BIOGRAPHY

"The breadth of Epstein's explorations
has left us all with a great deal to do."
Carl D. Cheney, Professor of Psychology,
Utah State University

ROBERT EPSTEIN is an author, editor, and longtime psychology researcher and professor—a distinguished scientist who is passionate about educating the public about advances in mental health and the behavioral sciences. The former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, Dr. Epstein is currently Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. He is also the founder and Director Emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies in Massachusetts.

"Epstein is an extremely broad-gauged,
dynamic, indeed charismatic figure."
William J. McGill, President Emeritus,
Columbia University

Through 2003, he served as University Research Professor at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. He received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1981 from Harvard University.

"My major contact with Epstein was
in the laboratory. It was he who got me
back into research after a break of nearly
two decades. Our work was, I believe,
extraordinarily important."
B. F. Skinner, Edgar Pierce Professor
of Psychology Emeritus, Harvard University

He has hosted a number of psychology-related radio programs, most recently a show called Psyched!®, which aired throughout the U.S. and Canada on Sirius/XM Radio between 2005 and 2008. In connection with the magazine or his radio programs, Dr. Epstein has interviewed many notable people, including Laura Bush, Jimmy Carter, Tipper Gore, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, Christie Brinkley, Sally Field, Jamie Lee Curtis, Maria Shriver, Sarah Ferguson, and Steve Allen.

"Dr. Epstein is an engaging, concerned
human being, brilliant, visionary, but at the
same time practical.... by far the youngest
person I have met to have earned the title
'emeritus,' a title which he richly deserved
after ten years as Founder, Executive
Director and Trustee of the Cambridge
Center for Behavioral Studies."
Arthur L. Loeb, Senior Lecturer on Visual and
Environmental Studies, Harvard University

His research on creativity and innovation has been featured in Time magazine, the New York Times, and Discover, as well as on national and international radio and television. He has published more than 350 articles, including scientific articles in Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). His 2015 report on the discovery of the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) has been downloaded or accessed from PNAS's website more then 100,000 times. SEME has been replicated multiple times since 2015. Dr. Epstein has also conducted pioneering research on creativity, adolescent and adult competence, voter manipulation, self-control, relationship skills, sexual orientation, and other topics, and a seminal article he wrote for The Washington Post helped stimulate a worldwide call for an armistice on January 1, 2000. He has also developed a number of unique online competency tests which are taken by more than a million people a year. 

"During my tenure as Department Chair,
our staff in charge of undergraduate
affairs were virtually inundated with
students coming to them raving about
Epstein's class, and asking that he be
hired to teach future classes."
Ben A. Williams, Professor of Psychology,
University of California San Diego

Epstein's 15 books include Teen 2.0: Saving Our Children and Families from the Torment of Adolescence (cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 in the case Graham v. Florida); Parsing the Turing Test: Philosophical and Methodological Issues in the Quest for the Thinking Computer (with Grace Beber and Gary Roberts); The Big Book of Motivation Games (with Jessica Rogers); The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen (an earlier version of Teen 2.0); The Big Book of Stress Relief Games; The Big Book of Creativity Games; Creativity Games for Trainers; Stress-Management and Relaxation Activities for Trainers; Cognition, Creativity, and Behavior: Selected Essays; The New Psychology Today Reader; Pure Fitness: Body Meets Mind (with Lori "Ice" Fetrick of the American Gladiators); Self-Help Without the Hype; and Irrelativity. He is also the editor of two books of writings by the eminent psychologist, B. F. Skinner—Skinner for the Classroom and Notebooks—with whom Epstein collaborated at Harvard.

"Although trained by Skinner, Epstein's
scientific interests and research seem
distinctly non-Skinnerian; in fact, they're
difficult to pigeonhole into any category.
His work on creativity has all the rigor of
the best experimental work in the field,
and yet it has the richness and depth of
Gestalt, cognitive, and lay perspectives
on creativity."
Joseph R. Cautela, author,
Covert Conditioning Handbook

He has taught at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Boston University, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the University of California San Diego, the HAL College of Technology and Design (Japan), the University of the South Pacific, and other universities. Dr. Epstein also served as Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Psychology at National University, where he was subsequently appointed Research Professor. From 1990 to 1995, he directed the Loebner Prize Competition in Artificial Intelligence, an annual contest in which human intelligence is pitted against machine intelligence. The contest was eventually held each year at Bletchley Park in the UK, where computer pioneer Alan Turing built the computing machine used to break the German Enigma code in World War II. 

"Dr. Epstein is a major figure in the area
of learning and motivation, excelling as a
research scientist, an educator, an
administrator and also as one who has
made the basic tenets of conditioning
accessible to lay people."
Edmund Fantino, Professor of Psychology,
University of California San Diego

Dr. Epstein has been a commentator for NPR's "Marketplace," the Voice of America, and Disney Online, and his popular writings have appeared in Politico, TIME, U.S. News & World Report, Reader's Digest, The Washington Post, Psychology Today, Scientific American Mind, Good Housekeeping, Parenting, USA Today, The Hill, Aeon, and other magazines and newspapers.

"Epstein is one of a kind: a distinguished
research psychologist who effortly
bridges the gap between the laboratory
and the real world."
Suneet Wadhwa, founder of Engage.com
and co-founder of Snapfish.com

His upcoming books include Think Again: Mind Control in the Digital Age, and How to End It, Making Love: How People Learn to Love, and How You Can Too, and Small Plate, Lose Weight: Permanent Weight Loss, No Willpower Needed. Dr. Epstein is the father of five children. An autobiographical essay about his life and work appeared in 2006 in Perspectives on Psychological Science and can be downloaded here. You can listen to a 90-minute 2019 interview about Dr. Epstein's career on STEM Talk, "The Most Interesting People in the World of Science and Technology," accessible here.

His cutting-edge research on online manipulation is featured in the 2018 documentary film, "The Creepy Line," accessible at https://CreepyLine.org. His 160-minute 2022 interview on The Joe Rogan Experience can be viewed at https://EpsteinOnRogan.com. To view his 2019 testimony before a committee of the U.S. Congress, visit https://EpsteinTestimony.com (7-min. video).

Dr. Epstein can be reached at info@outinfrontpublicity.com.

"Epstein’s immense influence on
the field of psychology started early
and has never abated."
John T. Wixted, Chair,
Department of Psychology,
University of California San Diego

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