The following is a list of academicians, both past and present, who are widely renowned for their groundbreaking contributions to the field of social psychology.

A

• Dominic Abrams
• Lauren Alloy
• Icek Ajzen
• Floyd Allport
• Gordon Allport
• Irwin Altman
• Craig A. Anderson
• Norman H. Anderson
• Michael Argyle
• Elliot Aronson
• Solomon Asch
• Berit Ås

B

• Anna Costanza Baldry
• Mahzarin Banaji
• Albert Bandura - Canadian psychologist known for social learning theory (or social cognitive theory) and self efficacy
• John Bargh - known for having several priming experiments that failed subsequent attempts at direct replication
• Robert A. Baron
• Daniel Batson
• Martin Bauer
• Roy Baumeister
• Howard Becker
• Daryl Bem - proposed self-perception theory of attitude change, competitor to Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory
• Ellen S. Berscheid
• Michael Billig
• Hart Blanton
• Marilynn Brewer
• Roger Brown
• Brad Bushman

C

• John Cacioppo
• Donald T. Campbell
• Merrill Carlsmith
• Nicholas Christenfeld
• Robert Cialdini - known for his research on influence processes
• Ronald L. Cohen
• Peter T. Coleman
• Terri Conley
• Stuart W. Cook
• Charles Horton Cooley
• Nora Cortiñas
• William Crano

D

• James M. Dabbs, Jr.
• John M. Darley
• Edward L. Deci - co-founder of Self-Determination Theory
• Morton Deutsch
• Ed Diener
• Carol Dweck

E

• Phoebe C. Ellsworth
• Jennifer Eberhardt

F

• Steven Fein
• Leon Festinger - originator of cognitive dissonance theory and social comparison theory
• Susan Fiske
• Erich Fromm

G

• Stanley O. Gaines
• Laszlo Garai - developed theory of social identity as mediating factor^[1]
• George Gaskell
• Bertram Gawronski
• Kenneth Gergen
• Daniel Gilbert
• Thomas Gilovich - psychologist and key figure in behavioral economics
• Erving Goffman
• Mirta González Suárez
• John Gottman - researcher known for his work in identifying relationship behaviors that predict relationships' future quality and stability
• Anthony Greenwald - creator of the [[Implicit Association Test
• Jaber F. Gubrium

H

• Jonathan Haidt
• Rom Harré
• Elaine Hatfield
• Fritz Heider
• Miles Hewstone
• E. Tory Higgins - Motivation, regulatory focus theory, regulatory engagement theory, regulatory mode
• Hilde Himmelweit
• Geert Hofstede
• Michael Hogg - social identity theory
• Carl Hovland

I

• Michael Inzlicht

J

• Irving Janis - known for his landmark research on the concept of "groupthink"
• Edward E. Jones - co-authored the first paper on what was later called fundamental attribution error; known for researching actor-observer bias
• Sandra Jovchelovitch
• Charles Hubbard Judd

K

• Daniel Kahneman
• Saul Kassin
• Harold Kelley
• George Kelly
• Herbert Kelman
• Arie Kruglanski
• Ziva Kunda

L

• Bibb Latané - initiated research on bystander intervention in emergencies (with John Darley), social loafing (with Kip Williams), and Dynamic Social Impact Theory (with Andrzej Nowak)
• Gustave Le Bon
• Mark Lepper
• Becca Levy
• Kurt Lewin - often called "the father of social psychology"; one of the first researchers to study group dynamics and organizational development

M

• Ivana Markova
• Hazel Rose Markus
• Everett Dean Martin
• Francis T. McAndrew
• David McClelland
• Joseph E. McGrath - group dynamics researcher
• George Herbert Mead - American philosopher (pragmatist), sociologist, and psychologist; a founder of social psychology; founder of symbolic interactionism
• Stanley Milgram - performed famous experiment that demonstrated people's excessive willingness to obey authority figures
• Walter Mischel - among the first to promote a situationist view of personality
• Abraham Moles - one of the first to establish and analyze links between aesthetics and information theory
• Serge Moscovici
• Gordon Moskowitz
• Eleanor Maccoby

N

• David Nadler
• Theodore Newcomb
• Richard Nisbett
• Mary Louise Northway
• Andrzej Nowak

O

• Richard Ofshe
• Tom Ostrom

P

• Ian Parker
• James W. Pennebaker
• Richard E. Petty
• Anthony Pratkanis
• Tom Pyszczynski
• Ivan Pavlov

R

• Wilhelm Reich - mass psychology
• Steve Reicher
• Harry Reis
• Max Ringelmann
• Robert Rosenthal - Pygmalion effect
• Lee Ross - performed pioneering research on the fundamental attribution error
• Zick Rubin - author of the first empirical measurement of love
• Richard M. Ryan - co-founder of Self-Determination Theory

S

• Stanley Schachter
• Gunter Schmidt
• Norbert Schwarz - known for his work on metacognitive experiences and survey methodology
• Martin Seligman
• Claire Selltiz
• Muzafer Sherif
• Boris Sidis - groundbreaking work on the psychology of suggestion, dissociative identity disorder, psychopathology, and genius
• Volkmar Sigusch
• Linda Skitka
• Diederik Stapel - founder of the Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research, later suspended from Tilburg University for fabricating and manipulating data
• Claude Steele - known for his groundbreaking work on stereotype threat and for introducing self-affirmation theory
• William Swann - known for developing self-verification theory

T

• Henri Tajfel
• Jeffrey S. Tanaka
• Gabriel Tarde
• Carol Tavris
• Shelley Taylor
• John Thibaut - first editor of JESP, known for Interdependence Theory from "The Social Psychology of Groups"
• Norman Triplett - widely credited with the first published study in the field of social psychology, with his work on social facilitation
• Bruce Tuckman
• John C. Turner
• Amos Tversky

W

• Daniel Wegner
• Karl Weick
• Kipling Williams
• Glenn D Wilson
• Timothy Wilson
• Robert S. Wyer - social cognition and information processing
• Wendy Wood

Z

• Robert Zajonc - first academic to study the mere exposure effect
• Mark Zanna
• Philip Zimbardo - known for conducting the Stanford prison experiment