Brett Pelham is a Program Director in the Social Psychology Program at the National Science Foundation, where he also participates in working groups on topics such as climate change, public understanding of science, and technology and education.
Prior to joining the National Science Foundation, Dr. Pelham was an associate professor of psychology at UCLA and then at the University at Buffalo. His past research focused on the self, social judgment, close relationships, stereotypes, and well-being, with a special emphasis on implicit processes such as implicit egotism. Just prior to joining NSF, Brett was a senior research analyst at Gallup.
His most recent work on implicit egotism focuses on moderators and mediators of preferences for people places and things that resemble the self (e.g., implicit self-esteem, culture, intuitive judgment styles). Other recent recent research, led by Mitsuru Shimizu, has focused on the role of culture in social support and health in 148 countries. He is also working on a project, led by Mauricio Carvallo, on the role of close relationships in perceived consensus for social beliefs (aka, the interpersonal false consensus effect). With Curtis Hardin and Steve Crabtree, he is working on a project that documents U.S. regional moderators of the contact effect in intergroup relations. Finally, he is working on a worldwide study of the connection between women's social status and women's life expectancy.