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Draft:Nicholas Epley

  • Comment: Might be meeting notability guidelines of WP:NPROF but presented sources are not enough for establishing notability. All of the included sources are authored by the subject himself. Please see WP:RS and add sources accordingly. Hitro talk 11:12, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
Nicholas Epley
Born (1974-08-26) August 26, 1974 (age 50)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSt. Olaf College
Cornell University
Known forResearch on egocentrism, communication, anthropomorphism, social judgment and decision making
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology
InstitutionsHarvard University, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Doctoral advisorsThomas Gilovich

Nicholas Epley (born August 26, 1974) is an American psychologist who is the John Templeton Keller Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He studies social cognition—"how thinking people think about other thinking people."[1] He has published research on topics such as perspective taking, miscommunication, anthropomorphism, and barriers to social connection.

As of August 2024, Epley's publications have been cited more than 29,000 times, with an h-index of 67, which is considered exceptional.[2][3]

Early History and Education

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Epley attended St. Olaf College, where he played football and graduated in 1996 with a B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy. He then obtained his Ph.D. in Psychology from Cornell University in 2001, working with his advisor Thomas Gilovich.

Notable Scholarly Contributions

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Perspective taking as egocentric anchoring and adjustment

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Epley and colleagues have proposed a model of perspective taking in which people take others' perspectives by anchoring egocentrically on their own perspective and then serially adjusting toward another person's perspective[4]. These adjustments tend to be insufficient, however, and so people's inferences about others' mental states tend to be egocentrically biased in the direction of their own mental states.

This model of perspective taking helps to explain several phenomena related to miscommunication and misunderstandings in social relationships. For example, Epley finds that people presume they have communicated more clearly than they actually have through text-based media such as email.[5] He finds that people overestimate the extent to which their social blunders tarnish their image in the eyes of others[6], partly because people are so focused on their own misfortunes that they overlook others' capacity and inclination to empathize with them[7]. He also finds that egocentric reasoning can cause people to arrive at different assessments of how equitable their relationships are: When one person performs a favor for another, the favor giver expects the amount of reciprocity to be guided by the costs they incurred to perform the favor, whereas the favor receiver reciprocates more based on the benefits they received from the favor.[8]

This line of research highlights the systematic errors that can follow from trying to take others' perspectives[9] and has led Epley to investigate the value of "getting perspective" rather than "taking perspective"—asking other people for their opinions, intentions, and goals rather than trying to guess those without input.[10][11]

Anthropomorphism and dehumanization

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Epley and colleagues developed a theory of anthropomorphism (ascribing humanlike qualities to nonhuman agents).[12] According to this theory, people are more likely to anthropomorphize nonhuman agents when knowledge about humans is accessible, when people are motivated to interact effectively with these nonhuman agents, and when people lack a sense of social connection to other humans. Epley and colleagues have found empirical support for this theory in several studies[13][14]. He has also suggested these factors may help to explain the inverse phenomenon of dehumanization, in which people fail to ascribe humanlike attributes to other humans.[15]

Psychological barriers to social connection

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Epley has investigated why humans, arguably the most social species on the planet, are often reluctant to reach out to others in positive ways that might enhance their well-being. He finds that people are reluctant to connect because they underestimate the positive outcomes of trying to connect, including how much they will enjoy interacting with others[16], how much they can learn from others[17], and how positively others will respond to their attempts to connect. For example, people may be overly reluctant to initiate conversations with strangers[18][19], to express gratitude to others[20], to offer social support[21], to give sincere compliments[22], and to have deeper conversations[23] because they expect others to respond less positively to these actions than others actually do. People’s miscalibrated expectations may leave them being less social than would be ideal for their own and others’ well-being, a hypothesis that Epley refers to as undersociality[24]

Awards and Recognition

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  • Theoretical Innovation Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 2008[25]
  • Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology, 2011[26]
  • Media Book Prize for Mindwise, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 2015[27]
  • Phoenix Award, University of Chicago Booth, 2017[28]
  • Career Trajectory Award, Society of Experimental Social Psychology, 2018[29]

    • Personal Life

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    Epley lives with his wife Jennifer in Illinois. They have five kids.

    Publications

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    Books

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    Epley, N. (2014). Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Feel, Believe, and Want. New York: Knopf.

    Other notable publications

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    Epley, N., Keysar, B., Van Boven, L., & Gilovich, T. (2004). Perspective taking as egocentric anchoring and adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(3), 327–339. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.87.3.327

    Epley, N., Waytz, A., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2007). On seeing human: a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism. Psychological Review, 114(4), 864–886. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.864

    Epley, N., & Waytz, A. (2010). Mind perception. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (pp. 498–541). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470561119.socpsy001014

    Epley, N., & Schroeder, J. (2014). Mistakenly seeking solitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 1980–1999. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0037323

    Epley, N., Kardas, M., Zhao, X., Atir, S., & Schroeder, J. (2022). Undersociality: Miscalibrated social cognition can inhibit social connection. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(5), 406–418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2022.02.007

    References

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    1. ^ https://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/e/nicholas-epley
    2. ^ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4BpUtrQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
    3. ^ https://bitesizebio.com/13614/does-your-h-index-measure-up/
    4. ^ Epley, N., Keysar, B., Van Boven, L., & Gilovich, T. (2004). Perspective Taking as Egocentric Anchoring and Adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(3), 327–339. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.87.3.327
    5. ^ Kruger, J., Epley, N., Parker, J., & Ng, Z.-W. (2005). Egocentrism over e-mail: Can we communicate as well as we think? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(6), 925–936. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.6.925
    6. ^ Savitsky, K., Epley, N., & Gilovich, T. (2001). Do others judge us as harshly as we think? Overestimating the impact of our failures, shortcomings, and mishaps. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(1), 44–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.1.44
    7. ^ Epley, N., Savitsky, K., & Gilovich, T. (2002). Empathy neglect: Reconciling the spotlight effect and the correspondence bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(2), 300–312. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.2.300
    8. ^ Zhang, Y., & Epley, N. (2009). Self-centered social exchange: Differential use of costs versus benefits in prosocial reciprocity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(5), 796–810. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016233
    9. ^ Epley, N. (2008). Solving the (real) other minds problem. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(3), 1455–1474. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00115.x
    10. ^ Eyal, T., Steffel, M., & Epley, N. (2018). Perspective mistaking: Accurately understanding the mind of another requires getting perspective, not taking perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114(4), 547–571. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000115
    11. ^ Zhou, H., Majka, E. A., & Epley, N. (2017). Inferring perspective versus getting perspective: Underestimating the value of being in another person’s shoes. Psychological Science, 28(4), 482–493. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616687124
    12. ^ Epley, N., Waytz, A., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2007). On seeing human: A three-factor theory of anthropomorphism. Psychological Review, 114(4), 864–886. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.864
    13. ^ Epley, N., Waytz, A., Akalis, S., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2008). When we need a human: Motivational determinants of anthropomorphism. Social Cognition, 26(2), 143–155. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2008.26.2.143
    14. ^ Epley, N., Akalis, S., Waytz, A., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2008). Creating social connection through inferential reproduction: Loneliness and perceived agency in gadgets, gods, and greyhounds. Psychological Science, 19(2), 114–120. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02056.x
    15. ^ Waytz, A., Epley, N., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2010). Social cognition unbound: Insights into anthropomorphism and dehumanization. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721409359302
    16. ^ Epley, N., & Schroeder, J. (2014). Mistakenly seeking solitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 1980–1999. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037323
    17. ^ Atir, S., Wald, K. A., & Epley, N. (2022). Talking with strangers is surprisingly informative. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(34), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206992119
    18. ^ Epley, N., & Schroeder, J. (2014). Mistakenly seeking solitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 1980–1999. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037323
    19. ^ Schroeder, J., Lyons, D., & Epley, N. (2022). Hello, stranger? Pleasant conversations are preceded by concerns about starting one. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151(5), 1141–1153. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001118
    20. ^ Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2018). Undervaluing gratitude: Expressers misunderstand the consequences of showing appreciation. Psychological Science, 29(9), 1423–1435. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618772506
    21. ^ Dungan, J. A., Munguia Gomez, D. M., & Epley, N. (2022). Too reluctant to reach out: Receiving social support is more positive than expressers expect. Psychological Science, 33(8), 1300–1312. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221082942
    22. ^ Zhao, X., & Epley, N. (2021). Insufficiently complimentary?: Underestimating the positive impact of compliments creates a barrier to expressing them. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(2), 239–256. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000277
    23. ^ Kardas, M., Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2022). Overly shallow?: Miscalibrated expectations create a barrier to deeper conversation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122(3), 367–398. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000281
    24. ^ Epley, N., Kardas, M., Zhao, X., Atir, S., & Schroeder, J. (2022). Undersociality: Miscalibrated social cognition can inhibit social connection. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(5), 406–418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2022.02.007
    25. ^ https://news.uchicago.edu/story/nicholas-epley-wins-2008-theoretical-innovation-award
    26. ^ https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-25622-013
    27. ^ https://spsp.org/news-center/spsp-news/spsps-2015-award-recipients
    28. ^ https://www.chicagobooth.edu/alumni/events/showevent?eventId=18336
    29. ^ https://www.sesp.org/content.asp?contentid=146
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