Dr. Jay Van Bavel
Jay Van Bavel is a Professor of Psychology & Neural Science at New York University, an affiliate at the Stern School of Business in Management and Organizations, Coordinator of the NYU Social Psychology Program, and Director of the Social Identity & Morality Lab and Center for Conflict & Cooperation. He is also co-author of The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony (winner of the 2022 APA William James Book Award). Jay completed his PhD at the University of Toronto and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at The Ohio State University.
From neurons to social networks, Jay’s research examines how collective concerns—group identities, moral values, and political beliefs—shape the mind, brain, and behavior. His work addresses issues of group identity, social motivation, intergroup conflict & polarization, cooperation, beliefs & misinformation, moral judgment & decision-making, social media, and public health. He studies these issues using a combination of experimental social psychology, behavioral economics, cross-cultural samples, cognitive neuroscience methods, and computational social science.
Jay has published over 150 academic publications and a mentoring column, called Letters to Young Scientists, for Science Magazine. He has written about his research for The New York Times, BBC, The Atlantic, Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal, Guardian, LA Times, TIME, and The Washington Post and his work has appeared in academic papers as well as in the US Supreme Court and Senate. His research was also featured in TEDx and TED-Ed videos and he has consulted with the White House, United Nations, European Union, and World Health Organization on issues related to his research.
Jay has given talks at dozens of psychology departments and business schools, as well as academic conferences, professional events, and non-academic organizations (including the World Science Festival). He received the NYU Golden Dozen Teaching Award for teaching courses on Social Psychology, Social Neuroscience, Attitudes and Evaluation, Intergroup Relations, Group Identity, Moral Psychology, Professional Development, and Introduction to Psychology.
His research has received several awards, including the Young Investigator Award for distinguished contributions in social neuroscience from the Society for Social Neuroscience, the Young Scholars Award for outstanding achievements in social and personality psychology from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology, the Janet T. Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, the F.J. McGuigan Early Career Investigator Prize from the American Psychological Foundation, the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize, and the SPSP Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize.
Primary Interests:
- Attitudes and Beliefs
- Emotion, Mood, Affect
- Ethics and Morality
- Group Processes
- Intergroup Relations
- Motivation, Goal Setting
- Neuroscience, Psychophysiology
- Person Perception
- Political Psychology
- Prejudice and Stereotyping
- Self and Identity
- Social Cognition
Research Group or Laboratory:
Internships and Assistantships:
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Image Gallery
Video Gallery
The Dangers of the Partisan Brain
Select video to watch
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15:25 The Dangers of the Partisan Brain
Length: 15:25
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32:27 Leadership in Groups and Followship
Length: 32:27
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41:28 Using Social and Behavioral Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response
Length: 41:28
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55:28 Uncover the Secret to Becoming the Architect of Your Own Identity
Length: 55:28
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56:43 The Partisan Brain
Length: 56:43
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3:22 Outrageous Advice for Answering the Question "What Do You Do?"
Length: 3:22
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1:18:23 Shared Identities and Decision Making
Length: 1:18:23
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5:27 Why Some Teams Are Smarter Than Others
Length: 5:27
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41:58 Overview of "The Power of Us"
Length: 41:58
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10:06 How Does Perception Influence Reality?
Length: 10:06
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22:18 Making Your Research and Teaching More Efficient, Transparent, and Impactful
Length: 22:18
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56:42 "The Power of Us"
Length: 56:42
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16:58 The Neuroscience of Cooperation
Length: 16:58
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3:16 Identity Myths Busted
Length: 3:16
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5:37 Do Politics Make Us Irrational?
Length: 5:37
Additional Videos
Books:
Journal Articles:
- Berkebile-Weinberg, M., *Goldwert, D., Doell, K., Van Bavel, J. J., & Vlasceanu, M. (2024). The differential impact of climate change interventions along the political divide in 60 countries. Nature Communications, 15, 3885.
- Brady, W.J., Wills, J.A., Jost, J.T., Tucker, J.A., & Van Bavel, J.J. (2017). Emotion shapes the diffusion of moralized content in social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1-6.
- Finkel, E. J., Bail, C. A., Cikara, M., Ditto, P. H., IIyengar, S., Klar, S., Mason, L., McGrath, M. C., Nyhan, B., Rand, D., Skitka, L., Tucker, J. A., Van Bavel, J.J., Wang, C. S. & Druckman, J. N. (2020). Political sectarianism in America: A poisonous cocktail of othering, aversion, and moralization. Science.
- Gollwitzer, A., *Martel, C., *Brady, W. J., Parnamets, P., Freedman, I. G., Knowles, E. D., & Van Bavel, J.J. (2020). Partisan differences in physical distancing are linked to health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Human Behavior, 4, 1186-1197.
- Hackel, L. M., Looser, C. E., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2014). Group membership alters the threshold for mind perception: The role of social identity, collective identification, and intergroup threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 52, 15-23.
- Rathje, S., Roozenbeek, J., Van Bavel, J. J., & van der Linden, S. (2023). Accuracy and social motivations shape judgements of (mis) information. Nature Human Behaviour, 1-12.
- Van Bavel, J.J.,, Baicker, K., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A., Cikara, M., Crockett, M. J., Crum, A. J., Douglas, K. M., Druckman, J. N. Drury, J., Dube, O., Ellemers, N., Finkel, E. J., Fowler, J. H., Gelfand, M., Han, S., Haslam, S. A., Jetten, J., Kitayama, S., Mobbs, D., Napper, L. E., Packer, D. J., Pennycook, G., Peters, E., Petty, R. E., Rand, D. G., Reicher, S. D., Schnall, S., Shariff, A., Skitka, L. J., Smith, S. S., Sunstein, C. R., Tabri, N., Tucker, J. A., van der Linden, S., Van Lange, P. A. M., Weeden, K. A., Wohl, M. J. A., Zaki, J., Zion, S. & Willer, R. (2020). Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nature Human Behaviour.
- Van Bavel, J. J., Cichocka, A., Capraro, V., Sjåstad, H., Nezlek, J. B., Pavlović, T., Alfano, M., Gelfand, M. J., Azevedo, F., Birtel, M. D., Cislak, A., Lockwood, P. L., Ross, R. M., Abts, K., Agadullina, E., Aruta, J. J. B., Besharati, S. N., Bor, A., Choma, B. L., … Boggio, P. S. (2022). National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic. Nature Communications, 13(1), 517.
- Van Bavel, J. J., Gadarian, S. K., Ruggeri, K., & Knowles, E. (2024). Political polarization and health. Nature Medicine.
- Van Bavel, J. J., Packer, D. J., & Cunningham, W. A. (2008). The neural substrates of in-group bias: A functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging investigation. Psychological Science,11, 1131-1139.
- Van Bavel, J.J. & Pereira, A. (2018). The partisan brain: An identity-based model of political belief. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22, 213-224.
- Van Bavel, J. J., Rathje, S., Harris, E., Robertson, C., & Sternisko, A. (2021). How social media shapes polarization. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(11), 913-916.
- Van Bavel, J. J., Robertson, C., del Rosario, K., Rasmussen, J., & Rathje, S. (2024). Social media and morality. Annual Review of Psychology, 75.
Courses Taught:
- Graduate - Attitudes and Evaluation
- Graduate - Intergroup Relations
- Undergraduate - Social Attitudes
- Undergraduate - Social Psychology
Dr. Jay Van Bavel
Department of Psychology
New York University
6 Washington Place
New York, New York 10003
United States of America
- Fax: NA
- Email: jay.vanbavel@nyu.edu