Tim Wilson

Timothy Decamp Wilson is a true luminary in the field of social psychology. His distinguished career, spanning nearly half a century, reflects his unwavering commitment to advancing our understanding of the complexities of human behavior. His pioneering work has delved into the intricacies of self-perception, social cognition, and decision-making processes, and the collective impact of his papers and books is nothing short of extraordinary, garnering over 75,000 citations.

Tim's journey in social psychology commenced with seminal publications as a graduate student at the University of Michigan, working alongside Dick Nisbett. This early research fundamentally altered our understanding of the human capacity for introspection, leaving an indelible mark on the field. Throughout his career, Tim—together with his postdoctoral researchers and students—has addressed profound questions such as "How do attitudes change?" "When do we mispredict our emotions?" "Why do we get bored?" and "What are the pleasures of thinking?" Each question he has tackled has resulted in the creation of new areas in psychology with rich theoretical frameworks that reshape our understanding of human behavior.

Throughout his career, Tim has garnered some of the highest accolades in Psychological Science. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, and he received the APS William James Fellow Award, honoring a "lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology." Tim's dedication to excellence has also been recognized by the receipt of the Thomas Jefferson Award for Excellence in Scholarship, the highest academic honor bestowed by the University of Virginia, and an All-University Outstanding Teaching Award.

Tim has also elegantly communicated science to the broader public through popular press books, essays, and public lectures. In doing so, he has bridged the gap between academia and society, raising awareness of the vital role of social psychology in advancing empirically-based interventions that make a positive impact. For example, in his book Redirect: Changing the Stories We Live By, Tim explores the profound impact of small interventions on altering an individual's personal narrative or "subjective meaning-making."

Finally, Tim has made immense contributions through teaching and mentorship. Over three decades, he has nurtured countless students, imparting not just knowledge but also the wisdom, ethics, and compassion that define a great mentor. His dedication to crafting scientists—guiding them in experimental design, data analysis, paper writing, and research communication—has been instrumental in shaping the careers of many successful researchers and educators who continue to uphold the legacy of his mentorship. 

Tim Wilson is a trailblazer, mentor, and visionary whose legacy continues to shape the landscape of social psychology. Our field is better for his contributions.

Tributes

Tim Wilson cares deeply about his students.  He taught me the importance of breaking problems down into more manageable pieces, staying curious, and striving for excellence.   I'm deeply appreciative of your mentorship.  I frequently think back to the lessons you taught me when I teach, when I write, and when I parent.  Thank you!

• – Cheryl Bac

Tim, thank you so much for your lifelong passion for social psychology. Your pioneering work on self-knowledge, affective forecasting, and thinking for pleasure, to name a few, has greatly enriched the field. You have taught me that social psychology is not only a fascinating discipline worthy of a lifetime devotion but also offers a way of living.

• – Hyewon Choi

It is a rare and special experience in life to have a chance to meet someone who has been a hero to you for many years. It is an even rarer experience to interact with that person and find that he is the most supportive and thoughtful colleague, advocate, and mentor you could ever hope to meet. I and so many of my colleagues have been lucky enough to have that experience with Tim Wilson. Tim is a giant in the field—the kind whose creativity and impact has, in many cases, single-handedly inspired new social psychologists to enter the field—but he would never let you find that out from him. Instead, you would only know that he is the kind of senior colleague who takes assistant professors out for a coffee every couple of weeks "just to check in," who reads junior scholars' work and delivers thoughtful comments a day later, and who does everything he can to make new social psychologists feel welcomed and valued. I am forever grateful that my professional life led me to cross paths with Tim Wilson. And I am so pleased that we get to celebrate him here.  

• – Benjamin Converse

I hesitated to write a tribute to Tim because, unlike so many of the tribute writers on this wall, I am not a recognizable name in this field, nor even a name in this field anymore. But I suspect Tim wouldn't care, which is part of what makes him so wonderful. His work is thoughtful, thought-provoking, and inspiring, to be sure, but what stands out most about him to me is how lightly he wears his accomplishments—how down-to-earth and genuinely kind he is. I'll always be grateful to him for shepherding me through grad school with the same consideration he gave to my tenure-track professorship-bound peers, even when it was clear that I was headed for industry. Never once did he seem disappointed in me or to lose interest, but offered support however he could, all the while continuing to invest as much time and attention as ever into our regular meetings. When I think back to grad school, and to the academic life I left behind, those meetings are hands-down what I miss most. I may not have as much to compare them to as if I'd continued on in academia, but to be able to sit down with Tim for an hour each week and speculate about human nature, things we've observed in ourselves or others, what might be driving them... it's hard to imagine it gets better than that.

• – Jane (Tucker) Derk

No PhD advisor is perfect. But I didn't learn this maxim until later in my career, because Tim Wilson was my PhD advisor, and he was—in a word—perfect. When I decided to attend UVA, I had envisioned that Tim would be my secondary advisor. Then, I experienced the magic of working with Tim. No matter what else was on his plate (and there was a lot!), Tim always seemed to be in a good mood, ready to give his students his full attention. He taught me how to think like a social psychologist. He encouraged me to ask big questions, even if those questions seemed a little weird, or didn't fit neatly into the existing literature. Before we started a lab experiment, he would come down to the lab and have me run him through the study, so that we could craft the exact psychological experience we wanted to study.  When we talked about new ideas or methodological finishing touches, he would smile, with a glint in his eye that I'll always remember.  My greatest wish would be to pass on to my own students the kind of support that Tim gave to me.

• – Liz Dunn

In 1991, I went to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, California to spend a sabbatical year sitting by myself in a little room with a lovely view while trying to be productive. It didn't go very well. One day I got an email from a fellow social psychologist whom I'd briefly met at a conference saying that by coincidence, he too was on sabbatical in Palo Alto, and that by coincidence, he too was sitting in a little room getting nothing done. Did I want to meet for lunch?

I don't remember exactly what Tim and I talked about that day. I just remember what talking to him was like. There are people who attack your ideas and people who applaud them, but Tim did both at once, poking a hole in whatever I said and then, before all the air leaked out, filling it with something fresh and interesting that I wouldn't have thought of myself. We talked a lot that year, and I came to realize that talking to Tim was what thinking would be like if only I were twice as smart.

It wasn't any wonder that we started collaborating, but what I didn't know at the time is that we would never stop. More than thirty years later, ours has probably been the most enduring partnership in the history of social psychology, and whenever people have asked me how it works—about the rules and roles and mutual agreements that govern the relationship—I have had to explain that there are none. We never discussed it. We just started working together one day, and it was so much fun that we forgot to stop. For decades, we wrote chapters, papers, and grants together. We traveled the world together and drank martinis together and cursed Reviewer 3 together. And in all those years of thinking, and writing, and editing each other's thinking and writing, not once—not once—did we argue. That will surprise those who know me, but not those who know Tim, because in addition to being the most brilliant and original social psychologist of his generation, he is also one of the kindest, gentlest, and most gracious humans on the planet. If you are arguing with Tim, there is something deeply wrong with you.

Tim Wilson has been my collaborator, my amigo, and my brother for so long that I can't remember life without him. Nor do I want to. I am grateful to have shared my intellectual journey with him, and honored to share this tribute with the field we both love.

• – Daniel Gilbert

Tim was a hugely helpful and inspiring mentor during my postdoc at Virginia, a critical time in the evolution of my interests. Although we never ended up publishing together, he helped me make sense of the research world and supported me in following my interests wherever they may lead. Of course, it's hard to underestimate his own contributions, years ahead of their time with a focus on exploring the limits of self-awareness. I'm honored to be able to support the next generation of scholars in his name, and wish him a fulfilling and rewarding emeritus career going forward!

• – Roger Giner-Sorolla

Tim Wilson is among the wisest people I've ever known. In the 16 years I was fortunate to spend as his colleague at UVA, I got to see him wrestle with many questions—as head of the social area, as a department chair, as an advisor and teacher of students, and as a fellow social psychologist trying to understand the social mind. He approached everything—every decision, every dilemma, every intellectual puzzle—with a combination of ethical principles, careful thinking, and a warm heart. Tim was a great mentor to me as an assistant professor, a great help in making the case for my tenure at UVA, and a great role model for how a professor should conduct himself. I am honored to join with so many social psychologists in honoring Tim's enormous contributions to our field, and to our lives.

• – Jonathan Haidt

Tim is not only incredibly insightful and pioneering, but also kind, generous, and humble. His work is in a league of its own and so is his personality. Everyone who crosses paths with him is inspired to be a better version of themselves. 

• – Quinn Hirschi

Tim Wilson is a great social psychologist. He balances on the one side the discipline, intelligence, conscientiousness, and rigor of an elite scientist, with the keen eye, wonder, and even—dare I say it?—whimsy of someone who is clearly entertained by human behavior. Working in a sub-area of social psychology that has been known to sometimes get a little too carried away with naming the new “bias of the week” or caring disproportionately about phenomena that can be portrayed as counterintuitive, Tim has always been deeply invested in the truth, with a gift for explaining it in ways that make for memorable stories about important aspects of how people think, decide, and rationalize.

When I started working as a graduate student with Tim, he was barely into his second decade as a faculty member (I remember his 40th birthday—his faculty colleagues brought him black balloons, which they thought was hilarious). He was highly respected then, but not “famous” the way he is now. I like to think of my choice to work with him as a very wise investment on my part—kind of like buying stock in Apple in the 1980s. Observing him now over many years, I am struck by how he’s stayed so humble and sincere and polite to those around him. 

I worked with Tim during the “reasons analysis” era – when Tim was publishing papers demonstrating how people’s attempts at introspection often hurt their decisions and judgment. After I graduated from Tim’s lab, when I met people who knew his work but not him personally, I was always highly amused that they assumed he must be a devoted practitioner of “gut-based” choices and not someone who faithfully consulted Consumer Reports prior to making most purchases. 

Tim has masterfully mentored, edited, and encouraged so many of us. As a prospective graduate student at UVa, I stayed with two of Tim’s other doctoral students. They were clearly enthusiastic and satisfied lab members, but they warned me: “Tim will never scold you for not working hard enough, but you will always feel like you’re not working hard enough, because of how hard HE works.” How true! Even when I really screwed up, he’d just say, “Oh well—live and learn” and boy, did I ever! I find myself reciting truths I learned from him long ago (like no matter what you think, there’s rarely ever such a thing as a “quick” study). 

Tim is the kind of scientist who helps the rest of us explain to our family and friends what we do as social psychologists. His work—including his books and popular press writings—makes it cool to do what we do. And his research has been enormously important in advancing and enriching our field.

• – Sara Hodges

Having a mentor like Tim in graduate school was such a priceless experience. Tim is kind, generous, funny, and wise. I learned so much about not only designing studies but also using social psychology as a way to understand the world.

• – Lindsay Juarez

I am truly grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to work with him as a Ph.D. student at UVA. In our JPSP paper, we explored the positive impact of engaging in counterfactual thinking about positive events on people's happiness, specifically contemplating what might have occurred had those events not happened.  Reflecting on what my own life might have been like if I had not met him and had the chance to work with him greatly enhances my happiness. In another paper we worked on together, we developed interventions to help people drive less. Both papers have inspired me to delve deeper into research aimed at improving the well-being of people and the environment. His mentorship has taught me a great deal, from enhancing my writing skills to shaping my work ethic. He is such a great role model for me, both as a scholar and as a person of humility and kindness.  

• – Minkyung Koo

Tim was about a year out of graduate school when I became his (first?) advisee, so I have been privileged to witness over these many years (yikes, so many years!) all the extraordinary contributions Tim has made to our discipline that have rightfully earned him a place on SPSP’s Heritage Wall. Most will be well acquainted with the singular brilliance of his scholarly work and the significant impact it has had not only on psychological theory and research, but also on that of a number of related scientific disciplines. [I note too that Tim is that relatively rare scholar with the ability to cogently translate esoteric ideas into a form that can be readily digested, understood, and appreciated by laypersons.] Most will be unaware, however, of Tim’s enduring influence on this particular psychologist. I felt then as now supremely fortunate that Tim elected to take on the challenging role of mentor during my doctoral training first at Duke and then at UVA. It was during this formative period that Tim was able to skillfully, warmly, and patiently pull off a bit of a Pygmalion transformation of a naïve, sometimes overly feisty but well-meaning, neophyte into someone with a chance to have a successful career as an academic social psychologist; a not-so-small accomplishment for which I will always be grateful. Finally, Tim was not only an amazing professional role model; he also demonstrated through his behavior and manner how to be a kind, generous, humble, and supportive human being. Perhaps this is his greatest legacy to all of us lucky enough to call him mentor.

• – Dan Lassiter

As everyone knows, Tim is an amazing researcher. What many might not know is that he is also an amazing teacher, mentor, and colleague. He is a big-shot who acts like an ordinary Joe. Always, for real. I arrived in Charlottesville in 2004 as an assistant professor. At that time, Stacey Sinclair, Brian Nosek, and I were assistant professors, and Jon Haidt was an associate professor there. I think all the junior professors at UVA thrived under Tim's leadership in large part because Tim did a lot of tedious committee work, grad admissionetc., and made sure that all of us junior professors could do what we wanted and needed to do (research!). On a personal note, Tim and Dede kindly invited my family for their Thanksgiving dinner year after year. Our kids would not have known what Thanksgiving is and what it means to Americans without Tim and Dede. Tim also gave a lot of baseball tips (he was a pitcher at Williams College) and encouragement to my kids, too, for which all of us are still grateful. 

• – Shige Oishi

Young psychologists—Read the tributes on this wall and look at the career of Tim Wilson. Tim is the kind of scholar and person that you should emulate in constructing your career and life. You see before you someone who has published groundbreaking theoretical work using creative methods. At the same time, his research and papers have influenced the real world in meaningful ways. He has been a strong, yet self-effacing leader in his department and university while helping to build the field of social psychology. He's a man of unquestioned integrity who is loved by his students and colleagues. Tim and I started out together at UVA. My wife Ruth and I have always considered Tim and Dede two of our favorite people in the world. It's been an honor and joy to know and work with you both.

• – Jamie Pennebaker

Hey Amigo, Words fail….  An overused expression but one that would have made a fine title for one of our papers. It is impossible to express the innumerable ways in which the fabric of my life has been enriched by intertwining with yours. So many poignant times: the exhilaration of our collaborations, the comradery of the four amigos, the countless wonderful conservations.  Happily, hearts can understand even when words fall short. So glad that you know how important you are to me as a mentor, a model, and an amigo. With love and admiration, Jonathan.

• – Jonathan Schooler

I had the honor of having an office next to Tim's for 6 years of grad school at the University of Virginia. I felt awestruck to see this giant in the field walk in every day with humility and a bike helmet. Despite his accomplishments, Tim was always down to Earth, no ego. I aspire to someday match his open-mindedness to new research ideas and ability to see problems from every angle, even if that angle was in direct opposition to his prior findings. Thank you for inspiring me!

• – Thomas Talhelm

Whenever I try to communicate Tim's character to those who have not had the fortune of meeting, knowing, or being advised by him, I always return to one statement (which, luckily for everybody, was not my own). Early in grad school, I met and was speaking with Greg Walton. When I mentioned that Tim Wilson was my advisor, he looked me in the eyes and said, quite seriously, "Tim is an incredible force for good." I simply cannot think of a better way to say it.

• – Lee Williams

It has been an unforgettable privilege to begin my psychology career in an office next door to Tim Wilson's. Tim epitomizes the creative experimentalist. He has such a talent for translating profound, intriguing, and unexpected research questions into lab experiments rich in psychological realism. Because of this, and because he is such a gifted educator, writer, and mentor, the field of social psychology has Tim's fingerprints all over it. More than once I've had the embarrassing experience of realizing that I'm referencing a study (to Tim's face) that he authored. But if you're going to make a fool of yourself in front of an academic hero, it might as well be Tim. A kinder, gentler, more generous colleague does not exist. I am so grateful to you, Tim, for your ongoing support.

• – Adrienne Wood