
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
We consistently underestimate how happy others are to assist.
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Nicholas Epley is the John Templeton Keller Professor of Behavior Science and Director of the Roman Family Center for Decision Research. He studies social cognition—how thinking people think about other thinking people—to understand why smart people so routinely misunderstand each other. He teaches an ethics and wellbeing course to MBA students called Designing a Good Life.
His research has appeared in more than two dozen empirical journals, been featured by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Wired, and National Public Radio, among many others, and has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Templeton Foundation. He has been awarded the 2008 Theoretical Innovation Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the 2011 Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association, the 2015 Book Prize for the Promotion of Social and Personality Science, and the 2018 Career Trajectory Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. Epley was named a "professor to watch" by the Financial Times, one of the "World's Best 40 under 40 Business School Professors" by Poets and Quants, and one of the 100 Most Influential in Business Ethics in 2015 by Ethisphere. He is the author of Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want.
Experimental study of social cognition; perspective taking; and intuitive human judgment.
Book
Epley, N. (2014, hardcover). Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Feel, Believe,
and Want. New York: Knopf.
Articles
Epley, N., Kumar, A., Dungan, J., & Echelbarger, M. (2023). A prosociality paradox: How
miscalibrated social cognition creates a misplaced barrier to prosocial action. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 32, 33–41.
Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2023). Undersociality is unwise. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 33
(1), 199-212.
Epley, N., Kardas, M., Zhao, X., Atir, S., & Schroeder, J. (2022). Undersociality: Miscalibrated
social cognition can inhibit social connection. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(5), 406-418.
Atir, S., Wald, K., & Epley, N. (2022). Talking to strangers is surprisingly informative.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(34), e2206992119.
Kardas, M., Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2022). Overly shallow?: Miscalibrated expectations create a
barrier to deeper conversation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122(3), 367–398.
Schroeder, J., & Epley, N. (2020). Demeaning: Dehumanizing others by minimizing the
importance of their psychological needs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119, 765-791.
Epley, N., & Kumar, A. (2019). How to design an ethical culture. Harvard Business
Review, 3, 144-150.
Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2018). Undervaluing gratitude: Expressors misunderstand the
consequences of showing appreciation. Psychological Science, 29, 1423-1435.
For a listing of research publications, please visit https://www.nicholasepley.com/publications.