Scott T. Allison is Professor of Psychology at the University of Richmond, where he has been on the faculty since 1987.  He received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego and his Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  His research program focuses on human belief systems about heroes, villains, legends, leaders, underdogs, and martyrs. He has served on the editorial boards of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice.

Scott has published nearly 100 articles and two books on heroes with George Goethals: (1) Heroes, What They Do & Why We Need Them, published in 2011 by Oxford University Press, and (2) Heroic Leadership: A Taxonomy of 100 Exceptional Individuals, published by Routledge in 2013.  His work has been featured in media outlets such as National Public Radio, USA Today, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Slate Magazine, MSNBC, CBS, and the Christian Science Monitor.  He is the recipient of the University of Richmond’s Distinguished Educator Award and the Virginia Council of Higher Education’s Outstanding Faculty Award.

Scott blogs on heroes here and also provides an analysis of movie heroes at REEL HEROES.

George R. Goethals holds the E.Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professorship in Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.  Previously he taught at Williams College where he was Chair of the Department of Psychology, founding Chair of the Program in Leadership Studies, Acting Dean of the Faculty, and Provost.  Goethals graduated with a BA from Harvard College and holds a PhD in social psychology from Duke University.

Goethals explores leadership from psychological and historical perspectives.  With Georgia Sorenson and James MacGregor Burns he edited the Encyclopedia of Leadership (Sage, 2004), with Sorenson, The Quest for a General Theory of Leadership (Elgar, 2006), and with Crystal Hoyt and Donelson Forsyth, Leadership at The Crossroads, Psychology and Leadership (Praeger, 2008).  His recent research focuses on presidential debates, the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, and the role of biography in shaping our understanding of leadership.

With Scott Allison, he is author of  Heroes, What They Do & Why We Need Them, published in 2011 by Oxford University Press, and “Making Heroes:  The Construction of Competence, Courage and Virtue” published in 2012 in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 46.

Here is more information about Scott Allison and George Goethals.

Scott and Al

            George Goethals (seated left) and Scott Allison