Edward Tory Higgins serves as the distinguished Stanley Schachter Professor of Psychology and Business at Columbia University, where he has been a faculty member since 1989 and also directs the Motivation Science Center. Born in Montreal, Quebec in 1946, he earned his BA in Sociology and Anthropology with First Class Honors from McGill University in 1967, followed by an MA in Social Psychology with Distinction from the London School of Economics in 1968, and completed his PhD in Psychology at Columbia University in 1973. Prior to his current position, Professor Higgins held academic appointments at Princeton University, the University of Western Ontario, and New York University, establishing himself as a leading figure in psychological science. He served as Chair of Columbia's Psychology Department from 1994 to 2001, demonstrating sustained leadership in academic administration and institutional development.
Professor Higgins is internationally recognized for developing foundational theories that have transformed understanding of human motivation and cognition, most notably self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, which explain how individuals pursue goals through promotion or prevention systems. His seminal work on priming effects has reshaped understanding of how contextual cues unconsciously influence judgment and behavior across diverse domains. His influential book Beyond Pleasure and Pain: How Motivation Works synthesizes decades of research on the mechanisms underlying motivation, while his collaborative work Focus: Use Different Ways of Seeing the World for Success and Influence has brought his theoretical frameworks to broader audiences. These theoretical contributions have generated extensive empirical research worldwide, with his regulatory focus framework becoming a cornerstone of contemporary motivation science and earning him recognition as one of the most cited psychologists of his generation.
As Director of the Motivation Science Center, Higgins has fostered interdisciplinary research connecting psychological science with business, education, and public policy applications. He has received numerous prestigious honors including the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions and the American Psychological Society William James Fellow Award, both received in 2000, affirming his enduring impact on the discipline. A dedicated educator, Professor Higgins received Columbia University's Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2004 and has mentored generations of scholars who now lead the field of social psychology. His current research continues to explore the intersections of motivation, culture, and cognition, advancing theoretical frameworks that promise to deepen understanding of human behavior in increasingly complex social environments.
