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Peter McGraw
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Peter McGraw
Peter McGraw is an American professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder. As a behavioral scientist his research spans the fields of judgment and decision making, emotion, affect, mood, and behavioral economics.
McGraw's early work examined the interplay of judgment, emotion, and choice, with an emphasis on moral judgment, mixed emotions, and behavioral economics.
McGraw has examined the antecedents and consequences of humor. With Caleb Warren, he developed a theory of humor: the Benign Violation Theory. The theory suggests that humor occurs when a person simultaneously appraises a situation as wrong or threatening in some way (i.e., a violation) and yet appraises the situation to be okay or acceptable in some way (i.e., benign). His TEDx talk, "What makes things funny?" documents early insights from the benign violation theory.[citation needed]
In 2014, McGraw co-authored The Humor Code, a book about the science of humor and his travels around the world with journalist Joel Warner. In 2015, McGraw created a live comedy game show—"Funny or True?"—which pits scientists against comedians to see who has the best blend of brains and funny bone. In 2018, McGraw launched a podcast "I'm not joking" that looks at the lives of comedians, improvisers, comedy writers, and other funny people from business, science, and the arts.[citation needed] In 2020, McGraw published his second book, Shtick to Business: What the Masters of Comedy can Teach You about Breaking Rules, Being Fearless, and Building a Serious Career.
McGraw received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 2002, at which time he pursued a post-doc at Princeton University with Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman. In 2004, he joined the faculty at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. In 2008, he received an appointment (courtesy) in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. At the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business, he teaches courses in marketing management and behavioral economics. He also teaches for executive MBA programs at London Business School and the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego. He directs the Humor Research Lab (HuRL) and co-directs a virtual research lab, the Moral Research Lab (MoRL) with Daniel Bartels.[citation needed]
In 2007, McGraw was named a Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar.
Outside academic pursuits, McGraw, from 2004 to 2010, served as academic coordinator, assistant coach, and associate head coach of the men's lacrosse team at the University of Colorado. He was the head coach of the men's lacrosse club at Princeton University from 2002 to 2004.
In 2011, McGraw and Joel Warner created "The Humor Code Project," a two-year, 91,000-mile global search for what makes things funny. Their travels took them to Tanzania, Scandinavia, Japan, Israel, Peru, and several other destinations in North America. McGraw and Warner authored The Humor Code, a book about their travels and the experiments they conducted along the way. The two maintained multiple blogs about their adventures on Wired, Huffington Post, and Psychology Today. McGraw's research and the book have been widely covered by the media, including the Wall Street Journal, NPR, MSNBC, The Boston Globe, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Denver Post, and others.
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Peter McGraw
Peter McGraw is an American professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder. As a behavioral scientist his research spans the fields of judgment and decision making, emotion, affect, mood, and behavioral economics.
McGraw's early work examined the interplay of judgment, emotion, and choice, with an emphasis on moral judgment, mixed emotions, and behavioral economics.
McGraw has examined the antecedents and consequences of humor. With Caleb Warren, he developed a theory of humor: the Benign Violation Theory. The theory suggests that humor occurs when a person simultaneously appraises a situation as wrong or threatening in some way (i.e., a violation) and yet appraises the situation to be okay or acceptable in some way (i.e., benign). His TEDx talk, "What makes things funny?" documents early insights from the benign violation theory.[citation needed]
In 2014, McGraw co-authored The Humor Code, a book about the science of humor and his travels around the world with journalist Joel Warner. In 2015, McGraw created a live comedy game show—"Funny or True?"—which pits scientists against comedians to see who has the best blend of brains and funny bone. In 2018, McGraw launched a podcast "I'm not joking" that looks at the lives of comedians, improvisers, comedy writers, and other funny people from business, science, and the arts.[citation needed] In 2020, McGraw published his second book, Shtick to Business: What the Masters of Comedy can Teach You about Breaking Rules, Being Fearless, and Building a Serious Career.
McGraw received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 2002, at which time he pursued a post-doc at Princeton University with Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman. In 2004, he joined the faculty at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. In 2008, he received an appointment (courtesy) in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. At the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business, he teaches courses in marketing management and behavioral economics. He also teaches for executive MBA programs at London Business School and the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego. He directs the Humor Research Lab (HuRL) and co-directs a virtual research lab, the Moral Research Lab (MoRL) with Daniel Bartels.[citation needed]
In 2007, McGraw was named a Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar.
Outside academic pursuits, McGraw, from 2004 to 2010, served as academic coordinator, assistant coach, and associate head coach of the men's lacrosse team at the University of Colorado. He was the head coach of the men's lacrosse club at Princeton University from 2002 to 2004.
In 2011, McGraw and Joel Warner created "The Humor Code Project," a two-year, 91,000-mile global search for what makes things funny. Their travels took them to Tanzania, Scandinavia, Japan, Israel, Peru, and several other destinations in North America. McGraw and Warner authored The Humor Code, a book about their travels and the experiments they conducted along the way. The two maintained multiple blogs about their adventures on Wired, Huffington Post, and Psychology Today. McGraw's research and the book have been widely covered by the media, including the Wall Street Journal, NPR, MSNBC, The Boston Globe, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Denver Post, and others.
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