Scott Plous is Professor of Psychology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and Founding Executive Director of Social Psychology Network, a nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to promote peace, social justice, and sustainable living through public education, research, and the advancement of psychology.
Scott holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University, where he subsequently completed a MacArthur Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in International Peace and Cooperation. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, and has received the American Psychological Foundation’s Charles L. Brewer Award for Distinguished Teaching and been named “Connecticut Professor of the Year” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
In 2013, Scott began teaching a free online Social Psychology class that has now enrolled more than one million students from over 200 countries. In that course as well as classes that he teaches at Wesleyan University, Scott uses a socially engaged style of instruction known as action teaching, in which students contribute to the welfare of others as part of the learning experience.
Scott’s research interests focus on prejudice and discrimination, decision making, information technology, and ethical issues surrounding the use of animals. Most recently, his research team developed eInterview.org, a website that conducts humanlike interviews by simulating text message exchanges with site visitors.
