30 Most Influential Psychologists Working Today The quest to understand the workings of human thought and behavior can be traced back to ancient peoples. Before it was established as a scientific discipline, the study of psychology was of interest to many great thinkers and philosophers. These days, it has become a popular field, even outside the realm of science. After all, psychology influences so many different spheres of life, from marketing, education and entertainment to economics and even law enforcement. Here is a list of 30 of the most influential psychologists who continue to do groundbreaking and far-reaching work today. 30. Martin Seligman Martin E. P. Seligman is perhaps best known for his theory of “learned helplessness.” He is currently the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the university’s Positive Psychology Center. Apart from being a psychologist and educator, Seligman is also the author of several bestselling books. Seligman is listed as the 13th most quoted 20th-century psychologist in preparatory psychology textbooks, based on a study by Haggbloom et al. In the same study, Seligman also appeared as the 31st most eminent psychologist overall. Several institutions have backed his research, including The National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation. Seligman has also been granted honors such as two Distinguished Scientific Contribution awards, presented by the American Psychological Association. 29. Howard Gardner Howard Gardner is currently the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero. A developmental psychologist, Gardner is known for his theory of multiple intelligences, which has presented a fresh take on education. In it, he looks at eight distinct forms of intelligence: naturalistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, logic-mathematical, bodily/kinesthetic, musical and spatial. Since the 1980s, Gardner has been actively devoted to United States school reforms that seek to go beyond traditional standardized testing. In 2005 and 2008, both Prospect and Foreign Policy magazines named Gardner among the world’s 100 most influential public intellectuals. He has accepted many honors, including the MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1981 and, more lately, the 2011 Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences. 28. Steven Pinker Named by Time magazine as one of its “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2004, Steven Pinker is among the foremost authorities on language and the mind – particularly in the areas of visual cognition and the psychology of language. Three of his mainstream, non-academic books – The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and The Blank Slate – have been honored with prizes. Pinker has also twice been nominated for a Pulitzer. A Harvard College scholar, Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in Harvard University’s psychology department. His research has garnered him several awards, including the George Miller Prize from the Cognitive Neuroscience Society and the 1993 Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences. Pinker also graced Foreign Policy magazine’s list of top global thinkers in 2010 and 2011. 27. Kelly D. Brownell Kelly D. Brownell is an internationally recognized expert on one of today’s most vexing health issues: obesity. In this capacity, he has been consulted by world health organizations, members of government and celebrities. At Yale, Brownell acts as Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity as well as Professor of Psychology and Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health. He was also recently appointed Dean of Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Brownell – who was cited on the “Time100” in 2006 – has been the recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology, among other honors that have come his way. He is a staunch lobbyist for taxes on both food and soda as a means of encouraging healthier eating in the U.S. 26. Paul Ekman Psychologist Paul Ekman is popularly known as “the human lie-detector.” His decades- long research into human emotions relative to facial expressions has resulted in the formation of his “atlas of emotions” – essentially a catalogue of thousands of expressions. Meanwhile, in the pop culture sphere, Ekman’s work prompted the creation of the TV series Lie to Me. Until 2004 his role was that of psychology professor in the psychiatry department at the University of California, San Francisco. Ekman has used his studies to establish workshops and training tools as well as to assist law enforcement groups. He has also published mainstream books. In 2001 the American Psychological Association proclaimed him to be one of the 20th century’s most influential psychologists, and in 2009 Time placed him on its “100 Most Influential People” list. 25. Susan Blackmore Susan Blackmore started out as a parapsychologist and believer in the paranormal. This initial pursuit stemmed largely from an out-of-body experience that she had while studying at Oxford University in the early ‘70s. However, approximately 30 years later, Blackmore would become an outspoken skeptic and contributor to memetics – the science that studies how memes (ideas as units of cultural meaning) are spread much like viruses. In 1999 Blackmore published a popular book, The Meme Machine, with a foreword by Richard Dawkins. She is a consulting editor for the Skeptical Inquirer and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. Blackmore has also appeared as a TED conference presenter, and on the UK version of Big Brother as a consulting psychologist. In 1991 she received the CSICOP Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Distinguished Skeptic Award. 24. Philip Zimbardo In 1971 Philip Zimbardo became a professor of psychology at Stanford University. There, he conducted a controversial study: 24 ordinary male college students were arbitrarily selected to be either “guards” or “prisoners” in a fake jail. The resulting “Stanford Prison Experiment” has since become notorious thanks to the cruel and often-inhumane behaviors exhibited by its participants – as well as for ethical questions surrounding the research. Notwithstanding such controversy, Zimbardo is now a professor emeritus at Stanford and has been elected president of the American Psychological Association. He has authored textbooks on psychology, as well as other books, such as The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, based on the prison study findings. In 2004 Zimbardo was a defense witness concerned with the court martial of an Abu Ghraib prison guard, and he has appeared on various TV shows. 23. Robert Trivers Robert Trivers has been called “one of the most influential evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin.” Currently Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University, he has also been touted by Steven Pinker for inspiring “an astonishing amount of research and commentary in psychology and biology.” To merit this praise, Trivers has contributed four important theories to his field: reciprocal altruism, sex ratio determination, parent-offspring conflict, and parental investment. In fact, he is credited with having laid down the very groundwork for sociobiology. In 2007 Trivers received the Crafoord Prize in biosciences for his study of conflict, social evolution and cooperation. 22. Robert Sternberg Psychologist and psychometrician Robert Sternberg is the president of the University of Wyoming. One of Sternberg’s greatest endowments to the world of psychology is the “Triarchic theory of intelligence,” which states that intelligence can be divided into creative, analytical and practical components. He has been President of the American Psychological Association and has held positions at Yale, Oklahoma State and Tufts universities. Sternberg’s honors include the Francis Galton Award from the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics. In addition, the Institute for Scientific Information has ranked him as among the most highly cited authors in psychology and psychiatry, and he has been called one of the 20th century’s top 100 psychologists. 21. Richard Wiseman Richard Wiseman has the distinction of holding Britain’s only Chair in the Public Understanding of Psychology, at the University of Hertfordshire. A former magician with a PhD in psychology, he is known worldwide for his studies and for discrediting paranormal phenomena. He has also written three bestsellers, The Luck Factor, Quirkology and 59 Seconds, and has delivered keynote addresses to corporations such as Google and Microsoft. In 2000 Wiseman received the CSICOP Public Education in Science Award. His work has been featured on more than 150 television shows and in many publications. He appeared in The Girl with X-Ray Eyes, a Discovery Channel documentary. And as an indicator of Wiseman’s widespread popularity, it is said that no other psychologist currently has more followers on Twitter. 20. Robert A. Rescorla Robert A. Rescorla, along with Allan R. Wagner, is the creator of the Rescorla-Wagner model of conditioning, which relates to learning processes. This has become one of the most persuasive systems of learning, and in 1986 it won Rescorla the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions. He was also elected to the Society of Experimental