My research program focuses on the behavioral and mental construction of heroes, villains, underdogs, great leaders, martyrs, and dead legends. I have written two book on heroes, both co-authored with George Goethals. The first, published by Oxford University Press, is called Heroes: Who They Are and Why We Need Them. The second will be published by Routledge next year and is entitled Understanding Exceptional Leadership: A Taxonomy of 100 True Heroes.
Allison, S. T., Eylon, D., Beggan, J. K., & Bachelder, J. (2009). The demise of leadership: Positivity and negativity in evaluations of dead leaders. The Leadership Quarterly, 20, 115-129.
Eylon, D., & Allison, S. T. (2005). The frozen in time effect in evaluations of the dead. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1708-1717.
Goethals, G. R., & Allison, S. T. (2012). Making heroes: The construction of courage, competence and virtue. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology.
Kim, J., Allison, S. T., Eylon, D., Goethals, G., Markus, M., McGuire, H., & Hindle, S. (2008). Rooting for (and then abandoning) the underdog. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38, 2550-2573.
Other Publications:
Allison, S. T., & Burnette, J. (2010). Fairness and preference for underdogs and top dogs. In R. Kramer, A. Tenbrunsel, & M. Bazerman, (Eds.), Social Decision Making: Social Dilemmas, Social Values, and Ethical Judgments. New York: Psychology Press.
Allison, S. T., & Eylon, D. (2005). The demise of leadership: Death positivity biases in posthumous impressions of leaders. In D. Messick & R. Kramer (Eds.), The Psychology of Leadership: Some New Approaches (pp 295-317). New York: Erlbaum.
Allison, S. T., & Goethals, G. R. (2008). Deifying the dead and downtrodden: Sympathetic figures as exceptional leaders. In C. L. Hoyt, G. R. Goethals, & D. R. Forsyth (Eds.), Leadership at the crossroads: Psychology and leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Courses Taught:
Group Dynamics
Heroes and Villains
Research Methods and Statistical Analyses
Social Psychology
Group Dynamics
Heroes and Villains
Research Methods and Statistical Analyses
Social Psychology
Scott T. Allison Department of Psychology
University of Richmond
28 Westhampton Way
Richmond, VA 23173 United States
Phone: (804) 289-8127
Fax: (804) 287-1905
Last edited by profile holder: May 15, 2012
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