Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Dr. Brad Bushman is a Professor of Communication and Psychology at The Ohio State University, where he holds the Margaret Hall and Robert Randal Rinehart Chair of Mass Communication. He is also a professor of Communications Science at the VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Brad received a Masters degree in Secondary Education from Utah State University as well as Masters Degrees in Statistics and Psychology from the University of Missouri in Columbia. He completed his PhD in Psychology from the University of Missouri in Columbia as well. Brad has held faculty positions at Iowa State University and the University of Michigan as well as served as a Visiting Professor at the Warsaw School of Social Psychology in Poland. Brad has also received numerous awards and accolades throughout his career, including in 2013 the Ig Nobel Psychology Prize for research that makes people laugh, then think. He was also awarded the Weber State University Outstanding Psychology Alumni Award in 2013 and recently received the Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Media Psychology and Technology Award in 2014.
Brad studies the causes, consequences, and solutions to the problem of human aggression and violence. He also studies the impact of the media on prosocial behavior. His research has challenged several myths (e.g., violent media have a trivial effect on aggression, venting anger reduces aggression, violent people suffer from low self-esteem, violence and sex on TV sell products, warning labels reduce audience size). (One of his colleagues calls him the “myth buster.”) He has about 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including in the top scientific journals (e.g., Science, Nature, PNAS). His research has been featured on television (e.g., ABC News 20/20, CBS Evening News, Discovery Channel, Jim Lehrer NewsHour, Showtime Penn & Teller: Bullshit!), on radio (BBC, NPR, CBC, ABC, CBS, NBC News Radio) in magazines (e.g., Scientific American, Newsweek, Time, Health, Sports Illustrated), and in newspapers (e.g., New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, The Times of London).
Photo taken by Jo McCulty, a photographer for The Ohio State University