The Science of Social Influence

Anthony R. Pratkanis earned his Ph.D. in 1984 from the famed social psychology program at the Ohio State University. His research program has investigated such topics as the delayed effects of persuasion, attitudes and memory, groupthink, affirmative action, subliminal persuasion, mass communications, source credibility, persuasion and democracy, economic fraud, the use of influence in international conflicts, and a variety of influence tactics such as the pique technique, phantoms, the projection tactic, the 1-in-5 prize tactic, and altercasting.

He has appeared in the mass media over 500 times as an expert on social influence processes, has been called as an expert witness in numerous advertising deceptiveness cases, and served as a consultant to AARP, NASD, and other law enforcement and civic groups on countering the undue influence used in fraud crimes and to the United States military on countering the propaganda of terrorists and dictators.

He is the co-author (with Elliot Aronson) of Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion and (with Doug Shadel) of Weapons of Fraud: A Source Book for Fraud Fighters.

Anthony Pratkanis is the founding editor of Social Influence, a new scientific journal from Psychology Press.