Professor Emeritus | Social and Personality Psychologist
University of Queensland
Dr. Baumeister is president of the International Positive Psychology Association, as well as professor of psychology (emeritus) at the University of Queensland, with ongoing connections to Florida State University and Constructor University Bremen (Germany). He received his PhD in experimental social psychology from Princeton University in 1978 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley.
He has over 700 publications, and his 45 books include Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty, The Cultural Animal, Meanings of Life, and the New York Times bestseller Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. As of February 2024, Google Scholar tallies that his works have been cited over 280,000 times in the scientific literature, with annual tallies routinely approaching 20,000 and an H-index of 206.
His research interests include self and identity, belongingness and interpersonal rejection, finding meaning in life, sexuality, aggression, self-control and self-esteem, uncertainty, addiction, decision-making, and thinking about the future. His expertise and interviews have appeared on NBC Dateline, ABC 20/20, Discover, PBS, National Public Radio, and countless local news shows.