David O. Sears

Dr. David O. Sears is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Political Science, former Dean of Social Sciences, and former Director of the Institute for Social Science Research, all at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Sears received his B.A. in History from Stanford University, his Ph.D. in Personality and Social Psychology from Yale University in 1962, and since then has taught at UCLA. His general research interests are in social psychology; political psychology; public opinion; intergroup conflict; attitudes and the life cycle. He has held visiting faculty positions at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, has been a Fellow at the Brookings Institution and twice at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and has been a Guggenheim Fellow. In 1991, he was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; in 1992, President of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics; and in 1994, President of the International Society of Political Psychology. His books include Public Opinion (1964, with Robert E. Lane), The Politics of Violence: The New Urban Blacks and the Watts Riot (1973, with John B. McConahay), Tax Revolt: Something for Nothing in California (1982, with Jack Citrin), Political Cognition (1986, edited with Richard R. Lau), Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America (2000, edited with Jim Sidanius and Lawrence Bobo), Social Psychology (12 editions from 1970 to 2006, with Shelley E. Taylor and L. Anne Peplau), Obama’s Race: The 2008 Election and the Dream of a Post-Racial America (2010, with Michael Tesler), the Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, (2 editions from 2003 to 2013, edited with Leonie Huddy and Jack Levy), and American Identity and the Politics of Multiculturalism (2014, with Jack Citrin). He has published articles and book chapters on a wide variety of topics, including attitude change, public opinion, mass communications, ghetto riots, political socialization, voting behavior, and race and politics.