Curriculum Vitae — Dr. Blair Jarvis

Profile

Overview

Blair Jarvis is a social psychologist and data scientist whose primary specializations are research design and methods, machine learning, and advanced statistical analysis. His academic work centers on the psychology of attitudes, persuasion, and measurement, with additional expertise in the design of software and hardware for behavioral and opinion-based research.

He founded Empirisoft Corporation in 1998 and built research software — MediaLab and DirectRT — that have been used in more than 3,000 labs across 80+ countries. Alongside three decades of consulting, his applied work spans data science, questionnaire design, public and political opinion research, market and data analysis, product testing, and the assessment of persuasive strategies.

Appointments

Professional roles

Nov 2023 – present

Director of Machine Learning & Data Science

BlackLine · New York, NY

Leads research applying machine learning and data science to finance and accounting automation. (Previously Principal Data Scientist, 2022–2023.)

1998 – present

President & Owner

Empirisoft Corporation

Founded the company and created its research software, MediaLab and DirectRT, used by university and industry labs worldwide.

1995 – present

Independent Research & Data Science Consultant

Public opinion, market analysis, product testing, and the measurement of persuasion

1998 – 2000

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Annenberg School for Communication / Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania · with Martin Fishbein

Education

Degrees

Ph.D., Social Psychology Ohio State University · 1998 · Advisor: Richard Petty

M.A., Social Psychology Ohio State University · 1993 · Advisor: Richard Petty

M.A., Psychology University of Western Ontario · 1991 · Advisor: James Olson

B.A. (Honors), Psychology University of Western Ontario · 1990 · Advisor: Michael Atkinson

Honors & fellowships

Awards

Dissertation Award — Society for Experimental Social Psychology, for the year’s best doctoral dissertation in the field.Top field award
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship — University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg Public Policy Center (1998–2000).
SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship — Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (1994–1998).
NSERC Graduate Fellowship — Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (1990–1992).

Research software

MediaLab & DirectRT

The first versions of MediaLab and DirectRT were written in Richard Petty’s lab at Ohio State to run the studies behind Dr. Jarvis’s own dissertation — the research that went on to win the SESP dissertation award. Those tools became Empirisoft, and the software has been developed and supported by researchers ever since.

Used around the world. MediaLab (multimedia experiment authoring) and DirectRT (millisecond-precision reaction-time measurement) have been used in more than 3,000 labs across 80+ countries. See the software →

Selected publications

Journal articles

Cacioppo, J. T., Petty, R. E., Feinstein, J., & Jarvis, W. B. G. (1996). Dispositional differences in cognitive motivation: The life and times of individuals varying in need for cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 197–253.
Jarvis, W. B. G., & Petty, R. E. (1996). The need to evaluate. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 172–194.
Petty, R. E., Tormala, Z. L., Briñol, P., & Jarvis, W. B. G. (2006). Implicit ambivalence from attitude change: An exploration of the PAST model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 21–41.
Wegener, D. T., Petty, R. E., Bedell, B. T., & Jarvis, W. B. (2001). Implications of attitude change theories for numerical anchoring: Anchor plausibility and the limits of anchoring effectiveness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 62–69.
Wheeler, S. C., Jarvis, W. B., & Petty, R. E. (2001). Think unto others… The self-destructive impact of negative stereotypes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 173–180.
Mallotte, K., Fishbein, M., Jarvis, W. B. G., & The Project Respect Study Group (2000). Stage-of-change vs. an integrated psychosocial theory as a basis for developing effective behavior change interventions. AIDS Care, 12, 357–364.
Fishbein, M., & Jarvis, W. B. G. (2000). Failure to find a behavioral surrogate for STD incidence — what does it really mean? Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 27(8), 452–455.

Book chapters

Petty, R. E., & Jarvis, W. B. G. (1996). An individual differences perspective on assessing cognitive processes. In N. Schwarz & S. Sudman (Eds.), Answering questions (pp. 221–257). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Petty, R. E., Jarvis, W. B. G., & Evans, L. M. (1996). Recurrent thought: Implications for attitudes and persuasion. In R. S. Wyer (Ed.), Advances in social cognition (Vol. 9, pp. 145–164). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Petty, R. E., Gleicher, F. H., & Jarvis, B. (1993). Persuasion theory and AIDS prevention. In J. B. Pryor & G. Reeder (Eds.), The social psychology of HIV infection (pp. 155–182). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Petty, R. E., Tormala, Z. L., Briñol, P., & Jarvis, W. B. G. (2001). Meta-cognitive factors in persuasion. In S. E. Heckler & S. Shapiro (Eds.), Proceedings of the Society for Consumer Psychology Winter Conference (pp. 170–173). Tempe: Society for Consumer Psychology.

Dissertation & theses

Jarvis, W. B. G. (1998). Do attitudes really change? Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University.SESP award
Jarvis, W. B. G. (1990). Attitude change through exposure to a persuasive communication subsequent to inductions of deliberative and implemental mindsets. Honors thesis, University of Western Ontario.

Selected presentations

Talks & conference papers

Jarvis, W. B. G. (1998). Multimedia software for laboratory experimentation. Annual meeting of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, Lexington, KY.
Petty, R. E., & Jarvis, W. B. G. (1998). What happens to the “old” attitude when attitudes change? Society for Experimental Social Psychology, Lexington, KY.
Jarvis, W. B. G., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Validation of the need to evaluate scale: Individual differences in evaluative responding. American Psychological Society, Washington, D.C.
Jarvis, W. B. G., Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1995). Reducing the impact of anchors: The moderating role of knowledge. American Psychological Society, Chicago, IL.
Petty, R. E., Gleicher, F., & Jarvis, W. B. G. (1995). Using persuasion-related strategies to modify AIDS-related attitudes and behaviors. American Psychological Association, New York, NY.

Applied & consulting work

Selected clients

Three decades of applied research in public opinion, market analysis, product testing, and strategic communication.

Nationwide Insurance Enterprise — communications audit; program evaluation
Nestlé Research & Development — product testing
American Electric Power — strategic facilitation
City of Columbus — longitudinal service-performance survey
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency — public opinion assessment & strategy
Ohio Department of Natural Resources — public education materials
Ohio Tuition Trust Authority — longitudinal market analysis
State of Ohio, Dept. of Labor — statewide attitude assessment
U.S. Air Force Reserve — recruiting & retention strategy
Liebert Global Services — product testing & market analysis
Columbus Medical Association — program evaluation & member survey
HMS Partners — persuasive media testing
ADAMH Board — public opinion assessment & strategy
Techneglas Corporation — internal communications evaluation
University of Pennsylvania — media-testing software development
University of Western Ontario — College of Business survey

LinkedIn Social Psychology Network profile iJarvis.com ← Back to About

Dr. Blair G. Jarvis

Overview

Professional roles

Director of Machine Learning & Data Science

President & Owner

Independent Research & Data Science Consultant

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Degrees

Awards

MediaLab & DirectRT

Journal articles

Book chapters

Dissertation & theses

Talks & conference papers

Selected clients