In Memory Of…Daniel Wegner
Honoring scientists who have made important and lasting contributions to the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior.
Daniel M. Wegner, PhD (1948-2013)
John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James
Harvard University
Daniel M. Wegner studied how human minds accomplish self-control and guide us through social life. He conducted pioneering research on thought suppression and mental control (how we go about keeping unwanted thoughts out of mind), transactive memory (how we remember things cooperatively with others), action identification (what we think we’re doing), apparent mental causation (what gives us the sense that we consciously will our actions), and mind perception (how we gauge whether entities have minds).
Wegner was the John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James at Harvard University, where he taught since 2000. A Ph.D. of Michigan State University (1974), he held professorships at Trinity University in Texas (1974 – 1990), and the University of Virginia (1990 – 2000). His research and writing span social, cognitive, personality, and clinical psychology. His books include Implicit Psychology (1977) and A Theory of Action Identification (1985), both with Robin Vallacher, White Bears and Other Unwanted Thoughts (1989) and The Illusion of Conscious Will (2002), and with Dan Schacter and Dan Gilbert, Psychology (2nd ed. 2011), and Introducing Psychology (2010). He edited The Self in Social Psychology (1980) with Vallacher and the Handbook of Mental Control (1993) with James Pennebaker.
Wegner was a 1996-1997 Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, California. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and recipient of the William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology.
Individuals Honoring Daniel Wegner:
Henk Aarts, Universiteit Utrecht
Modupe Akinola, Harvard Business School
John A. Bargh, Yale University
Lisa Feldman Barrett, Northeastern University
Daniel Barrett
Charles S. Carver, University of Miami
Zoe Chance, Yale University
Gerald L. Clore, University of Virginia
William D. Crano, Claremont Graduate University
Robert Emery, University of Virginia
Nicholas Epley, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
*Susan T. Fiske, Princeton University
Daniel T. Gilbert, Harvard University
Kurt Gray, University of Maryland, College Park
Jonathan Haidt, New York University
*Todd F. Heatherton, Dartmouth College
Sara D. Hodges, University of Oregon
Jay Hull, Dartmouth College
Brian D. Knutson, Stanford University
Jon A. Krosnick, Stanford University
Abigail Marsh, Georgetown University
Malia F. Mason, Columbia University
Jason Mitchell, Harvard University
Richard J. McNally, Harvard University
Carey K. Morewedge, Carnegie Mellon University
Michael Norton, Harvard Business School
Thomas Oltmanns, Washington University
James W. Pennebaker, University of Texas
Jesse Preston, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Dennis R. Proffitt, University of Virginia
Emily B. Pronin, Princeton University
Laura S. Richman, Duke University
Todd Rogers, Harvard University
Daniel Schacter, Harvard University
Jonathan W. Schooler, University of California, Santa Barbara
Linda Skitka, University of Illinois at Chicago
Betsy J. Sparrow, Columbia University
Barbara A. Spellman, University of Virginia
Robert Weylin Sternglanz, Nova Southeastern University
William Swann, University of Texas
Eric N. Turkheimer, University of Virginia
Robin R. Vallacher, Florida Atlantic University
Thalia P. Wheatley, Dartmouth College
Daniel T. Willingham, University of Virginia
*Timothy D. Wilson, University of Virginia
* The FABBS Foundation would like to thank Dr. Susan T. Fiske, Dr. Todd F. Heatherton, and Dr. Timothy D. Wilson for nominating Dr. Wegner for this honor and for leading the effort to spread the word about his nomination.
