About our authors
Elliot Aronson is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Santa Cruz and 1 of the most renowned social psychologists in the world. In 2002, he was chosen as 1 of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century. Dr. Aronson is the only person in the 120-year history of the American Psychological Association to have received all 3 of its major awards: for distinguished writing, distinguished teaching and distinguished research. Many other professional societies have honored his research and teaching as well. These include the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which gave him its highest honor, the Distinguished Scientific Research award; the American Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, which named him Professor of the Year of 1989; the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, which awarded him the Gordon Allport prize for his contributions to the reduction of prejudice among racial and ethnic groups; and the William James Award from the Association for Psychological Science. In 1992, he was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A collection of papers and tributes by his former students and colleagues, The Scientist and the Humanist, celebrates his contributions to social psychological theory and its application to real-world problems. Dr. Aronson's own recent books for general audiences include Mistakes Were Made (but not by ME), with Carol Tavris, and a memoir, Not by Chance Alone: My Life as a Social Psychologist.
Tim Wilson did his undergraduate work at Williams College and Hampshire College and received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Currently Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, he has published numerous articles in the areas of introspection, attitude change, self-knowledge and affective forecasting, as well as the books Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change and Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious. He has received numerous honors, including elections to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2015 he received the William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science, which honors recipients "for their lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology." Wilson has taught the Introduction to Social Psychology course at the University of Virginia for more than 40 years. In 2001 he was awarded the University of Virginia All-University Outstanding Teaching Award, and in 2015, was awarded the University of Virginia's highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award for Excellence in Scholarship.
Sam Sommers earned his B.A. from Williams College and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Since 2003 he has been a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where he is now Department Chair. His research examines issues related to racial equity and group diversity, with a particular interest in how these processes play out in the legal domain. He has won multiple teaching awards at Tufts, including the Lerman-Neubauer Prize for Outstanding Teaching and Advising and the Gerald R. Gill Professor of the Year Award. He was also inducted into the Tufts Hall of Diversity for his efforts to promote an inclusive climate on campus for all students. He has testified as an expert witness on issues related to racial bias, jury decision making and eyewitness memory in criminal trial proceedings in 8 states. He has written 2 general audience books related to social psychology: Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World (2011) and This Is Your Brain on Sports: The Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and What We Can Learn from the T-shirt Cannon (2016). He is also co-author of Invitation to Psychology (8th edition) and Psychology (13th edition), along with Carole Wade, Carol Tavris and Lisa Shin.
Elizabeth Page-Gould earned a B.S. in psychology and statistics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002 and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008, before completing a Mind/Brain/Behavior Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University. She is now the Canada Research Chair in Social Psychophysiology, an Associate Professor of Psychology and currently the Chair of the Graduate Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. She researches how social interactions with friends and strangers shape experiences in diverse societies, with a focus on the role of stress in social interactions, friendship and individual thriving. Dr. Page-Gould's research employs multiple methodological approaches, integrating across physiological, behavioral and subjective (self-reported) data collected from multiple people at once to develop a rich picture of social interactions. Dr. Page-Gould's research was recognized by the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize, a Fellowship in the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, the Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, and being named a "Rising Star" by the Association for Psychological Science. While predominantly teaching Introduction to Social Psychology, she received the Professor of the Year award and Scarborough Students Union Teaching Award at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
Neil Lewis, Jr. earned his B.A. in economics and psychology at Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of Michigan. He is currently an assistant professor at Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medicine in the Department of Communication, division of general internal medicine, and graduate field of psychology. His research examines how people's social contexts and identities influence (1) how they interpret and make meaning of the world around them, (2) their motivations to pursue their goals and success in goal pursuit efforts and (3) the implications of these processes for individual and collective outcomes in education, health and environmental sustainability. He is particularly interested in these processes as they relate to broader inequities in society, as well as their implications for the effectiveness of interventions and policies to improve equity in social outcomes. In 2019 he was named a "Rising Star" by the Association for Psychological Science, and in 2020 he won the SAGE Young Scholar early career award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
