Richard Nisbett

Dr. Richard Nisbett is one of the world’s foremost authorities on how culture and social context affect thinking, perception and behavior and how businesses can use this understanding to improve performance.

    Cultural differences have a profound effect on management and decision making styles, how people respond to advertising images and messages, and how people conduct relationships of all kinds. Dr. Nisbett’s insights into these differences provide invaluable context for effective action across cultural boundaries.

In his new book, Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count, Dr. Nisbett challenges the prevailing idea that biology and especially genetics determine intelligence. Instead, he emphasizes the role of culture in determining intelligence and he gives us new tools for understanding and fostering the kind of success for which we use 'intelligence' as an indicator.

    In his previous book, The Geography of Thought, Professor Nisbett looks at how Asians and Westerners think differently and why. This research makes his presentations invaluable for organizations doing business in China, Japan or Korea, especially.

Dr. Nisbett is Theodore M. Newcomb Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan and is the first psychologist in his field in a generation to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

    He conducts 3-hour long programs at the University of Michigan for MBA students who are en route to Asia that have dramatically increased their performance in developing strategies and building effective relationships while abroad.

    A Research Professor at the Research Center for Group Dynamics, Dr. Nisbett also studies group decision making, conformity and independence, and social factors affecting school performance, among other subjects.