Aronson joins names like B. F. Skinner, who topped the list, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, and Albert Bandura.
With typical self-deprecating humor, Aronson commented, "I only got ranked 78th, but then again, I am among the 22 who are still alive--so I'm grateful for that!"
One of the most distinguished social psychologists of our time, Aronson made major contributions to the field of human behavior, exploring the theory of cognitive dissonance and the causes of interpersonal attraction. His research always addressed important social problems, including prejudice reduction, energy conservation, and AIDS prevention.
The study, reported in the July/August issue, Vol. 6, No. 2, ranked 99 of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century, based on the frequency of three variables: journal citation, introductory psychology textbook citation, and survey response.
Surveys were sent to 1,725 members of the American Psychological Society, asking them to list the top psychologists of the century. In their ranking, researchers also took into account whether the psychologists were members of the National Academy of Sciences, had been elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA) or received the APA Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, and whether their surname was used as an eponym.
Cathaleene Macias, a mental health researcher at McLean Hospital at Harvard University and a former student of Aronson's, credits Aronson with moving psychology "into a new dimension that blends the best of analytical thinking and research rigor with the practical thinking of everyday life."
Aronson applied theory to real-world problems and presented his work in language that was accessible to the public. He challenged psychologists and other social scientists to adopt research designs that allowed theory to be adapted to the specifics of everyday life, she said.
"He taught the rest of us that there is nothing so practical as a theory that's been honed by research and examined by the heart," said Macias.
Aronson joined the UCSC faculty in 1974. He began teaching at Harvard University in 1959 and moved in 1962 to the University of Minnesota. He joined the University of Texas in 1965. His textbook, The Social Animal, remains among the most popular texts in social psychology.
The complete list of the top psychologists of the 20th century is reprinted below. Continuing a tradition begun by researcher Eugene Garfield, who compiled a Top 100 list in 1977 and left the No. 100 spot open, researchers deliberately left No. 100 unnamed to leave room for an accomplished individual.
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1. B. F. Skinner - 2. Jean Piaget
- 3. Sigmund Freud
- 4. Albert Bandura
- 5. Leon Festinger
- 6. Carl R. Rogers
- 7. Stanley Schachter
- 8. Neal E. Miller
- 9. Edward Thorndike
- 10. A. H. Maslow
- 11. Gordon W. Allport
- 12. Erik H. Erikson
- 13. Hans J. Eysenck
- 14. William James
- 15. David C. McClelland
- 16. Raymond B. Cattell
- 17. John B. Watson
- 18. Kurt Lewin
- 19. Donald O. Hebb
- 20. George A. Miller
- 21. Clark L. Hull
- 22. Jerome Kagan
- 23. Carl G. Jung
- 24. Ivan P. Pavlov
- 25. Walter Mischel
- 26. Harry F. Harlow
- 27. J. P. Guilford
- 28. Jerome S. Bruner
- 29. Ernest R. Hilgard
- 30. Lawrence Kohlberg
- 31. Martin E. P. Seligman
- 32. Ulric Neisser
- 33. Donald T. Campbell
- 34. Roger Brown
- 35. R. B. Zajonc
- 36. Endel Tulving
- 37. Herbert A. Simon
- 38. Noam Chomsky
- 39. Edward E. Jones
- 40. Charles E. Osgood
- 41. Solomon E. Asch
- 42. Gordon H. Bower
- 43. Harold H. Kelley
- 44. Roger W. Sperry
- 45. Edward C. Tolman
- 46. Stanley Milgram
- 47. Arthur R. Jensen
- 48. Lee J. Cronbach
- 49. John Bowlby
- 50. Wolfgang Köhler
- 51. David Wechsler
- 52. S. S. Stevens
- 53. Joseph Wolpe
- 54. D. E. Broadbent
- 55. Roger N. Shepard
- 56. Michael I. Posner
- 57. Theodore M. Newcomb
- 58. Elizabeth F. Loftus
- 59. Paul Ekman
- 60. Robert J. Sternberg
- 61. Karl S. Lashley
- 62. Kenneth Spence
- 63. Morton Deutsch
- 64. Julian B. Rotter
- 65. Konrad Lorenz
- 66. Benton Underwood
- 67. Alfred Adler
- 68. Michael Rutter
- 69. Alexander R. Luria
- 70. Eleanor E. Maccoby
- 71. Robert Plomin
- 72.5.* G. Stanley Hall
- 72.5. Lewis M. Terman
- 74.5.* Eleanor J. Gibson
- 74.5. Paul E. Meehl
- 76. Leonard Berkowitz
- 77. William K. Estes
- 78. Elliot Aronson
- 79. Irving L. Janis
- 80. Richard S. Lazarus
- 81. W. Gary Cannon
- 82. Allen L. Edwards
- 83. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky
- 84. Robert Rosenthal
- 85. Milton Rokeach
- 88.5.* John Garcia
- 88.5. James J. Gibson
- 88.5. David Rumelhart
- 88.5. L. L. Thurston
- 88.5. Margaret Washburn
- 88.5. Robert Woodworth
- 93.5.* Edwin G. Boring
- 93.5. John Dewey
- 93.5. Amos Tversky
- 93.5. Wilhelm Wundt
- 96. Herman A. Witkin
- 97. Mary D. Ainsworth
- 98. Orval Hobart Mowrer
- 99. Anna Freud
* Numbers with .5 indicate a tie in the ranking. In these cases, the mean is listed.