Adam Alter

“Adam Alter demystifies the science and practice of uncovering motivation, unlocking creativity, and unleashing change.”Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again

Adam Alter is the author of Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, a groundbreaking study on why tech-based products and experiences are so hard to ignore (or put down). Our obsessions with platforms like Netflix and TikTok are no accident, but the result of careful work by tech companies and marketers. Adam reverse-engineers behavioral addiction, explaining how we can harness addictive products for the good: meaning better savings, improved communications, and clearer boundaries between work and play, pleasure and business. He shared his insights on the TED mainstage, delivering a talk so popular—one of the top ten of the year—that he was invited back a second time.

In his newest book Anatomy of a Breakthrough, Adam draws on his academic background in psychology and behavioral science to look at case studies of people who’ve gotten stuck, and how they broke through that stasis to achieve great things—like the sub-average swimmer who became a two-time Olympic medalist, or the renowned painter who became paralyzed and relearned to paint with a brush strapped to his wrist. We can learn more about resilience, teamwork, and innovation when we get stuck than when we don’t, he says.

In his New York Times bestseller Drunk Tank Pink, Adam offers a revelatory look at how our environment unconsciously, yet dramatically, shapes the decisions we make. Rather than being in control of every single one of our choices, we’re powerfully influenced by a laundry list of external forces, often without ever realizing it. Adam reminds us that while our decisions do change, they often change for shorter periods than we anticipate. So what aspects of our lives right now will stick in the future? In brilliant, psychology-informed talks, he shows us how we can navigate shifting experiences, both inside the workplace and out, and increase our productivity, happiness, and fulfillment moving forward.

“Alter not only explains the source of many cognitive quirks, but convincingly argues that comprehending them affords a better understanding of broader behaviors, from cyclical poverty to altruism.”Publishers Weekly

Aside from his bestselling books, Adam has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, WIRED, and Slate, among other publications, and has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air, TED Radio Hour, All Things Considered, Science Friday, and Marketplace.  He has shared his ideas at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and with dozens of companies, including Google, Microsoft, Anheuser Busch, Prudential, and Fidelity, as well as with design and ad agencies around the world.

Adam is a marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, and has an affiliated professorship with the university’s Psychology Department. He won both the faculty-voted and MBA student-voted Stern Professor of the Year Awards in 2020 and again in 2024. He currently sits on the World Economic Forum steering committee, a board dedicated to investigating the risks and benefits of emerging augmented reality technologies. Adam received his Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of New South Wales and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Princeton University, where he held the Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Honorific Dissertation Fellowship and a Fellowship in the Woodrow Wilson Society of Scholars.