William Crano holds the Oskamp Chair, Distinguished Professorship in Psychology in Claremont Graduate University’s Division of Behavioral & Organizational Sciences. 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.
Crano received his MS and PhD from Northwestern University. Since then, he has held many appointments in academia, teaching at Michigan State University, Texas A&M University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Arizona, and CGU. In addition to these appointments, Crano has been a NATO Senior Scientist, a Fulbright Fellow to Brazil, and a liaison scientist in the behavioral sciences for the Office of Naval Research. He also has served as the chair of the Executive Committee for the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and as director of the Program in Social Psychology at the National Science Foundation.
For more than 50 years, Crano has been publishing in academic journals, encyclopedias, and books on the effects of drugs and disease on communities at large.
Currently, he is an advisor to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Vienna: Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and he is an advisor to the U.S. State Department, Colombo Plan: Training and Certifying Drug Prevention Professionals in S.E. Asia and the Middle East. Additionally, he is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science, and he serves on the editorial boards of Human Communication Research and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. His research is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Co-authored with M. B. Brewer and A. Lac. Principles and Methods of Social Research 3rd ed. New York: NY: Routledge, 2015.
Co-authored with M. Hanne and J. Mio. Warring with Words: Narrative and Metaphor in International and Domestic Politics. New York, NY: Psychology Press, 2015.
Co-edited with J. P. Forgas and K. Fiedler. Social Psychology and Politics. New York: Psychology Press, 2015.
Co-authored with Eusebio M. Alvaro and Jason T. Siegel. “The media campaign as a focal prevention strategy: A guide to their design, implementation, and evaluation.” In Handbook of Adolescent Drug Use Prevention: Research, Intervention Strategies, and Practice, edited by Lawrence Scheier, 397–414. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2015.
Co-authored with Eusebio M. Alvaro, et al. “The power of the proposition: Frequency of marijuana offers, parental knowledge, and adolescent marijuana use.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 148 (2015): 34–39.
Co-authored with F. Grant and M. Hogg. “Yes, we can: Physical activity and group identification among healthy adults.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 45, no. 7 (2015): 383–90.
Research Methods
Attitudes & Social Influence
Secondary Data Analysis
Minority Influence