Ellen Langer

Ellen Jane Langer (born March 25, 1947) is professor of psychology at Harvard University who has studied the illusion of control, decision making, aging and mindfulness theory. She received her PhD in Social and Clinical Psychology from Yale University in 1974. In 1980 she was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Other honors include the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest of the American Psychological Association, the Distinguished Contributions of Basic Science to Applied Psychology award from the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, the James McKeen Cattel Award, and the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize. She is the author of over 200 research articles and six academic books, including Mindfulness and The Power of Mindful Learning. In 2004, Harvard initiated an investigation into allegations that Langer had reused needles in her experiments, a violation of human subjects research standards at the university. The investigation concluded in 2005.

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 * Not only do we as individuals get locked into single-minded views, but we also reinforce these views for each other until the culture itself suffers the same mindlessness.