Neil Lewis, Jr.

Dr. Neil A. Lewis, Jr. is an Assistant Professor of Communication and Social Behavior with graduate field appointments in Communication and Psychology at Cornell University, and Assistant Professor of Communication Research in Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Lewis's research examines how the interplay between people's identities and social contexts influence people's motivation to pursue their goals, and their success in goal pursuit efforts. He most often studies these processes in the domains of education, health, and environmental sustainability, in hopes that a better understanding of situated identity-based motivation processes can provide useful insights for developing interventions to help people achieve their goals. He is particularly interested in developing and scaling interventions that have the potential to reduce disparities in education, health, and environmental outcomes.

Research Focus

Professor Lewis’s research examines how and why people’s identities and social contexts interact to influence their motivation to pursue their goals and success in achieving them. He directs the Motivation and Goal Pursuit Lab which studies these processes most often in the domains of education and health. One goal of the lab is to use the knowledge gained from this research to inform interventions to improve outcomes and reduce social disparities

Teaching Focus

Professor Lewis teaches students how to use principles from the social and behavioral sciences to better understand their social world, and challenges them to use that knowledge to better the world around them. At the undergraduate level, he teaches courses on persuasion and social influence as well as stereotyping and implicit bias. At the graduate level, he teaches courses on research methodology in the social and behavioral sciences.