William D. Crano is Professor of Psychology at Claremont Graduate University. He received his A.B. from Princeton, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University were directed by Donald Campbell. He has served on the faculties of Michigan State, Texas A&M, and the University of Arizona.

His basic research is concerned with social influence, especially the impact of minorities on the beliefs and actions of the majority, and on the effects of self-interest on attitudes and actions. His applied research is concerned with the development of persuasive and instructional information to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to prevent drug abuse, in children and adolescents.

Outside the academy, he served as the Program Director in Social Psychology for the National Science Foundation, as Liaison Scientist for the Office of Naval Research, London, as NATO Senior Scientist, University of Southampton, and was a Fulbright Fellow to the Federal University-Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

He was founder/director of the Center for Evaluation and Assessment, Michigan State University, and directed the Public Policy Resources Laboratory of Texas A&M University.

Crano's research is currently funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. He has written 8 books, which have been translated into three languages, more than 20 book chapters, and more than 200 scholarly articles and scientific presentations.

He is the past president of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He serves on two review panels for the National Institutes of Health, and is on the editorial boards of three journals in social psychology and communication.

Primary Interests:

Applied Social Psychology
Group Processes
Health Psychology
Intergroup Relations
Persuasion, Social Influence
Research Methods, Assessment

Applied Social Psychology
Group Processes
Health Psychology

Intergroup Relations
Persuasion, Social Influence
Research Methods, Assessment

Books:

Journal Articles:

Crano, W. D. (2002). Milestones in the psychological analysis of social influence. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 4, 68-80.
Crano, W. D., & Chen, X. (1998). The leniency contract and persistence of majority and minority influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1437-1450.
Lehman, B. J., & Crano, W. D. (2002). The pervasive effects of vested interest on attitude-criterion consistency in political judgment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 101-112.
Ramirez, J. R., & Crano, W. D. (2003). Deterrence and incapacitation: An interrupted time series analysis of California's Three Strikes Law. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 110-144.
Ramirez, J. R., Crano, W. D., Quist, R., Burgoon, M., Alvaro, E. M., & Grandpre, J. (2004). Acculturation, familism, parental monitoring, and knowledge as predictors of marijuana and inhalant use in adolescents. Journal of Addictive Behaviors, 18, 3-11.
Ramirez, J. R., Crano, W. D., Quist, R., Burgoon, M., Alvaro, E. M., & Grandpre, J. (2002). Effects of fatalism and family communication on AIDS awareness variations in Native American and Anglo parents and children. Aids Education and Prevention, 14, 29-40.

Other Publications:

Crano, W. D. (2001). Directed social influence. In J. P. Forgas, K. D. Williams, & L. Wheeler (Eds.), The social mind: Cognitive and motivational perspectives on social behaviour (pp. 389-405). New York: Cambridge.
Crano, W. D. (2001). Social influence, social identity, and ingroup leniency. In C. K. W. De Dreu and N. K. De Vries (Eds.), Group consensus and minority influence: Implications for innovation (pp. 122-143). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Crano, W. D., & Burgoon, M. (2001). Vested interest theory and AIDS: Self-interest, social influence, and disease prevention. In F. Butera & G. Mugny (Eds.), Social Influence in social reality: Promoting individual and social change (pp. 277-289). Seattle, WA: Hogrefe & Huber.

Courses Taught:

Quasi-Experimental Design
Research Methods
Social Attitudes
Survey Research Methods
Techniques of Secondary Analysis

Quasi-Experimental Design
Research Methods
Social Attitudes

Survey Research Methods
Techniques of Secondary Analysis

William D. Crano
Department of Psychology
Claremont Graduate University
123 E. Eighth Street
Claremont, CA 91711
United States

Phone: (909) 607-3311
Fax: (909) 621-8905