Marilynn B. Brewer

After retiring as Professor Emerita of Psychology at Ohio State University in 2008, Marilynn Brewer spent 10 years living in Sydney Australia as Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales until returning to the U.S. in 2019 where she now lives in Santa Barbara, California. Prior to coming to OSU, Dr. Brewer was Professor of Psychology and Director of the Institute for Social Science Research at UCLA. She has conducted research in the areas of social cognition, social identity, and intergroup relations. Her field work established that ethnocentrism is characterized by universally positive evaluation of ingroups (ingroup love), but not necessarily hostility toward outgroups.She has also conducted experiments that indicated that intergroup discrimination is driven primarily by ingroup favoritism rather than outgroup derogation. Additionally, she has developed the optimal distinctiveness theory of group identification, postulating that attachment to groups is regulated by opposing motives for inclusion and differentiation. During her career, Dr. Brewer has served as President of the American Psychological Society (1993-1995), and as President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (1990-91) and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (1984-85). She is a recipient of the 1995 Kurt Lewin Award from SPSSI, the Donald T. Campbell Award for Distinguished Research in Social Psychology in 1992, and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology in 2004. She has served as editor of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review, and as Associate Editor of Psychological Review. In 2007, she was awarded a Distinguished Scientific Contribution award from the American Psychological Association.