Miller Center of Public Affairs flickr page, Charlottesville, VA · CC BY 2.0

A social psychologist whose moral foundations theory reframed political disagreement as a clash between different sets of instinctive moral values rather than simple ignorance or bad faith, reshaping how psychologists study ideology. His books, including The Righteous Mind and 2024's The Anxious Generation, which argues smartphone use has driven a rise in adolescent mental illness, have made him one of the field's most widely read popularizers, though critics have disputed some of his methods and conclusions.