Icek Ajzen Wins BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Sciences
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Icek Ajzen, a professor emeritus from the College of Natural Sciences’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, has been selected as one of five winners for this year’s BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Sciences. These awards recognize contributions that have revolutionized attitude theory and its practical applications.
The BBVA Foundation focuses its activity on “the analysis of emerging issues in five strategic areas: environment, biomedicine and health, economy and society, basic sciences and technology, and culture,” and designs, develops, and funds research projects in these areas.
Attitude theory refers to “the study and understanding of the various theoretical and empirical aspects of attitudes within the field of social psychology. It explores topics such as the formation and change of attitudes, different measures of attitudes, and the relationship between attitude structure and strength [ScienceDirect].”
Ajzen is known for his study of the relation between attitude and behavior through his work with the late social psychologist Martin Fishbein. Their research yielded one of social psychology’s most celebrated models for explaining and predicting human behavior: the theory of planned behavior (TPB), which “explains how behavior is influenced by attitudes, perceived social pressure, and the difficulty of performing the behavior.”
Since its introduction in 1985, the TPB model has been used in more than 2,000 research studies, consistently demonstrating its value in pinpointing the factors that drive human behavior. This insight has informed the development of targeted strategies to promote behavioral change across a range of disciplines. In public health, for example, this model has supported interventions to increase vaccination rates, encourage condom use to prevent HIV/AIDS, and promote regular physical activity. In environmental contexts, it has helped shape initiatives aimed at shifting transportation habits—such as encouraging public transit use over private vehicles by improving access to bus and subway networks.
“Today, we face complex challenges that demand not only new technologies or policies but also a good understanding of human behavior,” argues Ajzen. “Whether we are working to improve public health, protect the environment, or promote entrepreneurship and innovation, we need to know how to help people make choices that align with these goals. The theory of planned behavior offers a conceptual framework for this important work.”
Learn more about this year’s BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Sciences.