Greg Walton is Associate Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Dr. Walton’s work is driven by his interest in how basic social-psychological processes contribute to major social problems and, thus, the opportunity to alter these processes to address such problems. Much of this work explores how psychological processes contribute to problems of inequality, such as how negative stereotypes and stigma change the social environment of school settings for minority-group members in ways that can undermine these students’ feelings of belonging and achievement. As part of this research, Dr. Walton develops novel psychological interventions for educational contexts, which target these processes in ways that increase student motivation, improve academic achievement, and reduce achievement gaps between minority and majority groups. His work has been featured in prestigious peer-reviewed journals such as Science, PNAS, Psychological Science, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and popular publications such as the New York Times.

Dr. Walton earned his A.B. in Philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale University. After graduate school, he worked for a year as a fellow in the Office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Waterloo prior to his appointment at Stanford.

Associated Publications