Peter McGraw
- Humor Researcher
- Behavioral Economist
- Rule Breaking Innovation
- Marketing Insights
Travels From
Colorado
Peter McGraw Speaker Biography
Peter McGraw is an expert in the interdisciplinary fields of judgment, emotion, and choice. His research has answered questions, such as “How do feelings affect the ways people spend money?” “Can people feel happy and sad at the same time?” and, “Why does the TSA suck?”
His work has appeared in Management Science, Psychological Science, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
McGraw received a B.A. in psychology and M.Ed. in educational psychology from Rutgers University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in quantitative psychology from The Ohio State University. His post-doctoral training was conducted at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, where he was mentored by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman.
McGraw has spent more than a decade examining the antecedents and consequences of humor—work that has moved the study of humor from the niche to the mainstream. One advantage that he has over his predecessors is his ability to conduct state-of-the-art experiments with the help of the team he directs at the Humor Research Lab (aka HuRL), a laboratory dedicated to the experimental study of humor.
He is the co-creator of the Benign Violation Theory, and more than 800,000 people have watched his TEDx talk, “What makes things funny?”.
In 2014, McGraw co-authored The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny. He has written for Slate, Wired, Fortune, and Huffington Post. His work has been covered by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, BBC, TIME, Wired, CNN, The Atlantic, and Harvard Business Review.
McGraw hosts I’M NOT JOKING, a podcast called that looks at the lives of funny people from entertainment, business, science, and the arts.
Shtick to Innovation
The world’s best businesses think differently in their pursuit of novel problem-solving. The world’s funniest people, too, think differently in their pursuit of laughs on command.
After more than a decade studying humor, sharing stages with comics, and hanging out with them in dingy green rooms, McGraw presents entertaining insights gleaned from the most creative rule breakers.
Shtick to Marketing and Sales
Let the world’s funniest people show your organization how to drive growth and sustainable success. McGraw’s entertaining insights will help you uniquely solve problems, craft messages that cut through the clutter, and create ground-breaking products and captivating brands.
Shtick to Success
What do comedians know about killing it in business? McGraw translates the habits of the world’s funniest people into powerful prescriptions for professional achievement – whether starting a new business, climbing the corporate ladder, or simply finding a way to enjoy work.
A Single Insight
The science of selling to solos
Organizations are fixated on families—targeting them with products and promotions. By doing so, however, companies end up competing for the same customers.
Yet, there is another market—one that is overlooked and undervalued.
They are the one hundred and twenty-eight million adults in the United States who are unmarried, contributing to the 28% of households with a single occupant.
Dr. Peter McGraw—a behavioral economist, business professor, and bachelor—knows these singles and how they think, feel, and behave. His talk provides managers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and sales people unique insights into this potential market.
By understanding this huge, diverse group provides a plethora of opportunities to escape the competition.
Topics include:
• The demographic, psychographic, and technological trends behind the explosive growth in single living.
• Who are the four types of singles – and how more half of them are not looking for a traditional long-term relationship.
• What is the best way to measure relationship status to maximize targeting.
• How single living has become a world-wide phenomenon—from Honjoks of South Korea and to the 50% households that are solo in Stockholm Sweden.
September 20, 2021
Peter was kind, easy to work with and knowledgeable.
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