Dr Paul O'Keefe

Paul A. O’Keefe is an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the University of Exeter Business School and Director of the Mindsets & Motivation Lab. He earned his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Duke University. Afterward, he was a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University.

Prof. O’Keefe studies motivation and goal pursuit, focusing on the roles of implicit theories (also known as “mindsets”), interest, and passion. His research has been published in leading scientific journals, such as Psychological Science, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, and the Journal of Educational Psychology. It has also been featured in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, BBC, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, World Economic Forum, and Financial Times. He has also contributed articles to popular outlets such as The New York Times and Harvard Business Review. Moreover, he is the lead editor of The Science of Interest and an Associate Editor at the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. His research has also been supported by various competitive funding agencies including United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UK), the National Institutes of Health (USA), the Ministry of Education (Singapore), and the Workforce Development Applied Research Fund (Singapore).

For more information about Dr. O'Keefe and his research, visit www.paulokeefe.com.