Jeff Stone, Ph.D.

2020 Distinguished Professor

Jeff Stone is a nationally recognized psychologist whose work investigates how people change their attitudes and behavior in the domains of health, education and sports.

Wonder Makes Me Motivate Others

Stone's research investigates how people change their attitudes and behavior in the domains of health, education and sports. Stone has led research on how the need to be consistent motivates people to bring their behavior in line with their beliefs about good health. Stone's research in the Self and Attitudes Lab develops new influence strategies to promote healthy behavior and the reduction of prejudice. Stone's lab has also investigated the attitude and behavior change that follows from an act of hypocrisy. Stone and his students found that when people advocate a behavior that they personally do not perform, they are motivated by cognitive dissonance to adopt more positive attitudes and behaviors toward the issue.

Stone has taught undergraduate-level and graduate-level courses that examine how implicit stereotypes and prejudice influence judgment and behavior, such as when medical professionals interact with minority patients or when fans watch a sporting event. To reduce stereotyping and prejudice, Stone's lab develops and tests the effectiveness of new strategies for changing bias, ranging from classroom workshops and online teaching modules to the subtle cues that members of stigmatized groups can display. Stone's work on the role of stereotypes in sports has been featured in programs on National Public Radio, the BBC, Newsweek and ABC Primetime.