Claude M. Steele Named Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

APS Past Board Member Claude M. Steele was elected as the 2017 Gordon Allport Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS). AAPSS, founded in 1889 at the University of Pennsylvania, was established to encourage and recognize the role of interdisciplinary social science in addressing social issues.

AAPSS Fellows are elected in recognition of their lifetime scientific contributions. Steele, a social psychologist, was recognized for, among many other factors, his work on stereotype threat and its application to minority student academic performance, as well as his book, Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do.

Each AAPSS Fellowship is named after a distinguished scholar. Steele was named the 2017 Gordon Allport Fellow after one of the founders of the field of personality psychology.

In remarks written for the induction ceremony, James S. Jackson commended Steele for his contributions to the understanding of human behavior:

“Claude, your work and that of your phenomenal array of colleagues and students grabbed the attention of an entire generation of social scientists. From thousands of experimental and intervention studies from all over the world inspired by your work has emerged a new understanding of the malleability of human abilities, the power of the social groups of which we are members, and the coping strategies that members of stigmatized groups use to protect the integrity of the self,” said Jackson, an APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow, member of the US National Science Board, and also an AAPSS Fellow himself.

“You have gone beyond a traditional, narrow academic career and have touched a broad array of academic disciplines, public policy makers, media, and government in bringing the powerful concepts of stereotype threat and its invidious effects on the lives and performance of a wide variety of negatively stereotyped groups in our society. The concept has truly entered the public consciousness of the nation and world—a truly remarkable achievement,” he said.

Steele joins leaders of APS and other notable psychological scientists who have been named as Fellows of AAPSS besides Jackson, including: APS Past President Mahzarin R. Banaji, APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow Carol S. Dweck, APS Past President Susan T. Fiske, APS Fellow Howard E. Gardner, APS Past President Elizabeth F. Loftus, APS Fellow Terrie E. Moffitt, APS William James Fellow Steven A. Pinker, APS Past Secretary Robert Plomin, APS William James Fellow and James McKeen Cattell Fellow Martin E. P. Seligman, and APS William James Fellow Shelley E. Taylor.

Steele and the other AAPSS Fellows named above have made their contributions in part through their committed efforts to collaborate with scientists from other disciplines to apply their research to society’s biggest problems.

Read the announcement of Steele’s election to the AAPSS here.

To learn more about Claude M. Steele, watch his “Inside the Psychologist’s Studio” interview.