John Bargh

John A. Bargh is a professor of social psychology at Yale University. He built his reputation in the 1980s as one of the leading researchers and theorists on the topic of automaticity. He has since focused on bringing experimental methodology to the philosophical question of free will.

Career

Bargh was born in Champaign, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois as an undergraduate, and the University of Michigan for post-graduate training under Robert Zajonc. He received his Ph.D. in 1981. That same year he was hired as an assistant professor at New York University, where he remained for 22 years. He has since formed the Automaticity in Cognition, Motivation, and Emotion (ACME) Lab at Yale, where he teaches the popular undergraduate course Psyc 315 "The Modern Unconscious" (Spring '08).

Bargh's work in automaticity explored the extent to which information processing occurs outside of either intent or awareness. In contrast to Ellen Langer, who denigrated such mental processing as "mindless", Bargh followed the lead of William James in stating that automatized (or "habitualized" in James' terminology) processing can be a beneficial adaptation.

Bargh's interest in free will grows out of those earlier interests, exploring the extent to which goal formation and initiation of behavior can occur automatically. His work has also brought new light to the proverbial corruptive effects of power.

Awards

* 1982 - Society for Experimental Social Psychology Dissertation Award
* 1989 - American Psychological Association Early Career Award for contributions to psychology.
* 1990 - Annual Research Prize from the Max Planck Society (with Peter Gollwitzer)
* 2001 - Guggenheim Fellowship
* 2001 - Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
* 2006 - Society for Personality and Social Psychology Donald T. Campbell Award
* 2007 - Society for Experimental Social Psychology Scientific Impact Award

Publications

Books

* Gollwitzer, P. M., & Bargh, J. A. (Eds.). (1996). "The psychology of action: Linking motivation and cognition to behavior". New York: Guilford Publications.
* Hassin, R., Uleman, J., & Bargh, J. (Eds.). (2005). "The new unconscious". New York: Oxford University Press.
* Uleman, J. S., & Bargh, J. A. (Eds.). (1989). "Unintended thought". New York: Guilford Publications.

Recent articles:

* Bargh, J. A. (2006). What have we been priming all these years? On the development, mechanisms, and ecology of nonconscious social behavior. "European Journal of Social Psychology" [Agenda 2006 article]
* Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. L. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. "American Psychologist", 54, 462-479.
* Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype priming on action. "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology", 71, 230-244.
* Bargh, J. A., & Ferguson, M. L. (2000). Beyond behaviorism: On the automaticity of higher mental processes. "Psychological Bulletin", 126, 925-945.
* Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A. Y., Barndollar, K., & Troetschel, R. (2001). The automated will: Nonconscious activation and pursuit of behavioral goals. "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology", 81, 1014-1027.
* Bargh, J. A., & McKenna, K. Y. A. (2004). The Internet and social life. "Annual Review of Psychology", 55, 573-590.
* Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction. "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology", 76, 893-910.
* Chen, S., Lee-Chai, A. Y., & Bargh, J. A. (2001). Relationship orientation as a moderator of the effects of social power. "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology", 80, 173-187.
* Dijksterhuis, A., & Bargh, J. A. (2001). The perception-behavior expressway: Automatic effects of social perception on social behavior. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), "Advances in experimental social psychology" (Vol. 33, pp. 1-40). San Diego: Academic Press.
* Duckworth, K. L., Bargh, J. A., Garcia, M., & Chaiken, S. (2001). The automatic evaluation of novel stimuli. "Psychological Science".
* Ferguson, M.J. & Bargh, J.A. (2004). Liking is for doing: The effects of goal pursuit on automatic evaluation. "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology", 87, 557-572.
* Ferguson, M. J., Bargh, J. A., & Nayak, D. A. (2005). After-affects: How automatic evaluations influence the interpretation of subsequent, unrelated stimuli. "Journal of Experimental Social Psychology", 41, 182-191.

External links

* [http://bargh.socialpsychology.org/ Professional Profile]
* [http://www.yale.edu/psychology/FacInfo/Bargh.html Yale home page]