Lee Ross

Lee David Ross (born 1942) is the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University and an influential social psychologist who has studied attributional biases, shortcoming in judgment and decision making, and barriers to conflict resolution, often with longtime collaborator Mark Lepper. Ross is known for his identification and explication of the fundamental attribution error and for the demonstration and analysis of other phenomena and shortcomings that have become standard topics in textbooks and in some cases, even popular media. His current interests include ongoing societal problems, in particular protracted inter-group conflicts, the individual and collective rationalization of evil, and the psychological processes that make it difficult to confront societal challenges. Ross has also gone beyond the laboratory to involve himself in conflict resolution and public peace processes in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, and other areas of the world.