Daniel M. Oppenheimer is a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences. Previously, he was a professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.[1] From 2004 to 2012, he worked at Princeton University's Department of Psychology.
Primarily interested in cognitive psychology, he researches causal discounting, charitable giving, perceptual fluency, and people's perceptions of randomness.[2] He won the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in Literature for his paper "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly", which argues that simple writing makes authors appear more intelligent than complex writing.[3] [4] In 2012, he co-authored a book with political scientist Mike Edwards on political psychology and democracy, Democracy Despite Itself: Why A System That Shouldn't Work at All Works So Well.[5] Oppenheimer earned his BA at Rice University and his MA and PhD from Stanford University.