Search People Result | Academic Influence

Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines

Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.

Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.

We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.

To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).

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School

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Social Psychology,

#401

Heejung Kim

#30731

Overall Influence

Heejung Kim is a South Korean psychologist and a professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on how culture influences humans' thought process. She is co-editor of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review.

#402

Santiago Genovés

#29457

Overall Influence

1923 - 2013 (90 years)

Santiago Genovés Tarazaga was a Spanish-born Mexican anthropologist who was affiliated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He designed the 1973 "Peace Project" experiment, in which he and ten other people aimed to sail on the Acali raft from the Canary Islands to Mexico. He hoped that this experiment would shed light on the causes of violence in humans and on how it could be prevented. The 101-day experiment, frequently dubbed the "Sex Raft" by the media, was the subject of the 2018 documentary film The Raft, by Marcus Lindeen. He was also one of the researchers who originated...

#403

Eugene Burnstein

#84574

Overall Influence

Eugene Burnstein is an American social psychologist and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He is also a senior research scientist emeritus at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. He is known for his research on the cognitive bases of social influence and group decision-making.

#404

Sven Å. Christianson

#73704

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Sven Åke Christianson is a Swedish professor of psychology. He is also a psychologist and writer. His research primarily concerns the function of human memory, crime and mental trauma and interview methods. He is widely discredited and his methods are considered pseudoscientific and unreliable.

#405

Kopano Ratele

#175694

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Kopano Ratele is a decolonial psychologist and men and masculinities studies scholar. He is known for his work on Africa-centring psychology, masculinity, fatherhood, culture, sexuality, and violence. He is former co-director of the South African Medical Research Council-University of South Africa 's Violence, Injury & Peace Research Unit. In 2009-2010 he was president of the Psychological Society of South Africa. He chaired the board of Sonke Gender Justice, a South African nongovernmental organisation working across Africa to strengthen government, civil society and citizen capacity to promo...

#406

Samuel Sommers

#106619

Overall Influence

Samuel R. Sommers is an American social psychologist and professor of psychology at Tufts University. He is known for his research on implicit racial stereotyping and color-blind racism. For example, he has published multiple studies on the effects of increased racial diversity in mock juries. With Michael Norton, he also published a study in 2011 showing that, on average, white people think more racism against them exists than exists against black people. L. Jon Wertheim and Sommers wrote the book "This Is Your Brain on Sports: The Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and What We Can ...

#407

Christopher Sonn

#62316

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Christopher Conrad Sonn is an Australian social psychologist whose work in the area of community and liberation psychology focuses on intergroup relations, racism, White privilege, and non-dominant group responses to oppression. Sonn is Professor of Psychology at the College of Health and Biomedicine of the Victoria University, Melbourne .

#408

Nathan Brody

#15919

Overall Influence

Nathan Brody is an American psychology professor Emeritus known for his work on intelligence and personality. Brody received his BA from University of New Hampshire and his MA and PhD from University of Michigan. He taught at Wesleyan University and is currently an emeritus professor there.

#409

Mark G. Frank

#71760

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Mark G. Frank is a communication professor and department chair, and an internationally recognized expert on human nonverbal communication, emotion, and deception. Dr. Frank conducts research and does training on micro expressions of emotion and of the face. His research studies include other nonverbal indicators of deception throughout the rest of the body. He is the Director of the Communication Science Center research laboratory that is located on the North Campus of the University at Buffalo. Under his guidance, a team of graduate researchers conduct experiments and studies for private and government entities.

#410

Peter J. Rentfrow

#170452

Overall Influence

Peter Jason Rentfrow is professor of personality and individual differences in the Psychology Department at Cambridge University, where he directs the Social Dynamics Research Center. He is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Alan Turing Institute.

#411

James Jones

#60334

Overall Influence

James McCoy Jones is an African-American social psychologist and cultural diversity scholar. He is Trustees' Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Black American Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Diversity at the University of Delaware. He is a past president of both the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.He previously taught at Harvard University and Howard University before joining the University of Delaware. In 2011, he received the Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology Award from the American Psychological Association.

#412

Joseph Bulbulia

#102807

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Joseph A. Bulbulia is a Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Science at Victoria University of Wellington . He was the Maclaurin Goodfellow Chair in the School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts at University of Auckland . He previously served as a Professor in the School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies at Victoria University of Wellington . Bulbulia is regarded as one of the founders of the contemporary evolutionary religious studies . He is a past president of the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion and is currently co-editor of Religion, Brain & Behavior.

#413

Dorothy Miell

#83380

Overall Influence

Dorothy Evelyn Miell is a professor of Social Psychology. Since March 2010, she has been Head of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Vice-Principal, at the University of Edinburgh. Before moving to Edinburgh, she was Dean of Social Sciences at the Open University. Her research focuses on collaboration and communication patterns, recently in the context of creative endeavors.

#414

Clifford Stott

#36871

Overall Influence

Clifford John Thornton Stott is professor of social psychology at Keele University. He is a specialist in the psychology of crowds, group identity, and football hooliganism. Research His initial research interest was in political dissent and this led to research into how peaceful protests change to become violent through observing the psychology of crowds. His work indicated that, rather than riots being driven by hooligans who are predisposed to violence , they are structured and led by beliefs. The majority of the crowd consider that they are peaceful protestors with a right to express their views.

#415

Andrew Winston

#74595

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Andrew Spencer Winston is a psychologist and historian who is an emeritus professor at the University of Guelph in Canada. He is known for his research on the history of scientific racism and eugenics in psychology. He was president of the Society for the History of Psychology in 2012, and served as Executive Officer to Cheiron: The International Society for the History of Behavioral and Social Sciences from 2002 to 2008.

#416

Betty Friedan

#177

Overall Influence

1921 - 2006 (85 years)

Betty Friedan was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women , which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men".

#417

Stanley O. Gaines

#145327

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

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 in 1997 .

#418

Juliet Popper Shaffer

#63775

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (92 years)

Juliet Popper Shaffer is an American psychologist, statistician and statistics educator known for her research on multiple hypothesis testing. She is a teaching professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley.

#419

Jeffrey Sherman

#141741

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Jeffrey Sherman is a Social Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. He is known for his research on social cognition, stereotyping, and implicit bias. Biography Sherman was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. He earned his BA in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1989 and his PhD in psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1994, where he worked with David Hamilton , Diane Mackie, and Stanley Klein. In 1994, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor at Northwestern University, where he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2000.

#420

Jose Manuel Sabucedo

#134820

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Jose Manuel Sabucedo is a Spanish social psychologist, professor at Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. He is an expert in collective action and political violence and reconciliation, and an author of influential publications in these fields. Sabucedo is director of the research group on social behaviour and applied psychometrics at USC. He is also president of the Spanish Scientific Society of Social Psychology , and associate editor of peer-reviewed Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología since 2009. He was also editor-in-chief of Revista de Psicología Social/International Journal of Social Psychology between 2010 and 2016.

#421

Shelly Grabe

#43629

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Shelly Grabe is a professor in Social Psychology at the University of California Santa Cruz, where she has affiliations with Feminist Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies. Her research involves women's human rights and globalization and the international attention given to women's empowerment.

#422

Elizabeth Levy Paluck

#181008

Overall Influence

#423

David Leiser

#124373

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

David Leiser is an Israeli professor of psychology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, specializing in Economic psychology and Social psychology. Leiser has served as President of the Economic Psychology division of the International Association of Applied Psychology since 2014.

#424

Michelle Drouin

Michelle Drouin

#55112

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Michelle Drouin is an American researcher who focuses on psychological issues dealing with social media and communications technology. Drouin is associate professor of psychology at Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne.

#425

Jeanne Tsai

#110303

Overall Influence

Dr. Jeanne Tsai is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Culture and Emotion Lab. Her research examines how culture shapes affective processes and the implications that cultural and individual differences in these processes have for what decisions people make, how they think about health and illness, how they express themselves, and how they perceive and respond to others in an increasingly multicultural world.

#426

Marita Inglehart

#90401

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Marita Rohr Inglehart is a psychologist, academic, and author. She is a Professor at the Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine at the School of Dentistry, an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Psychology at the College of Literature, Arts and Sciences at the University of Michigan. Additionally, she also holds the position of Inaugural University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor at the University of Michigan.

#427

Valerie Purdie Greenaway

#66509

Overall Influence

Valerie Purdie Greenaway, who has also published under the surnames Purdie-Vaughns and Purdie, is an American social psychologist and associate professor of psychology at Columbia University. Her research interests include diversity, stereotypes and intergroup relations. She is one of the first African Americans to receive tenure in the academic sciences at Columbia University, and is credited with coining the term "intersectional invisibility".

#428

Susan Pinker

#84573

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Susan Pinker is a psychologist, author and social science columnist for The Wall Street Journal. She is a former weekly columnist for The Globe and Mail, and has also written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Times of London. Her first book, The Sexual Paradox, was awarded the William James Book Award in 2010 and was published in 17 countries. Her recent book The Village Effect was a Canadian bestseller and an Apple 2014 nonfiction best pick. Her work has been featured in The Economist, The Financial Times, and Der Spiegel.

#429

David F. Duncan

#9375

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

David F. Duncan is president of Duncan & Associates, a firm providing consultation on research design and data collection for behavioral and policy studies. He is also Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health at Brown University School of Medicine.

#430

Ragnar Rommetveit

#90643

Overall Influence

1924 - 2017 (93 years)

Ragnar Rommetveit was a Norwegian psychologist. He was born in Stord. Rommetveit graduated as dr.philos. from the University of Oslo in 1953, with the thesis Social Norms and Roles. He was appointed professor at the University of Oslo from 1959 to 1994. His textbook Språk, Tanke og Kommunikasjon from 1970 has been used for decades in Norway as an introductory book in language psychology. He is a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

#431

Stephanie Fryberg

Stephanie Fryberg

#89887

Overall Influence

Stephanie Fryberg is a Tulalip psychologist who received her Master's and Doctorate degrees from Stanford University, where in 2011 she was inducted into the Multicultural Hall of Fame. In the same year, she testified before Senate on Stolen Identities: The impact of racist stereotypes on Indigenous people. She previously taught psychology at the University of Arizona, at the Tulalip Community at Marysville School, and at the University of Washington. She currently teaches American Indian Studies and Psychology at the University of Michigan, and is a member of the Tulalip Tribe. Her research focuses on race, class, and culture in relation to ones psychological development and mental health.

#432

Lisa Aspinwall

#168033

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Lisa G. Aspinwall is an American researcher and professor of Social Psychology and Health Psychology at the University of Utah. In 2000, she was honored as 2nd place recipient of the John Marks Templeton Positive Psychology Prize for her work on optimism and psychological resilience.

#433

Klaus Boehnke

#150993

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Klaus Boehnke is a German psychologist and social scientist. He has been teaching and researching at Jacobs University Bremen since 2002. In 2017, he was appointed deputy director of the Center for Sociocultural Research at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He suspended this collaboration on February 24, 2022.

#434

Todd Heatherton

#126290

Overall Influence

Todd F. Heatherton is a former professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College who retired following sexual harassment allegations against him. He was an Associate Editor of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. His recent research uses a social brain science approach, which combines theories and methods of evolutionary psychology, social cognition, and cognitive neuroscience to examine social behavior.

#435

Toni Falbo

#74307

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Toni Falbo is a social psychologist known for her research on power dynamics in relationships, sibling status, and development of only children. She is a professor of Educational Psychology and Faculty Research Affiliate of the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

#436

Stephen T. Wegener

#74531

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Stephen Thomas Wegener is an American rehabilitation psychologist specializing in the psychology of pain management. His work seeks to improve function and reduce disability for persons with chronic illness and impairments, including occupational injuries, rheumatic disease, spinal cord injury or limb loss. He also develops cognitive-behavioral therapy and self-management to prevent or mitigate pain associated with disability, and examines psychological variables that can affect positive outcomes.

#437

Sapna Cheryan

#177080

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (46 years)

Sapna Cheryan is an American social psychologist. She is a Full professor of social psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington. Early life and education Cheryan was born to financial aid administrator mother Leela Cheryan and research professor father Munir Cheryan in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up, she became interested in topics revolving around race, gender, and equality. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and American Studies before enrolling at Stanford University for her PhD. As a graduate student, she began to notice that the atmosphere of working or learning environments could directly influence ones choice to join the field.

#438

Adam Joinson

#69639

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Adam N. Joinson is a British author, academic and public speaker within the area of cyberpsychology. He is Professor of Information Systems at University of Bath, following posts at the University of West of England and the Open University. and has conducted ground breaking research into the psychology of Internet usage.

#439

Jonathon Rendina

#180298

Overall Influence

H. Jonathon Rendina is an American social and health psychologist. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Hunter College and the Director of the Applied Intersectionality & Minority Stress Lab in the PRIDE Health Research Consortium. His research focuses on intersectionalities sexual minority stress, LGBT health disparities, and the stigma of living with HIV.

#440

Damian Milton

#33340

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Damian Elgin Maclean Milton is a British sociologist and social psychologist who specialises in autism research and an autism rights advocate. He is a lecturer at the University of Kent as well as a consultant for the United Kingdom's National Autistic Society and has academic qualifications in sociology, psychology, philosophy, and education.

#441

Nichola Raihani

#103682

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (44 years)

Nichola Jayne Raihani is a British psychologist who is a Professor of Evolution and Behaviour at University College London. Her research considers the evolution of cooperation in nature. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2019. Her first book, The Social Instinct, was released in 2021.

#442

Cordelia Fine

#11358

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

Cordelia Fine is a Canadian-born British philosopher of science, psychologist, and writer. She is a full professor in the History and Philosophy of Science programme at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Fine has written three popular science books on the topics of social cognition, neuroscience, and the popular myths of sex differences. Her latest book, Testosterone Rex, won the Royal Society Science Book Prize, 2017. She has authored several academic book chapters and numerous academic publications. Fine is also noted for coining the term 'neurosexism'.

#443

Barbara Curbow

#176436

Overall Influence

Barbara Anne Curbow is an American social/health psychologist. She is a former Professor and chair of the Department of Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on health disparities in treatment decision-making for adjuvant chemotherapy among colorectal cancer patients, use of alternative tobacco products, tobacco control, and cancer caregiving.

#444

Veronica Galvan

#110686

Overall Influence

Veronica Galvan is a Professor and the Donald W. Reynolds Endowed Chair of Aging Research in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Since December 2022, she has served as Director of the Oklahoma Nathan Shock Center on Aging. She also serves as co-director of the Center for Geroscience and Healthy Brain Aging at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

#445

Crystal L. Hoyt

#176938

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

Crystal L. Hoyt is an American social psychologist. Hoyt attended Claremont McKenna College, where she studied psychology and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1997. She pursued further study in the subject at University of California, Santa Barbara, completing her doctorate in 2003. Hoyt began teaching at the University of Richmond Jepson School of Leadership Studies in 2003 as an assistant professor. She became an associate professor in 2009, and later succeeded Donelson R. Forsyth as Colonel Leo K. & Gaylee Thorsness Endowed Chair in Ethical Leadership.

#446

Diana Zuckerman

Diana Zuckerman

#11389

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Diana M. Zuckerman is an American health policy analyst who focuses on the implications of policies for public health and patients' health. She specializes in national health policy, particularly in women's health and the safety and effectiveness of medical products. She is the President of the National Center for Health Research and the Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund.

#447

Dale Berger

#82620

Overall Influence

Dale Berger is a professor of Psychology, Emeritus, and former Dean of the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences , Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. Berger is a cognitive psychologist and research methodologist with a focus on the use of technology in support of teaching and learning statistics.

#448

Pauline Norris

#89949

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Pauline Toni Norris is a New Zealand academic, and as of 2019 is a full professor at the University of Otago. Academic career After a 1993 PhD titled 'The negotiation and re-negotiation of occupational control : a study of retail pharmacy in New Zealand, 1930-1990' at Victoria University of Wellington, Norris moved to the University of Otago, rising to full professor.

#449

Jonathan Dollimore

#77123

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Jonathan G Dollimore is a British philosopher and critic in the fields of Renaissance literature , gender studies, queer theory , history of ideas, death studies, decadence, and cultural theory. He is the author of four academic books, a memoir, and numerous academic articles. With Alan Sinfield he was the co-editor of and key contributor to Political Shakespeare, and the co-originator of the critical practice known as cultural materialism. Dollimore is credited with making major interventions in debates on sexuality and desire, Renaissance literary culture, art and censorship, and cultural ...

#450

Caryl Rusbult

#186157

Overall Influence

2010 - 2010 (0 years)

Caryl E. Rusbult was a professor and chair of the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She died from uterine cancer on January 27, 2010. Rusbult received her B.A. in Sociology from UCLA and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . During her time as a professor at Chapel Hill she made seminal contributions to theoretical social psychology including the investment model of commitment processes, a theoretical model of accommodation processes, and the Michelangelo effect.

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