Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D., world-renowned social psychologist, is Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her recent work focuses on love and reveals how micro-moments of love and other forms of positivity nourish health, wisdom, and longevity.
Fredrickson is best known for her Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions, which suggests that positive emotions lead to novel, expansive, or exploratory behavior and that, over time, these actions build knowledge, social relationships, and physical health. Her scientific contributions have influenced scholars, readers and the business community worldwide, in disciplines ranging from finance to healthcare.
Fredrickson's work is supported by grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and by private foundations. Her research and teaching have been recognized with many honors, including, in 2017, the Tang Prize for Achievements in Psychology for career contributions toward the well-being of humanity; in 2013, the inaugural Christopher Peterson Gold Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the International Positive Psychology Association; in 2008, the Career Trajectory Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology; and in 2000, the American Psychological Association's inaugural Templeton Prize in Positive Psychology.
In 2015, through a partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill and Coursera, Fredrickson began teaching a free, online course on Positive Psychology that has attracted more than 211,000 learners across approximately 200 countries worldwide.
Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, CNN, NPR, PBS, The Atlantic, U.S. News & World Report, USA Today, O Magazine, and many others. She is the author of Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become and Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the Upward Spiral That Will Change Your Life. Fredrickson has the esteemed honor of twice being invited to brief His Holiness the Dalai Lama on her research.
Fredrickson was born and raised in Minnesota and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University (1990), with a minor in organizational behavior, and post-doctoral training in psychophysiology from the University of California at Berkeley.
