About PsySociety

Why PsySociety?

The logic behind the PsySociety name is twofold.

First, I enjoy connecting the research I read in journal articles to the world around me. I am an avid Daily-Show-and-Colbert-Report watcher, celebrity gossip maven, and history nerd with an unhealthy love for horrible television and an overactive anger response to many (ok, most) political issues. Naturally, this leads me to draw a lot of connections between the area I conduct research in for a living – social/personality psychology – and the world of pop culture and current events. The name PsySociety combines this focus on psychology with its applications to pop culture and society, much like the entries on this blog.

Secondly, it’s a play on the phrase “High Society,” which I think is cute. Hey, I didn’t say that both reasons were great.

W. W. Norton Consultation

In 2012, I was hired by the publishing company W.W. Norton & Company to produce blog posts that specifically address some of the fundamental concepts addressed in the most recent edition of the textbook Social Psychology, edited by the phenomenal social psychologists Tom Gilovich, Dacher Keltner, Serena Chen, and Richard E. Nisbett. These posts are independently written, edited, and published by myself, and I retain the rights to all material. However, they have been written with the introductory social psychology class in mind, and are intended as valuable (and hopefully helpful) supplementary material for students using this textbook. Posts specifically designed for this purpose have been tagged “Norton.”

PsySociety In A Nutshell

See here for a list of 2011’s most popular posts (based on total page views).