Carol tavris biography
Dr. Carol Tavris
Current Position
Author and Lecturer
Highest Degree
Ph.D. in Social Psychology from University of Michigan, 1971
Online Media
Dr. Carol Tavris's work as a writer, teacher, and lecturer has been devoted to educating the public about psychological science. Her book with Elliot Aronson, "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by ME): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts" (third edition, 2020, with a new chapter--"Dissonance, Democracy, and the Demagogue"), applies cognitive dissonance theory to a wide variety of topics, including politics, conflicts of interest, memory (everyday and "recovered"), the criminal justice system, police interrogation, the daycare sex-abuse epidemic, family quarrels, international conflicts, business--and the vexing problem of political polarization. Her latest book, with oncologist Avrum Bluming, is "Estrogen Matters: Why taking hormones in menopause can improve and lengthen women's lives--without raising the risk of breast cancer" (Little, Brown Spark, updated and revised 2024). Although a book on hormone therapy might seem a departure, she is the social-psychologist half of that team, and her contributions to the medical evidence that Dr. Bluming presents is to add the science, politics, and ideology behind hormone replacement therapy--with a focus on what the evidence shows is best for women's health.
She has spoken to students, psychologists, mediators, lawyers, judges, physicians, business executives, and general audiences on, among other topics, self-justification; science and pseudoscience in psychology; gender and sexuality; critical thinking; anger; and, most recently, hormone therapy for women in menopause and beyond. In the legal arena, Dr. Tavris has given many addresses and workshops to attorneys and judges on the difference between testimony based on good psychological science and that based on pseudoscience and subjective clinical opinion.
Dr. Tavris has writt
Carol Tavris
American psychologist (born 1944)
Carol Anne Tavris (born September 17, 1944) is an American social psychologist and feminist. She has devoted her career to writing and lecturing about the contributions of psychological science to the beliefs and practices that guide people's lives, and to criticizing "psychobabble," "biobunk," and pseudoscience. Her many writings have dealt with critical thinking, cognitive dissonance, anger, gender, and other topics in psychology.
Tavris received a B.A. in comparative literature and sociology from Brandeis University and a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan. She has taught psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles and the New School for Social Research. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Tavris is also a member of the editorial board of Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Her articles, book reviews, and op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, The Times Literary Supplement, Scientific American, and other publications. In 2014 she began writing a column for Skeptic under the heading The Gadfly.
Early life
In an interview with The Skeptics Society, Tavris describes her early life. She grew up in Los Angeles, California, with her parents, Sam and Dorothy Tavris, secular Jews who promoted and practiced critical thinking and equality for women. She was encouraged to argue and discuss everything with them, from household rules to religion. Her parents gave her books about successful women—ranging from Phillis Wheatley to Susan B. Anthony—and her father taught her poetry and storytelling. Her grandparents were Russian Jews who emigrated to Chicago in the early 1900s. Her mother, who earned a law degree at 21, became t Dr. Carol Tavris's work as a writer, teacher, and lecturer has been devoted to educating the public about psychological science. Her latest book, with Elliot Aronson, is Mistakes were made (but not by me), which applies cognitive dissonance theory to a wide variety of topics, including politics, conflicts of interest, memory (everyday and "recovered"), the criminal justice system, police interrogation, the daycare sex-abuse epidemic, family quarrels, international conflicts, and business. She has spoken to students, psychologists, mediators, lawyers, judges, physicians, business executives, and general audiences on, among other topics, self-justification; science and pseudoscience in psychology; gender and sexuality; critical thinking; and anger. In the legal arena, she has given many addresses and workshops to attorneys and judges on the difference between testimony based on good psychological science and that based on pseudoscience and subjective clinical opinion. Collection: Carol Tavris
Carol Tavris Keynote Speaker
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Carol Tavris's Biography
Dr. Carol Tavris’s work as a social psychologist, writer, teacher, and lecturer has been devoted to promoting psychological science and critical thinking in improving our lives.
Her book with Elliot Aronson, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by ME): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts (revised edition, 2015, and most recently updated in 2020 with a new chapter–(Dissonance, Democracy, and the Demagogue), applies cognitive dissonance theory to a wide variety of topics, including politics, conflicts of interest, memory (everyday and “recovered”), the criminal justice system, police interrogation, the daycare sex-abuse epidemic, family quarrels, international conflicts, and business. Her latest book, with oncologist Avrum Bluming, is “Estrogen Matters” (Little, Brown Spark, 2018). She is also author of the award-winning The Mismeasure of Woman: Why women are not the better sex, the inferior sex, or the opposite sex. In addition to writing essays and book reviews, she contributes a column for Skeptic magazine, The Gadfly.
Dr Tavris has spoken to students, psychologists, mediators, lawyers, judges, and general audiences on, among other topics, self-justification; science and pseudoscience in psychology; gender and sexuality; critical thinking; and anger.
She is a Charter Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Her honors and awards include the 2014 Media Achievement Award from SPSP; an honorary doctorate from Simmons college in 2013; the Distinguished Media Contribution Award from the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology (for The Mismeasure of Woman), the Heritage Publications Award from Division 35 of the American Psychological Association (for The Mismeasure of Woman), the “Movers and Shakers” Award from Southern Califor