Daniel M. Oppenheimer

Who is Daniel M. Oppenheimer?

Daniel M. Oppenheimer is an associate professor of psychology at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. From 2004 to 2012 he worked at Princeton University's Department of Psychology. Primarily interested in cognitive psychology, he researches causal discounting, charitable giving, perceptual fluency, and people's perceptions of randomness. He won the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in Literature for his paper "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly" which argues that simple writing makes authors appear more intelligent than complex writing. In 2012, he authored a book on political psychology and democracy, Democracy Despite Itself: Why A System That Shouldn't Work at All Works So Well.