William Crano

William Dean Crano (born 1942) is the Oskamp Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences (SBOS), Claremont Graduate University. Crano is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and Association for Psychological Science (APS).

Previous positions held by Crano include:
 * NATO Senior Scientist
 * Fulbright Fellow to Brazil
 * Liaison scientist in the behavioral sciences for the Office of Naval Research, London
 * Chair of the Executive Committee for the Society of Experimental Social Psychology
 * Program Director in Social Psychology at the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Research interests
Crano’s 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. Currently, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) fund his research.

Prevention of drug abuse
Crano’s research, done in conjunction with Eusebio M. Alvaro (CGU) and Jason Siegel, suggests large differences in health-relevant (prevention) knowledge between Hispanic and Anglo youth and their parents. These differences occur despite intense media efforts mounted to help prevent the consequences of unsafe sex and drug abuse. Research in this area indicates that mass-media prevention messages may place minority groups at a disadvantage if messages are not specifically tailored to address their cultures and concerns. Crano and Alvaro research on new approaches to presenting information have been found to be effective for adolescent Hispanic audiences. Their research on drug use prevention among Anglo and Hispanic youth involved an intensive, interactive, multimedia, computer-based approach that has proved effective in past research on HIV prevention.

Predictors of adolescent drug use
This research investigated relationships between marijuana and inhalant use and measures of “familism,” parental monitoring, drug use knowledge and acculturation as well as demographic factors in 1,094 Anglo and Hispanic youth from 5 school districts in southwest Arizona. Outcome measures addressed lifetime and 30-day marijuana and inhalant use. Hispanics exhibited higher use across all measures. Among Hispanic youth, high acculturation was associated with low marijuana but high inhalant use. In both Hispanics and Anglos positive family relations and parental monitoring were strongly associated with reduced marijuana use but only among youth most knowledgeable about drugs. Familism and monitoring were not associated with diminished use among the less knowledgeable. For inhalants, monitoring combined with high knowledge or with high familism was associated with attenuated use. The role of knowledge in reducing drug use suggests continuing to disseminate factual material. Prevention strategies also should incorporate a family component to inform parents and open lines of communication.

Crano is currently or has been on the editorial boards of the following journals:
 * Human Communication Research
 * Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
 * Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
 * Basic and Applied Social Psychology
 * International Journal of Group Tensions.

Publications

 * Crano, W. D. (2012). The Rules of Influence: Winning When You're in the Minority St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-55229-9
 * Ramirez, J.R., Crano, W.D., Quist, R. Burgoon, M., Alvaro, E.M. and Grandpre, J. (2004). "Acculturation, Familism, Parental Monitoring, and Knowledge as Predictors of Marijuana and Inhalant Use in Adolescents." Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 18(1), pp. 3-11.


 * Dawson, E. J., Burgoon, M., & Crano, W. D. (2003). "Parents' and their children's beliefs and knowledge of HIV/AIDS in a multicultural Hispanic/Anglo population." In L. K. Fuller (Ed.), Media-Mediated AIDS (pp. 175-202). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. ISBN 1-57273-264-4


 * Crano, W. D. (2003). "Theory driven evaluation and construct validity." In S. Donaldson & M. Scriven (Eds.), Evaluating Social Programs and Problems: Visions for the New Millennium (pp. 145-157). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-4185-7
 * Crano, W. D. (2003). "Conformity." In K. Christensen & D. Levinson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World (Vol. 1, pp. 327-329). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. ISBN 0-7619-2598-8


 * Crano, W. D., & Brewer, M. B. (2002). Principles and Methods of Social Research (2nd Ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-3904-6


 * Crano, W. D., & Burgoon, M. (2002). Mass Media and Drug Prevention: Classic and Contemporary Theories and Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-3478-8


 * Crano, W. D. (2001).  "Directed Social Influence."  In J. P. Forgas,  K. D. Williams, & L. Wheeler (Eds.), The Social Mind: Cognitive and Motivational Perspectives on Social Behaviour (pp. 389-405)  New York: Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-54125-5


 * Crano, W. D. (2001).  "Social influence, social identity, and ingroup leniency."  In C. K. W. De Dreu and N. K. De Vries (Eds.), Group Consensus and Minority Influence: Implications for Innovation (pp. 122-143). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-21233-7


 * Crano, W. D., & Burgoon, M. (2001). "Vested interest theory and AIDS: Self-interest, social influence, and disease prevention." In F. Butera & G. Mugny (Eds.), Social Influence in Social Reality: Promoting Individual and Social Change (pp. 277-289). Seattle, WA: Hogrefe & Huber. ISBN 0-88937-256-X

He has also written almost 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, in such journals as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Psychological Inquiry, Journal of Social Psychology, and AIDS Education and Prevention and is the co-author of Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 57, 2006.