William Crano

Dr. William Crano is Professor of Psychology.  His basic research is concerned with social influence, especially the impact of minorities on the beliefs and actions of the majority, and on the effects of self-interest on attitudes and actions.  His applied research is concerned with the development of persuasive and instructional information to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to prevent drug abuse, in children and adolescents.  He is a fellow of the APA and APS, has been a NATO Senior Scientist, a Fulbright Fellow to Brazil, and a liaison scientist in the behavioral sciences for the Office of Naval Research, London.  He also has served as the Chair of the Executive Committee for the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and as Director of the Program in Social Psychology at NSF.  He is on the editorial boards of Human Communication Research and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and previously served on the boards of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, and the International Journal of Group Tensions.  Currently, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development fund his research. 
 
To visit Dr. Crano's webpage, click here. 
  
Email Address:       William.Crano@cgu.edu

Publications

Alvaro, E. M., & Crano, W. D. (1997). Indirect minority influence: Evidence for leniency in source evaluation and counter-argumentation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 949-965.

Crano, W. D., & Brewer, M. B. (2002). Principles and methods of social research (2nd Ed.).  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Crano, W. D., & Burgoon, M. (2002). Mass media and drug prevention: Classic and contemporary theories and research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Crano, W. D.  (2001).  Directed social influence.  In J. P. Forgas,  K. D. Williams, & L. Wheeler (Eds.), The social mind: Cognitive and motivational perspectives on social behaviour (pp. 389-405)  New York: Cambridge.

Crano, W. D.  (2001).  Social influence, social identity, and ingroup leniency.  In C. K. W. De Dreu and N. K. De Vries (Eds.), Group consensus and minority influence: Implications for innovation (pp. 122-143). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Crano, W. D., & Burgoon, M. (2001). Vested interest theory and AIDS: Self-interest, social influence, and disease prevention.  In F. Butera & G. Mugny (Eds.), Social Influence in social reality: Promoting individual and social change (pp. 277-289). Seattle, WA: Hogrefe & Huber.

Crano, W. D. (2002). Introduction. In W. D. Crano & M. Burgoon (Eds.), Mass media and drug prevention: Classic and contemporary theories and research (pp. 3-17).  Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Dawson, E. J., Burgoon, M., & Crano, W. D. (2003). Parents' and their children's beliefs and knowledge of HIV/AIDS in a multicultural Hispanic/Anglo population (pp. 175-202).  In L. K. Fuller (Ed.), Media-mediated AIDS.  Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Crano, W. D. (2003). Theory driven evaluation and construct validity. In S. Donaldson & M. Scriven (Eds.), Evaluating social programs and problems: Visions for the new millennium. (pp. 145-157).  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Crano, W. D. (2003). Conformity. In K. Christensen & D. Levinson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of community: From the village to the virtual world (Vol. 1, pp. 327-329). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Crano, W. D. (in press). Laboratory experiment; cover story; independent variable; dependent variable; demand characteristics.  Short articles in M. Lewis-Beck, A. Bryman, & T. F. Liao (Eds.), Encyclopedia of research methods for the social sciences.  Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Crano, W. D. (2000). Milestones in the psychological analysis of social influence.  Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 4, 68-80.

Crano, W. D. (2000). Social Influence: Effects of leniency on majority- and minority-induced focal and indirect attitude change.  Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale, 15, 89-121.

Crano, W. D. (in press). Advances in the psychological analysis of social influence. Group Dynamics.

Crano, W. D. (2000). The multitrait-multimethod matrix as synopsis and recapitulation of Campbell's views on the proper conduct of social inquiry. In L. Bickman (ed.), Research design: Donald Campbell's legacy (Chapter 3, pp. 37-61). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Crano, W. D., & Alvaro, E.M. (1998). Indirect minority influence: The leniency contract revisited. Group Process and Intergroup Relations, 1, 99-115.

Crano, W. D., & Burgoon, M. (in press). Vested interest theory and AIDS: Self-interest, social influence, and disease prevention. In F. Butera & G. Mugny (Eds.), Social Influence: Theories and practices. Berne, Switzerland: Hogrefe & Huber.

Crano, W. D., & Chen, X. (1998). The leniency contract and persistence of majority and minority influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1437-1450.

Dobbs, M., & Crano, W. D. (2001). Outgroup accountability in the minimal group paradigm: Implications for aversive discrimination and social identity theory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 355-364.

Gorenflo, D. W., & Crano, W. D. (1998). The multiple perspectives inventory: A measure of perspective-taking. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 57, 163-177.

Lehman, B., & Crano, W. D. (2002). The Pervasive Effects of Vested Interest on Attitude-Criterion Consistency in Political Judgment.  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 101-112.

Ramirez, J. R., &. Crano, W. D. (2003). Deterrence and incapacitation: An interrupted time series analysis of California's Three Strikes Law. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 33, 110-144.

Ramirez, J. R., Crano, W. D., Quist, R., Burgoon, M., Alvaro, E. M., & Grandpre, J. (2002).  Effects of fatalism and family communication on AIDS awareness variations in Native American and Anglo parents and children.  Aids Education and Prevention, 14, 29-40.