Robb Willer

Robb Willer (born 1977) is an American sociologist and social psychologist known for his work on political persuasion,[1] polarization,[2] democracy,[3] and morality.[4] He is a professor of sociology, psychology, and organizational behavior at Stanford University where he is the Director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab and Faculty Co-Director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.[5]

Robb Willer
Born1977 (age 45–46)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCornell University University of Iowa
Scientific career
FieldsSocial psychology

Organizational behavior Political science Political psychology

Moral psychology
InstitutionsStanford University University of California, Berkeley
Doctoral advisorMichael Macy
Other academic advisorsDavid Grusky
Websitewww.robbwiller.org

Biography

Willer grew up in Lawrence, Kansas and Columbia, South Carolina. He earned his B.A. in sociology from the University of Iowa and his M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology at Cornell University.[5][6] During graduate school, he also worked as a union organizer for the United Auto Workers.[7]

Research

Robb Willer has published more than 70 scientific articles in sociology, psychology, political science, organizations, and general science journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Human Behaviour, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, and Administrative Science Quarterly.[8][5] As of March 21, 2023, his Google Scholar h-index was 50 and his i10-index was 77, with 18,064 citations.

Much of Willer’s research focuses on leveraging social and behavioral science for positive social impact.[5][9] He co-organized (with Jay van Bavel) a many-authored paper published early in the COVID-19 pandemic on how to leverage social and behavioral science to intervene effectively to address the pandemic, and subsequently conducting research on effectively promoting vaccinations.[10]

Additionally, Willer is a co-leader of the Strengthening Democracy Challenge, a “megastudy” that experimentally tested 25 crowdsourced interventions designed to reduce Americans’ partisan animosity and anti-democratic attitudes.[11][12][3]

He and Matthew Feinberg developed the idea of "moral reframing".[13] Based on moral foundations theory, moral reframing is a technique of political persuasion in which a political message draws a connection between a given issue and the audience's assumed moral values.[14] Willer's talk on political communication has been viewed over 2.9 million times since it was posted on the TED website January 20, 2017.[2]

Willer's other research on politics emphasizes the effects of various forms of threat and anxiety on political attitudes, for example, the effects of racial status threats,[15] terror threats,[16] and masculinity threats.[17] He has studied masculine overcompensation, showing that men whose masculinity has been threatened tend to adopt more stereotypically masculine attitudes on issues like war and gay rights.[18]

He contributed research to the book Modern Romance: An Investigation, by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg.

Teaching

Prior to moving Stanford, Willer was an assistant professor at UC Berkeley's Sociology Department.[5] Willer was the 2009 recipient of the Golden Apple Award for Outstanding Teaching.[19]

Selected publications
  • Willer, R., Kuwabara, K., & Macy, M. W. (2009). The false enforcement of unpopular norms. American Journal of Sociology, 115(2), 451-490.
  • Willer, R. (2009). Groups reward individual sacrifice: The status solution to the collective action problem. American Sociological Review, 74(1), 23-43.
  • Willer, R., Rogalin, C. L., Conlon, B., & Wojnowicz, M. T. (2013). Overdoing gender: A test of the masculine overcompensation thesis. American journal of sociology, 118(4), 980-1022
  • Feinberg, M., & Willer, R. (2013). The moral roots of environmental attitudes. Psychological Science, 24(1), 56-62.
  • Feinberg, M., & Willer, R. (2015). From gulf to bridge: When do moral arguments facilitate political influence?. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(12), 1665-1681.
  • Bavel, J. J. V., Baicker, K., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A., Cikara, M., ... & Willer, R. (2020). Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nature human behaviour, 4(5), 460-471.
  • Feinberg, M., Willer, R., & Kovacheff, C. (2020). The activist’s dilemma: Extreme protest actions reduce popular support for social movements. Journal of personality and social psychology, 119(5), 1086.
  • Voelkel, J. G., Stagnaro, M.N., Chu, J., Pink, S., Mernyk, J., Redekopp, C., Cashman, M., Druckman, J., Rand, D., & Willer, R. (Working Paper). Megastudy identifying successful interventions to strengthen Americans' democratic attitudes.

See also

References
  1. Willer, Robb; Feinberg, Matthew (November 13, 2015). "Opinion | The Key to Political Persuasion". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  2. Willer, Robb (January 20, 2017), How to have better political conversations, retrieved April 3, 2023
  3. Graham, David A. (October 21, 2022). "How to Save Democracy". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  4. Willer, Robb (February 27, 2015). "Opinion | Is the Environment a Moral Cause?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  5. "Robb Willer - Department of Sociology". sociology.Stanford.edu. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  6. "Robb Willer". Robb Willer. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  7. "NYU's Grad-Student Union Succeeded. Cornell's Flopped. Why?". The Chronicle of Higher Education. October 2, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  8. "Robb Willer". scholar.google.com. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  9. "Robb Willer". Robb Willer. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  10. Bavel, Jay J. Van; Baicker, Katherine; Boggio, Paulo S.; Capraro, Valerio; Cichocka, Aleksandra; Cikara, Mina; Crockett, Molly J.; Crum, Alia J.; Douglas, Karen M.; Druckman, James N.; Drury, John; Dube, Oeindrila; Ellemers, Naomi; Finkel, Eli J.; Fowler, James H. (May 2020). "Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response". Nature Human Behaviour. 4 (5): 460–471. doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0884-z. hdl:1721.1/125045. ISSN 2397-3374. PMID 32355299. S2CID 217166892.
  11. "Home". Strengthening Democracy Challenge. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  12. Edsall, Thomas B. (February 8, 2023). "Opinion | Meet the People Working on Getting Us to Hate One Another Less". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  13. University, Stanford (October 12, 2015). "Stanford sociologist shows how to make effective political arguments". Stanford.edu. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  14. Feinberg, Matthew; Willer, Robb (January 1, 2013). "The Moral Roots of Environmental Attitudes". Psychological Science. 24 (1): 56–62. doi:10.1177/0956797612449177. PMID 23228937. S2CID 18348687.
  15. Ehrenfreund, Max (May 13, 2016). "How psychologists used these doctored Obama photos to get white people to support conservative politics". Retrieved October 5, 2017 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  16. "Current Research in Social Psychology" (PDF). Wix.com. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  17. "American Journal of Sociology" (PDF). wix.com. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  18. "Stronger reaction to masculinity threats tied to testosterone, Stanford sociologist says". Stanford.edu. April 16, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  19. "The coolest professors at Berkeley, according to the Golden Apple Awards - The Daily Californian". dailycal.org. March 11, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
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