of
social identity Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance, and/or expressions that characterize a person or group.Compare ''Collins Dictionary of Sociology'', quoted in In sociology, emphasis is placed on collective identity, in which ...
as mediating factor * George Gaskell *
Bertram Gawronski Bertram Gawronski is a social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is known for his research in the areas of attitudes, social cognition, decision making, and moral psychology. Biography Bertram Gawr ...
*
Kenneth Gergen Kenneth J. Gergen (born 1935) is an American social psychologist and emeritus professor at Swarthmore College. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts from Yale University (1957) and his PhD from Duke University (1962). Biography The son of John Jay ...
* Daniel Gilbert *
Thomas Gilovich Thomas Dashiff Gilovich (born January 16, 1954) an American psychologist who is the Irene Blecker Rosenfeld Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. He has conducted research in social psychology, decision making, behavioral economics, and ...
- psychologist and key figure in
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. ...
*
Erving Goffman Erving Goffman (11 June 1922 – 19 November 1982) was a Canadian-born sociology, sociologist, Social psychology (sociology), social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth ...
*
Mirta González Suárez Mirta González Suárez (born September 29, 1948) is a Costa Rican Social psychology, social psychologist and novelist. She is an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Costa Rica, where she has conducted research in women's studies ...
*
John Gottman John Mordechai Gottman (born April 26, 1942) is an American psychologist, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Washington. His work focuses on divorce prediction and marital stability through relationship analyses. The lessons d ...
- researcher known for his work in identifying relationship behaviors that predict relationships' future quality and stability *
Anthony Greenwald Anthony Galt Greenwald is a social psychologist and, since 1986, professor of psychology at University of Washington. In 1959, Greenwald received a B.A. from Yale University. In 1961, he received a M.A. from Harvard University, and in 1963, he com ...
- creator of the
Implicit Association Test The implicit-association test (IAT) is a controversial assessment intended to detect subconscious associations between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. Its best-known application is the assessment of implicit stereotypes held ...


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Jonathan Haidt Jonathan David Haidt (; born October 19, 1963) is an American social psychologist and author. He is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University Stern School of Business. His main areas of study are the psychology of ...
*
Rom Harré Horace Romano "Rom" Harré (; 18 December 1927 – 17 October 2019), was a New Zealand-British philosopher and psychologist. Biography Harré was born in Āpiti, in northern Manawatu, near Palmerston North, New Zealand, but held British citi ...
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Elaine Hatfield Elaine Hatfield (formerly also known as Elaine Walster) is an American social psychologist. She has been credited, alongside Ellen S. Berscheid Ellen S. Berscheid (born 1936) is an American social psychologist who is currently a Regents profess ...
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Fritz Heider Fritz Heider (19 February 1896 – 2 January 1988) was an Austrian psychologist whose work was related to the Gestalt school. In 1958 he published ''The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations'', which expanded upon his creations of balance theory a ...
*
Miles Hewstone Miles Ronald Cole Hewstone (born 4 August 1956) is a British social psychologist'HEWSTONE, Prof. Miles Ronald Cole’, Who's Who 2012, A & C Black, 2012; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2011 ; online edn, Nov 2011 ...
*
E. Tory Higgins Edward Tory Higgins (born March 12, 1946) is the Stanley Schachter Professor of Psychology and Business, and Director of the Motivation Science Center at Columbia University. Higgins' research areas include motivation and cognition, judgment and ...
- Motivation, regulatory focus theory, regulatory engagement theory, regulatory mode *
Hilde Himmelweit Hildegard Therese Himmelweit (née Litthauer; 1918–1989) was a German social psychologist who had a major influence on the development of the discipline in Britain. Biography Hilde was born in Berlin in 1918. Her father, Dr Siegfried Litthaue ...
*
Geert Hofstede Gerard Hendrik (Geert) Hofstede (2 October 1928 – 12 February 2020) was a Dutch social psychologist, IBM employee, and Professor Emeritus of Organizational Anthropology and International Management at Maastricht University in the Netherla ...
*
Michael Hogg Michael A. Hogg (born 1954) is a British psychologist, and Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles. He is also an honorary Professor of Social Psychology at the University ...
- social identity theory *
Carl Hovland Carl Iver Hovland (June 12, 1912 – April 16, 1961) was a psychologist working primarily at Yale University and for the US Army during World War II who studied attitude change and persuasion. He first reported the sleeper effect after studying th ...


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Michael Inzlicht Michael Inzlicht is professor of psychology at the University of Toronto recognized in the areas of social psychology and neuroscience. Although he has published papers on the topics of prejudice, academic performance, and religion, his most recent ...


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Irving Janis Irving Lester Janis (May 26, 1918 – November 15, 1990) was an American research psychologist at Yale University and a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley most famous for his theory of "groupthink" which described the ...
- known for his landmark research on the concept of "
groupthink Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness ...
" *
Edward E. Jones :For the Louisiana civil rights pioneer, see ''E. Edward Jones''. Edward Ellsworth "Ned" Jones (August 11, 1926 – July 30, 1993) was an influential American social psychology, social psychologist, he is known as father of Ingratiation due to ...
- co-authored the first paper on what was later called
fundamental attribution error In social psychology, fundamental attribution error (FAE), also known as correspondence bias or attribution effect, is the tendency for people to under-emphasize situational and environmental explanations for an individual's observed behavior whil ...
; known for researching actor-observer bias *
Sandra Jovchelovitch Sandra Jovchelovitch, from Porto Alegre, Brazil, is a social psychologist, currently Professor of Social Psychology and Director of the MSc program in Social and Cultural Psychology at the Institute of Social Psychology at the London School of Eco ...
*
Charles Hubbard Judd Charles Hubbard Judd (February 20, 1873 – July 18, 1946) was an American educational psychologist who played an influential role in the formation of the discipline. Part of the larger scientific movement of this period, Judd pushed for the us ...


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Daniel Kahneman Daniel Kahneman (; he, דניאל כהנמן; born March 5, 1934) is an Israeli-American psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, as well as behavioral economics, for which he was award ...
*
Saul Kassin Saul Kassin is a distinguished professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice - City University of New York and Massachusetts Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Biography and educ ...
*
Harold Kelley Harold Kelley (February 16, 1921 – January 29, 2003) was an American social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His major contributions have been the development of interdependence theory ...
* George Kelly *
Herbert Kelman Herbert Chanoch Kelman (March 18, 1927 – March 1, 2022) was an Austrian-born American psychologist who was the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University. He is known for his work on conflict resolution in the Middle E ...
*
Arie Kruglanski Arie W. Kruglanski (born in 1939) is a social psychologist known for his work on goal systems, regulatory mode, and cognitive closure. He is currently a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Early li ...
*
Ziva Kunda Ziva Kunda (June 13, 1955 – February 24, 2004) was an Israeli social psychologist and professor at the University of Waterloo known for her work in social cognition and motivated reasoning. Her seminal paper "The Case for Motivated Reasoning", p ...


L

* Michael C. LaFerney - utilizing Social Psychology principles in Nursing practice http://laferney.socialpsychology.org//https://nurse.org/articles/red-sox-nurse-night-2019/ * Bibb Latané - initiated research on
bystander intervention Bystander intervention is a type of training used in post-secondary education institutions to prevent sexual assault or rape, binge drinking and harassment and unwanted comments of racist, homophobic, or transphobic nature. A bystander is a pers ...
in emergencies (with John Darley),
social loafing In social psychology, social loafing is the phenomenon of a person exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when working alone. It is seen as one of the main reasons groups are sometimes less productive than the combin ...
(with
Kip Williams Kip Williams is an Australian theatre and opera director. Williams is the current Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company. His appointment at age 30 made him the youngest artistic director in the company's history. Biography Williams has be ...
), and Dynamic Social Impact Theory (with Andrzej Nowak) *
Gustave Le Bon Charles-Marie Gustave Le Bon (; 7 May 1841 – 13 December 1931) was a leading French polymath whose areas of interest included anthropology, psychology, sociology, medicine, invention, and physics. He is best known for his 1895 work '' The Crow ...
*
Mark Lepper Mark R. Lepper (born December 5, 1944) is the Albert Ray Lang Professor of psychology at Stanford University, and a leading theorist in social psychology. He is particularly known for his research on attribution theory and confirmation bias, and ...
*
Becca Levy Becca R. Levy is a Professor of Epidemiology (Social and Behavioral Sciences) at Yale School of Public Health and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She is a leading researcher in the fields of social gerontology and psychology of aging. ...
*
Kurt Lewin Kurt Lewin ( ; 9 September 1890 – 12 February 1947) was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. During his professional career Lewin applied hi ...
- often called "the father of social psychology"; one of the first researchers to study
group dynamics Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (''intra''group dynamics), or between social groups ( ''inter''group dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision- ...
and
organizational development Organization development (OD) is the study and implementation of practices, systems, and techniques that affect organizational change, the goal of which is to modify an organization's performance and/or culture. The organizational changes are ...


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Ivana Markova Ivana Marková FBA (born 1938) is a British social psychologist known for her work on language and the constructs of communication. She was born in Czechoslovakia and studied philosophy and psychology at Charles University in Prague. In 1967 ...
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Hazel Rose Markus Hazel June Linda Rose Markus (born 9 March 1949) is a social psychologist and a pioneer in the field of cultural psychology. She is the Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in Stanford, California. She is also a ...
*
Everett Dean Martin Everett Dean Martin (July 5, 1880 – May 10, 1941) was an American minister, writer, journalist, instructor, lecturer, social psychologist, social philosopher, and an advocate of adult education. He was an instructor and lecturer at The New Sc ...
*
Francis T. McAndrew Francis T. "Frank" McAndrew (b. January 27, 1953 – Augsburg, Germany) is an American social psychologist and the Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. At Knox, he founded the environmental studies pr ...
*
David McClelland David Clarence McClelland (May 20, 1917 – March 27, 1998) was an American psychologist, noted for his work on motivation Need Theory. He published a number of works between the 1950s and the 1990s and developed new scoring systems for th ...
* Joseph E. McGrath - group dynamics researcher *
George Herbert Mead George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 – April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, Sociology, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatism, pragmati ...
- American
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
( pragmatist), sociologist, and
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 ...
; a founder of social psychology; founder of
symbolic interactionism Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that develops from practical considerations and alludes to particular effects of communication and interaction in people to make images and normal implications, for deduction and correspondence w ...
*
Stanley Milgram Stanley Milgram (August 15, 1933 – December 20, 1984) was an American social psychologist, best known for his controversial experiments on obedience conducted in the 1960s during his professorship at Yale.Blass, T. (2004). ''The Man Who Shocke ...
- performed famous experiment that demonstrated people's excessive willingness to obey authority figures *
Walter Mischel Walter Mischel (; February 22, 1930 – September 12, 2018) was an Austrian-born American psychologist specializing in personality theory and social psychology. He was the Robert Johnston Niven Professor of Humane Letters in the Department ...
- among the first to promote a situationist view of personality *
Abraham Moles Abraham Moles (19 August 1920 – 22 May 1992) was a pioneer in information science and communication studies in France, He was a professor at Ulm school of design and University of Strasbourg. He is known for his work on kitsch. Biography Mo ...
- one of the first to establish and analyze links between
aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...
and
information theory Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...
*
Serge Moscovici Serge Moscovici (June 14, 1925 in Brăila, Romania as ''Srul Herş Moscovici'' – November 15, 2014 in Paris) was a Romanian-born French social psychologist, director of the '' Laboratoire Européen de Psychologie Sociale'' ("European Laboratory ...
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Gordon Moskowitz Gordon Blaine Moskowitz (born October 6, 1963) is a social psychologist working in the field of social cognition. He is currently a professor in the Department of Psychology at Lehigh University. His primary research interests are in examining: 1 ...
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Eleanor Maccoby Eleanor Emmons Maccoby (May 15, 1917 – December 11, 2018) was an American psychologist who was most recognized for her research and scholarly contributions to the fields of gender studies and developmental psychology. Throughout her career she ...


N

* David Nadler *
Theodore Newcomb Theodore Mead Newcomb (July 24, 1903 – December 28, 1984) was an American social psychologist, professor and author. Newcomb led the Bennington College Study, which looked at the influence of the college experience on social and political belie ...
*
Richard Nisbett __NOTOC__ Richard Eugene Nisbett (born June 1, 1941) is an American social psychologist and writer. He is the Theodore M. Newcomb Distinguished Professor of social psychology and co-director of the Culture and Cognition program at the University ...
* Mary Louise Northway * Andrzej Nowak


O

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Richard Ofshe Richard Jason Ofshe (born 27 February 1941) is an American sociologist and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his expert testimony relating to coercion in small groups, confessions, and int ...
*
Tom Ostrom Thomas Marshall Ostrom (March 1, 1936 – May 16, 1994) was a psychologist who helped further the study of social psychology. Prior to Ostrom, the field explored and identified the cognitive foundations of social activity. Ostrom pushed the field ...


P

* Ian Parker * James W. Pennebaker * Richard E. Petty * Anthony Pratkanis *
Tom Pyszczynski Tom Pyszczynski () is an American social psychologist. He is notable, together with Jeff Greenberg and Sheldon Solomon Sheldon Solomon is an American social psychologist at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is best known for d ...
* Ivan Pavlov


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Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...
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mass psychology Crowd psychology, also known as mob psychology, is a branch of social psychology. Social psychologists have developed several theories for explaining the ways in which the psychology of a crowd differs from and interacts with that of the individ ...
* Steve Reicher * Harry Reis * Robert Rosenthal -
Pygmalion effect The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is a psychological phenomenon in which high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area. The effect is named for the Greek myth of Pygmalion, the sculptor who fell so much in love with the p ...
*
Lee Ross Lee David Ross (August 25, 1942 – May 14, 2021) was a Canadian-American professor. He held the title of the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University and was an influential social psychologist wh ...
- performed pioneering research on the
fundamental attribution error In social psychology, fundamental attribution error (FAE), also known as correspondence bias or attribution effect, is the tendency for people to under-emphasize situational and environmental explanations for an individual's observed behavior whil ...
*
Zick Rubin Isaac Michael "Zick" Rubin (born 1944) is an American social psychologist, lawyer, and author.Sheehy, Noel; Conroy, Wendy A. (1997). ''Biographical dictionary of psychology,'' p. 493. Taylor & Francis, He is "widely credited as the author of the f ...
- author of the first empirical measurement of love * Richard M. Ryan - co-founder of
Self-Determination Theory Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation and personality that concerns people's innate growth tendencies and innate psychological needs. It pertains to the motivation behind people's choices in the absence of extern ...


S

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Stanley Schachter Stanley Schachter (April 15, 1922 – June 7, 1997) was an American social psychologist, who is perhaps best known for his development of the two factor theory of emotion in 1962 along with Jerome E. Singer. In his theory he states that emotions ...
*
Gunter Schmidt Gunter Schmidt (born 22 November 1938) is a German sexologist, psychotherapist and social psychologist. He was born in Berlin. Schmidt was the director of the centre for sexual research in the clinic of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppe ...
*
Norbert Schwarz Norbert Schwarz is Provost Professor in the Department of Psychology and the USC Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and a co-director of the USC Dornsife Mind and Society Center. Education He received a Ph.D. in ...
- known for his work on metacognitive experiences and survey methodology * Martin Seligman * Claire Selltiz *
Muzafer Sherif Muzafer Sherif (born Muzaffer Şerif Başoğlu; July 29, 1906 – October 16, 1988) was a Turkish-American social psychologist. He helped develop social judgment theory and realistic conflict theory. Sherif was a founder of modern social psycho ...
*
Boris Sidis Boris Sidis (; October 12, 1867 – October 24, 1923) was a Ukrainian-American psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the ''Journal of Abnormal Psycholo ...
- groundbreaking work on the psychology of suggestion,
dissociative identity disorder Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states. The di ...
, psychopathology, and genius *
Volkmar Sigusch Volkmar Sigusch (born 11 June 1940) is a German sexologist, physician and sociologist. From 1973 to 2006, he was the director of the ''Institut für Sexualwissenschaft'' (Institute for Sexual Science) at the clinic of Goethe University in Frankf ...
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Linda Skitka Linda J. Skitka is a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Skitka's research bridges a number of areas of inquiry including social, political, and moral psychology. Publications She has authored or co-authored paper ...
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Diederik Stapel Diederik Alexander Stapel (born 19 October 1966) is a Dutch former professor of social psychology at Tilburg University. In 2011 Tilburg University suspended Stapel for fabricating and manipulating data for his research publications. This scie ...
- founder of the Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research, later suspended from
Tilburg University Tilburg University is a public university, public research university specializing in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities, located in Tilburg in the southern part of the Netherlands. Tilb ...
for fabricating and manipulating data *
Claude Steele Claude Mason Steele (born January 1, 1946) is a social psychologist and emeritus professor at Stanford University, where he is the I. James Quillen Endowed Dean, Emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and Lucie Stern Professor i ...
- known for his groundbreaking work on stereotype threat and for introducing self-affirmation theory *
William Swann William B. Swann (born 1952) is a professor of social and personality psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is primarily known for his work on identity, self and self-esteem, but has also done research on relationships, social cog ...
- known for developing self-verification theory


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Henri Tajfel Henri Tajfel (born Hersz Mordche; 22 June 1919 – 3 May 1982) was a Polish social psychologist, best known for his pioneering work on the cognitive aspects of prejudice and social identity theory, as well as being one of the founders of the E ...
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Jeffrey S. Tanaka Jeffrey Scott Tanaka (1958 November 3, 1992) was an American psychologist and statistician, known for his work in educational psychology, social psychology and various fields of statistics including structural equation modeling. Biography Tana ...
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Gabriel Tarde Gabriel Tarde (; in full Jean-Gabriel De Tarde; 12 March 1843 – 13 May 1904) was a French sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist who conceived sociology as based on small psychological interactions among individuals (much as i ...
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Carol Tavris Carol Anne Tavris (born September 17, 1944) is an American social psychologist and feminist. She has devoted her career to writing and lecturing about the contributions of psychological science to the beliefs and practices that guide people's li ...
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Shelley Taylor Shelley Elizabeth Taylor (born 1946) is a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University, and was formerly on the faculty at Harvard University. A prolific author of ...
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John Thibaut John Walter Thibaut (1917–1986) was a social psychologist, one of the last graduate students of Kurt Lewin. He spent a number of years as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was the first editor of the ''Journal ...
- first editor of JESP, known for Interdependence Theory from "The Social Psychology of Groups" * Norman Triplett - widely credited with the first published study in the field of social psychology, with his work on social facilitation *
Bruce Tuckman Bruce Wayne Tuckman (November 24, 1938 – March 13, 2016) was an American Psychological Researcher who carried out his research into the theory of group dynamics. In 1965, he published a theory known as " Tuckman's stages of group development". ...
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John C. Turner John Charles Turner (7 September 1947 – 24 July 2011) was a British social psychologist who, along with colleagues, developed the self-categorization theory. Amongst other things, the theory states that the self is not a foundational aspect of ...
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Amos Tversky Amos Nathan Tversky ( he, עמוס טברסקי; March 16, 1937 – June 2, 1996) was an Israeli cognitive and mathematical psychologist and a key figure in the discovery of systematic human cognitive bias and handling of risk. Much of his ...


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Daniel Wegner Daniel Merton Wegner (June 28, 1948 – July 5, 2013) was an American social psychologist. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University and a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy ...
* Karl Weick *
Kipling Williams Kipling D. Williams is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Ohio State University. He is most noted for h ...
* Glenn D Wilson *
Timothy Wilson Timothy DeCamp Wilson is an American social psychologist and writer. He is the Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia and teaches public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He is k ...
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Robert S. Wyer Robert S. Wyer Jr. is a visiting professor at the University of Cincinnati and professor (emeritus) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Colorado. Wyer Jr.'s research interests cov ...
- social cognition and information processing * Wendy Wood


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Robert Zajonc Robert Bolesław Zajonc ( /ˈzaɪ.ənts/ ''ZY-ənts''; Polish: zajɔnt͡s November 23, 1923 – December 3, 2008) was a Polish-born American social psychologist who is known for his decades of work on a wide range of social and cognitive proc ...
- first academic to study the
mere exposure effect The mere-exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. In social psychology, this effect is sometimes called the familiarity principle. The effect ...
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Mark Zanna Mark Zanna, FRSC (March 4, 1944 – February 22, 2020) was a social psychologist at the University of Waterloo. He was well known for his work on attitudes and intergroup relations. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale University. Research A major debat ...
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Philip Zimbardo Philip George Zimbardo (; born March 23, 1933) is an American psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He became known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment, which was later severely criticized for both ethical and scient ...
- known for conducting the
Stanford prison experiment The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was a psychological experiment conducted in the summer of 1971. It was a two-week simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulati ...


See also

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List of psychologists This list includes notable psychologists and contributors to psychology, some of whom may not have thought of themselves primarily as psychologists but are included here because of their important contributions to the discipline. Specialized list ...
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List of sociologists This is a list of sociologists. It is intended to cover those who have made substantive contributions to social theory and research, including any sociological subfield. Scientists in other fields and philosophers are not included, unless at least ...


References

{{Psychology
Social psychologists Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...
Social psychologists Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...
*List