Ervin Staub is Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. B.A. and Ph.D. (Stanford University 1965). Taught at Harvard; Visiting Professor at Stanford, the University of Hawaii, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Ervin Staub is a fellow of four divisions of the American Psychological Association. He was President of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence (1999-2000), and President of International Society for Political Psychology (2000-2001). He has applied his work to raising caring and non- violent children, the prevention of genocide and other collective violence, healing and reconciliation, racism, police violence, the passivity of bystanders and ways to mobilize bystanders; intervention/ applied research projects in Rwanda, on “healing, forgiveness and reconciliation” supported by the John Templeton foundation; and working with high level leaders in Rwanda to prevent renewed violence. He is the director of the Ph.D. concentration in “The psychology of peace and the prevention of violence” at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (2002–).

Publications include: Positive social behavior and morality (Vol. 1 Social and personal influences, 1978:Vol. 2, Socialization and development (1979, Academic Press) The roots of evil: The origins of genocide and other group violence (Cambridge University Press, 1989), The cultural-societal roots of violence: The examples of genocidal violence and of contemporary youth violence in the United States (1996), Reason to hope (1994), Co-edited: Patriotism in the lives of individuals and groups (Nelson Hall, 1997),  A brighter future: raising caring non-violent children, Oxford University Press.