Neil Lewis, Jr. is a behavioral scientist who studies how the stories we tell, the programs we run, and policies we enact affect people’s motivation and behavior as well as broader societal outcomes.
Lewis is a Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences at Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medicine, where he is an Associate Professor of Communication, Medicine, and Public Policy. He received his B.A. in economics and psychology from Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan.
Societies vary considerably in terms of the resources they offer, the people that comprise them, and the stories those people tell about themselves and about the broader world. As an expert on human motivation and behavior, Lewis’s research examines how the places where we live, the people we meet and interact with, and the messages we receive from individuals and institutions in those places affect how we make sense of and communicate about what is happening around
us. He is particularly interested in how these “meaning-making” and communication processes affect motivation and behavior—how they shape what individuals, communities, and organizations do, as well as how they rationalize those decisions.
Lewis studies these processes not only as an intellectual exercise but also because they matter for a broad range of societal outcomes in domains such as education, health, and environmental sustainability. He often studies meaning-making processes in these domains in hopes that lessons
learned from research can be applied to addressing these longstanding societal challenges.
At Cornell, Lewis co-founded and co-directs the Action Research Collaborative—an institutional hub that brings together researchers, practitioners, community members, and policymakers to collaborate on projects and initiatives designed to improve a variety of outcomes. He is also the inaugural associate director of the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures—a university-wide center that supports and sustains a community of scholars, students, and engaged partners who generate and act upon visions of just futures, where all people can thrive.
Outside of the university, Lewis is a publicly engaged scholar and science communicator. He routinely writes and speaks about the application of social and behavioral science research in public-facing venues. For example, he has been a contributing writer at The Atlantic and FiveThirtyEight, and a columnist at Science Magazine; he was also featured in the documentary film Divisible. He also routinely advises and consults with organizations interested in applying research findings to address organizational and societal challenges. This includes nonprofit organizations, companies, and governmental organizations such as The White House.
Lewis’s research and public scholarship have been recognized by numerous awards and honors. These include the Early Career Scholar Award from the International Communication Association, the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, and the National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt
