Professor Michael J. Platow

BA, MHigherEd, PhD, FASSA, SFHEA
Professor, School of Medicine and Psychology
ANU College of Health and Medicine
T: +61 (02) 6125 8457

Areas of expertise

  • Social Psychology 520505

Research interests

1. Social Identity and Self-Categorization Processes

2. Social Psychology of

  • Partisan Truth
  • Justice & Fairness
  • Leadership & Social Influence
  • Intergroup Relations (including Prejudice & Racism)
  • Learning & Teaching

Biography

Michael Platow is a professor of psychology in the ANU Research School of Psychology. He has published widely on the social-psychology of leadership and social influence; justice, fairness, and trust; intergroup relations, including prejudice and discrimination; and education. He has received over two million dollars in research money from the Australian Commonwealth to study many of these processes, being awarded separate Discovery Grants on distributive justice, procedural justice, restorative justice, marginalizing racism, and lay views of prejudice. He is currently leading an international, ARC-funded research project on the psychology of “partisan truth.”

His edited books include Social Identity at Work: Developing Theory for Organizational Practice and Self and Social Identity in Educational Contexts. The first edition of his co-authored book, The New Psychology of Leadership: Identity, Influence and Power was winner of the University of San Diego Outstanding Leadership Book Award, and has been translated into two other languages. He has delivered invited, keynote plenary addresses to the Asian Association of Social Psychology, the International Congress of Coaching Psychology, and the International Conference on Social Identity and Sport. Overall, Michael Platow's research has been recognized by his election as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

Michael Platow’s teaching has also been recognized through his receipt of an Australian Commonwealth: (a) Office of Learning and Teaching Carrick Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning and (b) Department of Education and Training Australian Award for University Teaching – Award for Teaching Excellence. In addition to his Ph.D. in psychology, Michael Platow holds a Masters of Higher Education. He has over a quarter century of experience teaching at universities in Australia and overseas; and he has contributed to and taught the social psychology of leadership to the Australian Commonwealth’s: (a) Attorney General’s Course on Counter-Terrorism, (b) Defence College Course on Leadership, and (c) Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Course on Macroeconomic Management in Resource-Rich Countries.

Professor Platow has held leadership positions as an ANU Distinguished Educator and Associate Director (Science Education). He is past-president of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists and the International Society for Justice Research. He is also a former Associate Editor of the international journal Social Psychology and Personality Science. Currently, he is leading the ANU Prejudice Census, which can be found at https://psychology.anu.edu.au/research/projects/prejudice-census .

Researcher's projects

Currently Funded Research

  • Beyond Directional Motivated Reasoning: Social Identity and Partisan Truth (with Eryn Newman, Katherine Reynolds, & Russell Spears) 

$668,696 from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Grant) for years 2023 – 2027

  • Beyond Taxonomy: A Process Driven Investigation of Radicalisation (with Emily Corner, Helen Taylor, & Jane Goodman-Delahunty)

$576,598 from the Australian Office National Intelligence (Discovery Grant) for years 2023 – 2025

Other Current Research

  • Social Identity Processes in Leadership and Social Influence (with Alex Haslam, Steve Reicher and others)
  • Social Identity Processes in Education (with Ken Mavor, Lillian Smyth, & Diana Grace) 

Previously Funded Research

  • Toward a Social-Psychology of Prejudice Reduction: Examining Lay Beliefs (with Martha Augoustinos, Russell Spears, Daniel Bar-Tal, & Dirk Van Rooy)

$322,000 from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Grant)

  • Shying away from having a say: Expanding the social psychology of procedural justice through a continuum model of voice expectations and desires (with Yuen Huo & Tom Tyler)

$243,497 from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Grant)

  • When Immigrants and Converts are Not Truly One of Us: Examining the Social Psychology and Developmental Antecedents of Marginalizing Racism (with Michael Smithson & Diana Grace)

$385,000 from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Grant)

  • The Stifled Voice of Discontent? Toward a Social-Psychological Understanding of Voice Suppression and the Emergence of Subversive Action (with Rachael Eggins)

$120,000 from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Grant)

  • How do We Seek Justice after Hurt, Offence or Terror? Retributive and Restorative Responses (with Michael Wenzel & Norman Feather)

$315,000 from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Grant)

  • Resource Distribution as a Self-Categorization Cue: The Psychology of Inferring Group Membership from the Distribution of Valued Resources

$93,000 from the Australian Research Council (Large Grant)

 

Publications

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Updated:  29 March 2024 / Responsible Officer:  Director (Research Services Division) / Page Contact:  Researchers