Dolores Albarracín

Dolores Albarracín is the Amy Gutmann Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the Department of Psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences and the Annenberg School for Communication. She directs the Social Action Lab and the Communication Science Division of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. A native of Argentina, Albarracín received her Licenciada en Psicologia from the Universidad Católica de La Plata in 1988, Professor en Letras from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata in 1990, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997. Before joining Penn, she held tenured positions as professor at the University of Florida and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and served as the Martin Fishbein Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School.

In the field of Psychology, Albarracín's research examines attitudes, communication and persuasion, motivation, behavioral change, and health. She studies the impact of communication and persuasion on human behavior and the formation of beliefs, attitudes, and goals, particularly to promote socially beneficial behaviors and public policies. Her work combines basic and applied psychology to advance interventions for positive social interactions, health outcomes, and national health communication policy.

Albarracín has received major awards including the 2025 Career Contribution Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the 2020 Diener Award for Outstanding Mid-Career Contributions in Social Psychology, the 2018 inaugural Award for Outstanding Scientific Contributions to Research on Attitudes and Social Influence, and the 2019 Avant-Garde Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She is a fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Health Psychology. She served as Editor-in-Chief of Psychological Bulletin from 2014 to 2020 and was elected President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

Key publications include Action and Inaction in a Social World: Predicting and Changing Attitudes and Behavior (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Creating Conspiracy Beliefs: How Our Thoughts Are Shaped (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming), The Handbook of Attitudes, Volume 1: Basic Principles (Routledge, 2018), and The Handbook of Attitudes, Volume 2: Applications (Routledge, 2019). Notable articles are “Concerns for Others Increase the Likelihood of Vaccination against Influenza and COVID-19 More in Sparsely rather than Densely Populated Areas” (PNAS, 2020) and “Attitudes and Attitude Change” (Annual Review of Psychology, 2018). With nearly 200 journal articles and book chapters cited over 40,000 times, her research funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation has profoundly shaped social psychology and behavioral interventions.

Professional Email: dalba@upenn.edu