Brad J. Bushman, Ph.D. | Professor of Communication, The Ohio State University (original) (raw)

• I am the Incoming Editor for the American Psychological Association (APA) journal Psychology of Violence
• I am the Executive Secretary for the International Society for Research on Aggression
• Watch my TEDx talk on “Hangry” = Hungry + Angry (18:56)
• Watch my interview about guns and aggressive driving on Morgan Freeman’s “Through the Wormhole” program (2:11)
• Listen to my interview Why Am I So Angry? with CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta (28:26)
• Read one of my articles in Psychology Today (> 825,000 reads)
• Read one of my articles in The Conversation (> 400,000 reads)

Contact

Brad J. Bushman, Ph.D.
The Ohio State University
School of Communication
3016 Derby Hall
154 North Oval Mall
Columbus, OH 43210
USA
Phone: +1 (614) 688 – 8779
Email: bushman.20@osu.edu
Bluesky: bradjbushman.bsky.social
Twitter/X: @BradJBushman

I am not currently accepting new graduate student advisees.

Education

Ph.D (Psychology), 1989, University of Missouri
M.A. (Statistics), 1990, University of Missouri
M.A. (Psychology), 1987, University of Missouri
M.Ed. (Secondary Education), 1985, Utah State University
B.S. (Psychology), 1984, Weber State University

Research

Curriculum Vitae: CV Google Scholar citations: > 70,000 citations (h-index = 117, which means that 117 of my publications have at least 117 citations; i10-index = 258, which means that 258 of my publications have at least 10 citations). My citation rate puts me in the top 0.05% of all scholars worldwide. I am ranked #2 in aggression, #4 in violence, #8 in video games, #2 in communication, #61 in social psychology, #496 in psychology, #539 in the social sciences, #5757 across all disciplines, and #42 among all scholars at The Ohio State University.
ResearchGate > 850,000 reads (research interest score > 99%)
Social Psychology Network page: > 100,000 visits (rank #24)
Psychwire profile
ORCID: 0000-0002-1266-5101

Teaching

Communication in Society (COMM 1100)
Social Psychology (PSYCH 3325)
Violence in Society and Violence in the Media (COMM 3442)
Meta-Analysis (COMM 7715)

Quick Introduction

I received my Ph.D. in psychology in 1989 from the University of Missouri. I am a professor of communication at The Ohio State University; our department is ranked #1 in the USA and #2 in the world! Previously, I was a professor at the University of Michigan and Iowa State University. I have held visiting professor positions at the Vrije Universiteit (Free University) Amsterdam, the University of Luxembourg, and the Warsaw School of Social Psychology. For over 30 years I have studied the causes, consequences, and cures for aggression and violence. I am the Incoming Editor for the American Psychological Association (APA) journal Psychology of Violence. I am the Executive Secretary for the International Society for Research on Aggression. I was a member of President Obama’s committee on gun violence. Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, I co-chaired a National Science Foundation report on youth violence and testified before the U.S. Congress on that report. An article based on that report was published in American Psychologist. Following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, I co-chaired an International Society for Research on Aggression committee report on youth violence, which was published in Aggressive Behavior. I received an Ig Nobel prize for research showing that that the “beer goggles” work both ways (i.e., drunk people not only view others as more attractive, they also view themselves as more attractive). I have received three APA research awards: (1) Morton Deutsch Conflict Resolution Award “For (my) contributions to the integration of theory and practice in the field of conflict resolution as well as (my) prominent work on the causes, consequences, and cures to the problem of human aggression and violence, especially to end gun violence,” (2) Kurt Lewin Award for “outstanding contributions to the development and integration of psychological research and social action,” and (3) Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Media Psychology and Technology Award for producing a “sustained body of work that has had a major impact on the public and the profession of media psychology and technology.” I also gave the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scholar Lecture for Teaching, which is “the premiere lecture delivered by teachers of psychology.” I am a Fellow of several associations, including the International Communication Association (ICA), the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and APA. I have published over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles, which have been cited over 65,000 times. My research has challenged several myths (e.g., guns make people safer; venting anger reduces aggression; aggressive people suffer from low self-esteem; violence and sex sell products). One of my colleagues calls me the “myth buster.” My research has been repeatedly funded by grants (e.g., CDC, NSF, NIH), has been published in the top scientific and medical journals (e.g., Science, PNAS, JAMA), and has been featured extensively in the mass media (e.g., BBC, NPR, New York Times).

Take Home Message

After doing research on aggression and violence for over 30 years, I have concluded that the most harmful belief people can have is the belief that they are superior to others (e.g., their religion, race or ethnicity, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, political party or ideology, school, city, state, country, etc. is the best). This feeling of superiority can lead to mistreatment of others, which hurts society as a whole. Every person on this planet is part of the human family; no person is superior to any other person.