Wayne Johnson examines why people support or reject new ideas and how to influence this decision. Specifically, he explores why people disagree and how to persuade them regarding innovation and morals. His work has been published in outlets such as Nature Human Behaviour, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Harvard Business Review. His overarching research agenda includes understanding why and how people arrive at different valuations, the conflicting forces that cause people to react to new ideas with passive vs. active support and opposition, and exploring the implications of morals in belief change, persuasion, and decision-making. His postdoctoral work in moral and evolutionary psychology led him to the Primals lab.

Wayne holds a MS/PhD in management from Cornell University, a MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown, and a BA in communications from Vanderbilt University. He is a retired army officer and led counter-bomb, forestry parachuting, humanitarian, and diplomatic operations. He is married with two children and enjoys skiing, weekly family brunch club, stand-up comedy, and travel.