Steven Heine
University of British Columbia, CAN
Steven J. Heine is Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of British Columbia, Canada. After receiving his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 1996, he had visiting positions at Kyoto University and Tokyo University, and was on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania before returning to British Columbia. Heine has published several dozen journal articles in such periodicals as Science, Nature, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and Psychological Review. He has authored the best-selling textbook in its field, entitled “Cultural Psychology,” and has written a trade book called “DNA is not Destiny.” Heine has received the Distinguished Scientist Early Career Award from APA, the Career Trajectory Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Heine’s research focuses on a few topics that converge on how people come to understand themselves and their worlds, including how people make sense of genetic causes, and how people’s cultures shape the ways that they think. Most relevant to the International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology, he has focused on how people make meaning in the face of meaninglessness. When people encounter ideas that don’t make sense they will retreat to focus more on other things that continue to make sense to them. For example, when people confront surrealist art which violates their expectations, they tend to become more committed to their existing beliefs and values. He is currently working on a trade book on existential psychology.