Roy F. Baumeister is the Eppes Eminent Professor of Psychology and head of the social psychology graduate program at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from Princeton in 1978 and did a postdoctoral fellowship in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley. Baumeister has worked at Case Western Reserve University, as well as the University of Texas, University of Virginia, Max-Planck-Institute, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Baumeister's has received research grants from the National Institutes of Health and from the Templeton Foundation. His research spans the areas of self and identity, self-regulation,… interpersonal rejection and the need to belong, sexuality and gender, aggression, self-esteem, meaning, and self-presentation. He is the author of nearly 400 publications. His books include Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty , The Cultural Animal , Meanings of Life and Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.
Kathleen D. Vohs, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. After receiving her PhD in psychological and brain sciences from Dartmouth College in 2000, Dr. Vohs conducted research at the University of Utah and Case Western Reserve University under a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Most recently, she held the Canada Research Chair in Marketing Science and Consumer Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Vohs has contributed over 60 professional publications, which focus on understanding processes related to self-regulation, self-esteem, interpersonal functioning, impulsive spending, impression management,… and bulimia. Her research has been extended to the domains of chronic dieting, sexuality, and personal finances. Eli J. Finkel, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University. After receiving his PhD in social psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001, Dr. Finkel served for 2 years as a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University under a grant from the National Institutes of Health. His research has examined the impact of self-processes (e.g., self-concept, self-regulatory dynamics, narcissistic entitlement) on relationships, and of relationship processes (e.g., interpersonal emotion expression, relationship commitment, social coordination) on the self. Dr. Finkel's most recent research focuses on the interplay between self and relationship dynamics in the first minutes, hours, and days of initial romantic attraction.