Mark R. Leary (Ph.D., University of Florida, 1980) is Garonzik Family Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University and Director of the Interdisciplinary Behavioral Research Center. Prior to moving to Duke in 2006, Dr. Leary taught at Denison University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Wake Forest University, where he was department chair.
Dr. Leary’s research and writing has centered on social motivation and emotion, with an emphasis on people’s concerns with interpersonal evaluation and the negative effects of excessive self-focused thought. He has published 12 books and more than 200 scholarly articles and chapters on topics such as self-presentation, self-attention, social emotions (such as social anxiety, embarrassment, and hurt feelings), interpersonal rejection, and self-esteem. His books include: Social Anxiety, Interpersonal Rejection, The Social Psychology of Emotional and Behavioral Problems, Self-Presentation, Introduction to Behavioral Research Methods, Handbook of Self and Identity, and The Curse of the Self.
In addition to serving on the editorial boards of numerous journals, Dr. Leary was founding editor of Self and Identity, editor of Personality and Social Psychology Review, and President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He was the recipient of the 2011 Lifetime Career Award from the International Society for Self and Identity and the recipient of the 2015 Scientific Impact Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology.