The prize citation for Dr. Pinker’s Barry Prize reads:
Through his rigorous analysis of the psychology of language, emotion, moral norms, and
socialization, Steven Pinker has challenged us to think logically about who and what we are. His
transformative contributions to a wide range of psychological fields have unrelentingly defended
rationality in our understanding of every area of human experience, and courageously
advocated the moral and social structures necessary to reasoned discourse. The Academy
honors Dr. Pinker’s distinguished contributions to humanity’s ongoing pursuit of a more fully
rational understanding of intellectual and social experience.
Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, and one of Foreign Policy’s “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” and Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” He was Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and writes frequently for the New York Times, the Guardian, and other publications. His twelfth book, published in 2021, is called Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.
October 2024
The prize citation for Dr. Pinker’s Barry Prize reads:
Through his rigorous analysis of the psychology of language, emotion, moral norms, and
socialization, Steven Pinker has challenged us to think logically about who and what we are. His
transformative contributions to a wide range of psychological fields have unrelentingly defended
rationality in our understanding of every area of human experience, and courageously
advocated the moral and social structures necessary to reasoned discourse. The Academy
honors Dr. Pinker’s distinguished contributions to humanity’s ongoing pursuit of a more fully
rational understanding of intellectual and social experience.
Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, and one of Foreign Policy’s “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” and Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” He was Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and writes frequently for the New York Times, the Guardian, and other publications. His twelfth book, published in 2021, is called Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.
October 2024