Rose McDermott, Brown University

The Lasswell Award for Outstanding Research in Political Psychology goes to Rose McDermott, the David and Mariana Fisher University Professor of International Relations at Brown University, past-president of the ISPP, and a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the letter of nomination, the nominator noted that “This is the preeminent award in political psychology. I cannot imagine a more deserving recipient. It is mindboggling to consider the range and depth of her contributions: the field would look very different if not for Professor McDermott. Consider a few examples. In her book, Risk Taking in International Relations, she explores the role of uncertainty and sex in crisis situations. In this work, Professor McDermott recognizes limitations in extant models of foreign decision making (e.g., rational choice models), and overcomes these limitations by adopting a model based on prospect theory. She was one of the first political scientists to incorporate framing and risk-taking into political science. It set the stage for work across fields—foreign policy decision-making, opinion formation, political communication, and so on. (She edited a two-volume special issue on prospect theory, as a sign of her impact.) This book catapulted her to the top of the field as reflected by her being awarded the ISPP’s Erikson (now Sidanius) Award. Professor McDermott also was one of the early initiators of using experiments in political science. She wrote a pioneering Annual Review of Political Science paper on experimental methods, edited two special issues, and wrote an agenda-setting chapter on validity in the Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Her insights were foundational for how political scientists do their work. (She additionally wrote a fantastic paper on experimental and case study methods.) She also was among the first in the field to explore the role of genetics in politics, doing so with appropriate thoughtfulness and nuance. On top of this, she wrote a remarkable book on presidential mental health (using extensive archival evidence), edited a book on measuring identity, and wrote on intelligence success/failure, ethics in experiments, sex/ gender, and more. Professor McDermott is, in short, a phenomenal scholar. She also has had an enormous professional impact on the field, and is a model colleague, mentor, teacher, and person. She is long overdue for this award. “  The Committee also noted McDermott’s work in collecting and making available, free of charge to any legitimate scholar, the data in WomanStats (https://www.womanstats.org/), done with Valerie Hudson.