Daniel M. Wegner
Papers
7
Total Citations
1,715
H-Index
7
About
Daniel M. Wegner was a pioneering social psychologist whose research fundamentally reshaped our understanding of mind perception, consciousness, and the boundaries between humans and machines. His work centered on how people attribute minds to others—including robots, animals, and even inanimate objects—and the profound consequences of those attributions. His most influential paper, "Feeling robots and human zombies: Mind perception and the uncanny valley" (878 citations), revealed that the unsettling feeling of uncanny robots stems from perceiving them as having limited, incomplete minds. In related work, he showed that robots with humanlike faces are perceived as having more mind and better personality (260 citations), and that mind perception predicts willingness to use eldercare robots (216 citations). Wegner also discovered "timescale bias"—that people infer mind from speed of movement (214 citations)—and the provocative "harm-made mind" effect, where witnessing harm to an entity leads observers to perceive it as having a mind (100 citations). His book *The Mind Club* explores who we include in our circle of beings with minds. With over 1,700 citations across these works alone, Wegner’s legacy endures in robotics, AI ethics, and moral psychology.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Feeling robots and human zombies: Mind perception and the uncanny valley878 citations · 2012
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- 4Timescale bias in the attribution of mind.214 citations · 2007
- 5The Harm-Made Mind100 citations · 2013
- 6Who Is the Controller of Controlled Processes?24 citations · 2004
- 7The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters23 citations · 2016