Michael E. W. Varnum

5.6k total citations · 1 hit paper
64 papers, 3.1k citations indexed

About

Michael E. W. Varnum is a scholar working on Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science and Cognitive Neuroscience. According to data from OpenAlex, Michael E. W. Varnum has authored 64 papers receiving a total of 3.1k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 42 papers in Social Psychology, 41 papers in Sociology and Political Science and 16 papers in Cognitive Neuroscience. Recurrent topics in Michael E. W. Varnum's work include Cultural Differences and Values (37 papers), Social and Intergroup Psychology (29 papers) and Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (16 papers). Michael E. W. Varnum is often cited by papers focused on Cultural Differences and Values (37 papers), Social and Intergroup Psychology (29 papers) and Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (16 papers). Michael E. W. Varnum collaborates with scholars based in United States, Canada and China. Michael E. W. Varnum's co-authors include Igor Grossmann, Shinobu Kitayama, Richard E. Nisbett, Jinkyung Na, Henri C. Santos, Shihui Han, Oliver Sng, Douglas T. Kenrick, Steven L. Neuberg and Richard Gonzalez and has published in prestigious journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología.

In The Last Decade

Michael E. W. Varnum

62 papers receiving 3.0k citations

Hit Papers

align trajectories

What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

Global Increases in Individualism

2017 295 citations Henri C. Santos, Michael E. W. Varnum et al. Psychological Science profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name	h						Papers	Cites
Michael E. W. Varnum United States	23	1.9k	1.4k	648	614	311	64	3.1k
Richard P. Eibach Canada	27	1.3k 0.7×	1.5k 1.1×	507 0.8×	456 0.7×	393 1.3×	54	3.1k
Sik Hung Ng New Zealand	36	1.8k 0.9×	1.5k 1.1×	262 0.4×	514 0.8×	440 1.4×	132	4.1k
Igor Grossmann Canada	34	2.6k 1.4×	1.5k 1.1×	798 1.2×	708 1.2×	569 1.8×	86	4.4k
Mayumi Karasawa Japan	27	2.0k 1.1×	1.2k 0.9×	326 0.5×	453 0.7×	713 2.3×	46	3.4k
Rhiannon N. Turner United Kingdom	32	2.3k 1.2×	3.0k 2.2×	520 0.8×	287 0.5×	421 1.4×	85	4.1k
Sara Konrath United States	32	1.7k 0.9×	1.6k 1.2×	382 0.6×	532 0.9×	1.6k 5.0×	81	4.5k
Shira Gabriel United States	25	2.1k 1.1×	1.6k 1.2×	346 0.5×	514 0.8×	573 1.8×	55	3.5k
Alberto Voci Italy	28	2.3k 1.2×	3.2k 2.3×	407 0.6×	278 0.5×	503 1.6×	74	4.1k
Jenessa R. Shapiro United States	24	1.2k 0.6×	1.5k 1.1×	430 0.7×	653 1.1×	510 1.6×	39	3.1k
Curtis D. Hardin United States	22	1.7k 0.9×	2.4k 1.8×	539 0.8×	433 0.7×	279 0.9×	39	3.5k

Countries citing papers authored by Michael E. W. Varnum

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Michael E. W. Varnum's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Michael E. W. Varnum with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Michael E. W. Varnum more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Michael E. W. Varnum

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Michael E. W. Varnum. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Michael E. W. Varnum. The network helps show where Michael E. W. Varnum may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Michael E. W. Varnum

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Michael E. W. Varnum. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Michael E. W. Varnum based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Michael E. W. Varnum. Michael E. W. Varnum is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

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20 of 20 papers shown

Götz, Friedrich M., Daniel R. Montello, Michael E. W. Varnum, Davide Luca, & Douglas T. Kenrick. (2025). A unified framework integrating psychology and geography. Nature Human Behaviour. 9(9). 1780–1792.

Kenrick, Douglas T., et al.. (2024). Sibling aggression is surprisingly common and sexually egalitarian. Evolution and Human Behavior. 45(2). 214–227. 1 indexed citations

Neuberg, Steven L., et al.. (2024). Responses to political partisans are shaped by a COVID-19-sensitive disease avoidance psychology: A longitudinal investigation of functional flexibility.. American Psychologist. 80(2). 193–205. 2 indexed citations

Varnum, Michael E. W., Nicolas Baumard, Mohammad Atari, & Kurt Gray. (2024). Large Language Models based on historical text could offer informative tools for behavioral science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121(42). e2407639121–e2407639121. 10 indexed citations

Hutcherson, Cendri A., et al.. (2023). On the accuracy, media representation, and public perception of psychological scientists’ judgments of societal change.. American Psychologist. 78(8). 968–981. 4 indexed citations

Barlev, Michael, et al.. (2022). The Ecology-Culture Dataset: A new resource for investigating cultural variation. Scientific Data. 9(1). 615–615. 7 indexed citations

Rotella, Amanda, Michael E. W. Varnum, Oliver Sng, & Igor Grossmann. (2021). Increasing population densities predict decreasing fertility rates over time: A 174-nation investigation.. American Psychologist. 76(6). 933–946. 17 indexed citations

Varnum, Michael E. W., et al.. (2021). Why are song lyrics becoming simpler? a time series analysis of lyrical complexity in six decades of American popular music. PLoS ONE. 16(1). e0244576–e0244576. 13 indexed citations

Varnum, Michael E. W., et al.. (2021). Changing cultures, changing brains: A framework for integrating cultural neuroscience and cultural change research. Biological Psychology. 162. 108087–108087. 9 indexed citations

10.

Varnum, Michael E. W., et al.. (2019). Variations in the regulation of affective neural responses across three cultures.. Emotion. 21(2). 283–296. 14 indexed citations

11.

Sng, Oliver, Steven L. Neuberg, Michael E. W. Varnum, & Douglas T. Kenrick. (2018). The behavioral ecology of cultural psychological variation.. Psychological Review. 125(5). 714–743. 95 indexed citations

12.

Santos, Henri C., Michael E. W. Varnum, & Igor Grossmann. (2017). Global Increases in Individualism. Psychological Science. 28(9). 1228–1239. 295 indexed citations breakdown →

13.

Sng, Oliver, Steven L. Neuberg, Michael E. W. Varnum, & Douglas T. Kenrick. (2017). The crowded life is a slow life: Population density and life history strategy.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 112(5). 736–754. 88 indexed citations

14.

Varnum, Michael E. W. & Shinobu Kitayama. (2017). The neuroscience of social class. Current Opinion in Psychology. 18. 147–151. 22 indexed citations

15.

Sevincer, A. Timur, Shinobu Kitayama, & Michael E. W. Varnum. (2015). Cosmopolitan cities: the frontier in the twenty-first century?. Frontiers in Psychology. 6. 1459–1459. 14 indexed citations

16.

Varnum, Michael E. W., Chris Blais, & Gene A. Brewer. (2015). Social class affects Mu-suppression during action observation. Social Neuroscience. 11(4). 449–454. 26 indexed citations

17.

Han, Shihui, et al.. (2013). ENHANCING CULTURALLY CONGRUENT SELF-CONSTRUALS DECREASES EMPATHIC NEURAL RESPONSES. Scientia Forestalis. 1 indexed citations

18.

Varnum, Michael E. W., Zhenhao Shi, Antao Chen, Jiang Qiu, & Shihui Han. (2013). When “Your” reward is the same as “My” reward: Self-construal priming shifts neural responses to own vs. friends' rewards. NeuroImage. 87. 164–169. 65 indexed citations

19.

Varnum, Michael E. W. & Shinobu Kitayama. (2010). What’s in a Name?. Psychological Science. 22(2). 176–183. 89 indexed citations

20.

Varnum, Michael E. W.. (2008). RAPID ADAPTATION TO SOCIAL CHANGE IN CENTRAL EUROPE: CHANGES IN LOCUS OF CONTROL, ATTRIBUTION, SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING, SELF-DIRECTION, AND TRUST. Sociologia. 40(2). 215–235. 6 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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