Michael McCullough (born July 27, 1969) is an American psychologist and author. He received a PhD from

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...

in 1995 and an honorary doctorate from the

University of Louvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...

(UCLouvain) in 2015. He is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, where he directs the Evolution and Human Behavior Laboratory. He studies the functions of human behavior and emotions using the conceptual tools of

evolutionary psychology Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regard to the ancestral problems they evolved ...

and

cognitive science Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...

. He has conducted research on the measurement of forgiveness, empathy, altruism, prosocial life goals, and early life experience. He is the author of ''The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code'' (Basic Books, 2020) and ''Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct'' (2008, Jossey-Bass).

Selected bibliography

* ''The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code''. Michael McCullough. Basic Books, 2020. * ''Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct''. Michael McCullough. Jossey-Bass, 2008. , * ''The Psychology of Gratitude''. Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (Eds., 2004). New York: Oxford Press.

References

University of Miami faculty Psychologists of religion Living people 1969 births {{US-psychologist-stub