Profile of Shelley E. Taylor
PROFILE Profile of Shelley E. Taylor he first psychology experiment the feedback was completely discrepant Shelley Taylor conducted as an to reality, study participants rejected it undergraduate at Connecticut out of hand. However, if the feedback was T — College in New London, Con- close say that they were most attracted necticut, turned her on to the thrill that to the second or third person on their comes from collecting and analyzing data. list—they accepted the information and “I was transported,” says the University reevaluated their assessment. of California Los Angeles distinguished After completing her doctorate in 1972, professor of social psychology. That re- Taylor moved to Harvard University search experience led her to graduate (Cambridge, MA) to be part of the de- school at Yale University’s (New Haven, partment of social relations, which was an CT) psychology department and eventu- interdisciplinary collaboration between ally to an illustrious career in research psychology, sociology, and anthropology. psychology, highlighted by her role as one “I liked the broad scope of the depart- of the founders of social cognition, health ment and the interdisciplinary focus,” psychology, and social neuroscience. she says. Elected to the Institute of Medicine in Her first student at Harvard was an 2003 and the National Academy of Sci- undergraduate named Susan Fiske, with ences in 2009 and awarded the American whom Taylor has collaborated since that Psychological Association’s Lifetime time. “I’ve had lasting relationships with ” Achievement Award in 2010, Taylor is a number of students, says Taylor. “ well known for her work showing that With Susan, we became close friends, people tend to hold positive illusions of and she always brought something to the research other than what I brought, which themselves and that it can be healthy to ” do so, the mechanisms by which stress af- made collaboration very fruitful.
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