Elaine Hatfield

Elaine Hatfield
Born	(1937-10-22) October 22, 1937 (age 88) Detroit, Michigan
Education	University of Michigan (BA, 1959) Stanford University (PhD, 1963)
Known for	Passionate Love Scale Passionate and companionate love
Spouse	Richard Rapson
Scientific career
Fields	Social psychology Interpersonal attraction Romantic love
Institutions	University of Wisconsin University of Hawaii
Website	www.elainehatfield.com

Elaine Hatfield (formerly also known as Elaine Walster; ^{[1] [2]} born October 22, 1937) ^[3] is an American social psychologist. ^[4] She has been credited, alongside Ellen Berscheid, as a primary pioneer in the scientific study of love, initially with contributions to the emerging field of interpersonal attraction in the 1960s. ^{[5] [2] [6]} The Passionate Love Scale , developed later in 1986 by Hatfield and Susan Sprecher, is one of the most widely used in the field. ^{[7] [8]}

She is employed as a professor in the psychology department of the University of Hawaii. ^[9]

Education

Hatfield received her BA in Psychology and English in 1959 from the University of Michigan and her PhD from Stanford University in 1963. ^[10]

Career

Relationship science was Hatfield's first professional research focus, beginning at the foundation of her career in the 1960s with an emphasis on human attraction and the nature of romantic love. ^{[1] [11]}

In addition to Berscheid, she has conducted this research with a number of colleagues, including Leon Festinger (her dissertation advisor at Stanford University), Elliot Aronson, William Walster, ^[12] Russell D. Clark, ^[13] and Susan Sprecher. ^[5]

Hatfield's research in the area has not been without controversy: in 1975, the $84,000 grant she was awarded by the National Science Foundation became the focus of the first Golden Fleece Award for wasteful government spending by then United States Senator William Proxmire. ^{[14] [15] [16]} Due to Proxmire's campaign, the funding was rescinded. ^{[16] [17]} Undaunted, Hatfield went on to write or co-write many books and papers based on her research, among them A New Look at Love, which won the American Psychological Foundation's National Media Award, and the often-cited Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality article "Gender Differences in Receptivity to Sexual Offers" (1989). ^{[13] [17]}

In the 1990s, Hatfield and husband, American historian Richard Rapson, ^[16] began researching emotional contagion: the process by which people's emotions are influenced by the demonstrated emotions of their companions. ^[18] This resulted in the book, with John Caccioppo, on Emotional Contagion. (Cambridge University Press, 1994). In the 2000s, she presented alongside Katherine Aumer on the psychology of hate. ^[19]

Hatfield is former chair and professor of psychology at the University of Hawai'i and past president and fellow of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS). In 2012, the Association for Psychological Science gave Hatfield the William James award for a Lifetime of Scientific Achievement. ^[20] In recent years, she has received Distinguished Scientist Awards (for a lifetime of scientific achievement) from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP), from the SSSS, and from the University of Hawai'i, and she has received the Alfred Kinsey Award from the Western Region of SSSS. Two of her books have won the American Psychological Association's National Media Award.

In 2019, She received three more honors: 1) Methodological Innovator Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology; 2) Wall of Fame Award from the Heritage Foundation; and 3) the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Academy for Intercultural Research.

In 2020, her book on the future of love and sex- What's Next in Love and Sex: Psychological and Cultural Perspectives was published by Oxford University Press.

Personal life

Outside of their research, in 1963, Hatfield and Berscheid, then professors at the University of Minnesota, challenged and overcame the university's prohibition against women on faculty dining in the university's Faculty Club. ^[21] She is married to the historian Richard Rapson, whom she met in 1982 at the University of Hawaii. ^{[16] [3]} Formerly, she was married to G. William Walster, but they divorced. ^{[22] [23]}

According to Elaine Hatfield, her father, Charles Hatfield, was of the Hatfield family "of Hatfield and McCoy fame". ^[3]

Select bibliography

• Berscheid, E. & Hatfield, E. (1969). Interpersonal attraction. New York: Addison-Wesley. ISBN   0-201-00560-3.
• Hatfield, E., Walster, G. W., & Berscheid, E. (1978). Equity: Theory and research. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN   0-205-05929-5.
• Hatfield, E. & Walster, G. W. (1985). A new look at love. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. [Winner: American Psychological Foundation's "National Media Award".] ISBN   978-0-8191-4957-2.
• Berscheid, E. & Hatfield, E. (1978). Interpersonal attraction, (2nd ed.) Reading, MS: Addison-Wesley. ISBN   0-201-00569-7
• Griffitt, W., & Hatfield, E. (1984). Human sexual behavior. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman & Co. ISBN   0-673-15057-7
• Hatfield, E., & Sprecher, S. (1986). Mirror, mirror: The importance of looks in everyday life. New York: SUNY Press. [Winner: American Psychological Association's "National Media Award", 1986.] ISBN   0-88706-124-9
• Carlson, J. G. & Hatfield, E. (1992). Psychology of emotion. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. ISBN   0-03-055419-5
• Hatfield, E., & Rapson, R. L. (1993). Love, sex, and intimacy: Their psychology, biology, and history. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN   0-06-500702-6
• Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J., & Rapson, R. L. (1994). Emotional contagion. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-521-44948-0
• Hatfield, E., & Rapson, R. (1996/2005). Love and sex: Cross-cultural perspectives. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. ISBN   0-205-16103-0 Reprint: Lanham, MD: University Press of America. ISBN   0-7618-3232-7.
• Hatfield, E., & Rapson, R., and Jeanette Purvis (2020). What's Next in Love and Sex: Psychological and Cultural Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-1906-4716-2.

References

1. Sternberg, Robert J.; Weis, Karin (2006). The New Psychology of Love. Yale University Press. p. 180. ISBN   0-300-11697-7.
2. Aron, Arthur; Aron, Elaine (1986). Love and the Expansion of Self: Understanding Attraction and Satisfaction. Hemisphere Publishing Corporation. p. 4. ISBN   978-0-89116-459-3. Archived from the original on 29 April 2022. In the late 1960s, social psychology finally took a real interest in attractions of a bit more intensity than a slightly positive first impression. Byrne began to study interpersonal attraction between men and women (sometimes in ongoing relationships), and Hatfield (then Walster), Berscheid, and their associates carried out the first of what are now classic studies of 'romantic liking' and 'dating behavior.'
3. O'Connell, Agnes N. (2013-01-11). "Chapter 10 Elaine Hatfield". Models of Achievement: Reflections of Eminent Women in Psychology, Volume 3. Psychology Press. pp. 136–147. ISBN   978-1-135-65920-2.
4. Etcoff, Nancy (2 February 2011). Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 69. ISBN   978-0-307-77911-3.
5. Reis, Harry T.; Aron, Arthur; Clark, Margaret S.; Finkel, Eli J. (2013). "Ellen Berscheid, Elaine Hatfield, and the Emergence of Relationship Science". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 8 (5): 558–72. doi:10.1177/1745691613497966. PMID   26173214. S2CID   11402943.
6. Berscheid, Ellen (2010). "Love in the Fourth Dimension" . Annual Review of Psychology . 61: 1–25. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100318. PMID   19575626.
7. McAnulty, Richard D.; Burnette, M. Michele (2006). Sex and Sexuality: Sexual function and dysfunction. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 103. ISBN   978-0-275-98583-7.
8. Bode, Adam; Kowal, Marta (3 May 2023). "Toward consistent reporting of sample characteristics in studies investigating the biological mechanisms of romantic love". Frontiers in Psychology . 14. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.983419 . PMC   10192910 . PMID   37213378.
9. Hatfield, Elaine. "Elaine Hatfield - Home". elainehatfield.com. Archived from the original on 12 September 2024. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
10. Hatfield, Elaine. "Curriculum Vita". elainehatfield.com. Archived from the original on 5 December 2024. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
11. McCormack, Patricia (1978-05-25). "Those popular love notions overhauled". Reading Eagle.
12. "Study of Love". Lakeland Ledger. 1978-08-03.
13. Voracek M, Hofhansl A, Fisher ML (August 2005). "Clark and Hatfield's evidence of women's low receptivity to male strangers' sexual offers revisited". Psychological Reports. 97 (1): 11–20. doi:10.2466/pr0.97.1.11-20. PMID   16279298. S2CID   24465677.
14. Aukofer, Frank A. (December 8, 1999). "Proxmire honored for sharp eye on $: Taxpayers' group gives founder of Golden Fleece an award of his own". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . p. 3A. Archived from the original on August 21, 2018. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
15. Severo, Richard (December 16, 2005). "William Proxmire, Maverick Democratic Senator From Wisconsin, Is Dead at 90". The New York Times . Retrieved October 31, 2007.
16. "Elaine Hatfield Collection". The Kinsey Institute. Archived from the original on 20 January 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
17. Ogas, Ogi; Gaddam, Sai (5 May 2011). A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships. Penguin Group US. p. 70. ISBN   978-0-525-95209-1.
18. Hatfield, Elaine; Rapson, Richard (1998). "Emotional Contagion and the Communication of Emotion". In Mark T. Palmer and George A. Barnett (ed.). Mutual Influence in Interpersonal Communication: Theory and Research in Cognition, Affect, and Behavior. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 73. ISBN   978-1-56750-347-0.
19. Herbert, Wray (23 May 2014). "The Anatomy of Everyday Hate". Huffington Post. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
20. "Psychology professor wins prestigious lifetime achievement award". University of Hawaiʻi . 4 May 2011. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2025.
21. Ogas, Ogi; Gaddam, Sai (5 May 2011). A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships. Penguin Group US. p. 69. ISBN   978-0-525-95209-1.
22. Bennetts, Leslie (28 July 1978). "A Scientist's Love Story: Research on Passion and Beyond". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 6 March 2025. Retrieved 27 December 2025.
23. "The Wisconsin Magazine; 553". American Archive of Public Broadcasting . 6 December 1978. Archived from the original on 27 December 2025. Retrieved 27 December 2025. People magazine [...] suggested that the Walster's marriage reflected their know how on the subject of love. [...] Today the book is out, the Walsters are divorced [...].