Going Native: How the Environmental Psychology Pioneer Roger Barker Turned an Entire Kansas Town into a Laboratory of Human Behavior

Ariel Sabar (Journalist)

Ariel Sabar (award-winning journalist, author of The Outsider: The Life and Times of Roger Barker) will examine how the pioneering figure of environmental psychology, Roger Barker, turned the tiny town of Oskaloosa, Kansas into a living laboratory of human behavior in the early 1950’s. The University of Kansas professor didn’t parachute into town for a one-and-done study. He went native: he moved his family to Oskaloosa, opened a research station on the town square, enrolled his kids in the public schools and lived—and collected data— there for much of the rest of his life. The talk will bring to life Barker’s unusual methods and trailblazing insights into the role of place in the shaping of human behavior.