Educational Background
Ph.D., University of Missouri
Social Psychology
Research and Representative Publications
Obedience
I conducted a partial replication of Stanley Milgram's famous obedience studies that allowed for useful comparisons with the original investigations while protecting the well-being of participants. We found obedience rates in 2006 only slightly lower than what Milgram found 45 years earlier.
The research was featured in the January 3, 2007 broadcast of ABC News' Primetime.
You can read some reactions to the research here:
Burger, J. M. (2015). Obedience. In K. Williams, S. Harkins & J. M. Burger (Eds.), Handbook of social influence. New York: Oxford University Press.
Burger, J. M. (2014). . Journal of Social Issues, 70, 489-500.
Burger, J. M., Girgis, Z.M.,& Manning, C.C. (2011). . Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 460-466.
Burger, J. M. (2009). American Psychologist, 64, 1-11.
Compliance
My research on compliance has examined sequential-request techniques and variables that increase or decrease agreement to a request.
Burger, J. M., & Caputo, D. (2015). . Social Influence, 10, 214-220.
Burger, J. M. & Caldwell, D.C.(2011). . Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 14, 671-680.
Burger, J. M., Sanchez, J., Imberi, J. E., & Grande, L. R. (2009). . Social Influence, 4, 11-17.
Burger, J. M., Hornisher J., Martin, V. E., Newman, G., & Pringle, S. (2007). Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37, 2086-2096.
Burger, J. M., Messian, N., Patel, S., del Prado, A., & Anderson, C. (2004). . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 35-43.
Burger, J. M., Soroka, S., Gonzago, K., Murphy, E., & Somervell, E. (2001). . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1578-1586.
Burger, J. M. (1999). . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3, 303-325.
Perception of and Motivation for Personal Control
Decades ago, I developed the Desirability of Control Scale to measure individual differences in the extent to which people are motivated to feel in control of the events in their lives. I have conducted extensive research on this concept as well as on the effects of increases and decreases in the amount of personal control individuals perceive they have.
Burger, J. M. (2017). And the wisdom to know the difference: Locus of control and desire for control. In F. J. Infurna & J. W. Reich (Eds.), Perceived control: Theory, research, and practice in the first 50 years. New York: Oxford University Press.
Burger, J. M., & Lynn, A. L. (2005). . Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27, 71-76.
Burger, J. M. (1992). . New York: Plenum.
Burger, J. M. (1989). . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 246-256.
Social Norms
I have conducted research on the effects of descriptive norms (i.e., what other people do) on a number of behaviors. These behaviors include food choices, binge drinking, and everyday health behaviors.
Burger, J. M., Bender, T. J., Day, L., DeBolt, J. A., Guthridge, L., How, H. W., Meyer, M., Russell, K. A., & Taylor, S. (2015). . Social Influence, 10, 77-84.
Burger, J. M. & Shelton, M. (2011) . Social influence, 6, 69-77.
Burger, J. M., LaSalvia, C. T., Hendricks, L.A., Mehdipour, T., &Neudeck, E. M. (2011). . Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 33, 220-227.
Burger, J. M., Bell, H., Harvey, K., Johnson, J., Stewart, C., Dorian, K., & Swedroe, M. (2010). . Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.
My book "Returning Home: Reconnecting with our Childhoods" (Rowman-Littlefield) describes my research on people who visit childhood homes. That research finds that millions of Americans have made a trip specifically to see the places that comprised the landscape of their childhood. They visit homes they once lived in, as well as other significant places from their past, to reconnect with the person they once were. The visits are often emotional and sometimes therapeutic. The book describes the reasons people make these trips and the experiences they encounter. You can obtain more information about the book and the research at .
I served as the guest editor for a special issue of Social Influence, “Individual Differences and Social Influence.” The articles selected for this volume demonstrate how social influence researchers can obtain a greater understanding of the phenomena they study by incorporating individual difference variables into their research. .
My undergraduate textbook, , is now in its tenth edition (2019, Cengage). The book is organized to reflect my belief that the study of personality should not be limited to either the traditional theories approach or to a strict empirical presentation. Rather, I have maintained from the first edition that a full understanding of personality requires an examination of theory and research. After an introductory chapter and a chapter on personality research methods, the book is divided into seven sections. Each section reflects a different approach to understanding personality — Freudian, Neo-Freudian, Trait, Biological, Humanistic, Behavioral/Social Learning, and Cognitive.
Preference for Solitude Scale (DOC)
Desirability of Control Scale (DOC)
Jerry Burger is also a fiction writer. For more information about his novel, The Shadows of 1915, and his short stories, .