Deborah Prentice

Deborah Prentice
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge
Incumbent
Assumed office July 1, 2023
Preceded by	Anthony Freeling (acting)
Provost of Princeton University
In office July 1, 2017 – March 13, 2023
Preceded by	David S. Lee
Succeeded by	Jennifer Rexford
Personal details
Born	Deborah A. Prentice
Education	Stanford University (BA) Yale University (MS, MPhil, PhD)

Deborah A. Prentice is an American scholar of psychology and university administrator. She serves as the vice-chancellor at the University of Cambridge. She previously served as provost at Princeton University and Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs.

Education

Prentice graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in human biology and music from Stanford University in 1984. She then pursued graduate studies at Yale University, where she received an M.S. in psychology in 1986, an M.Phil. in psychology in 1987, and a Ph.D. in psychology in 1989.

Career

Prentice began teaching at Princeton in 1988, becoming an assistant professor in 1989. Prior to becoming provost on July 1, 2017, Prentice served as Dean of the Faculty from 2014 to 2017.

Her research focuses on social norms. Her pioneering work on pluralistic ignorance applied to college campus alcohol use is a foundation of numerous campus alcohol education and bystander intervention programs.

Personal life

Prentice is married with three children.

Works

• "Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some consequences of misperceiving the social norm" with D.T. Miller, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 64(2): 243–256. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.64.2.243 http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-3514.64.2.243
• "What women and men should be, shouldn't be, are allowed to be, and don't have to be: The contents of prescriptive gender stereotypes" with E. Carranza, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26 (2002), 269–281.
• "Essentializing differences between women and men" with D.T. Miller, Psychological Science, 17 (2006), 129–135.
• (2006). "On the distinction between acting like an individual and feeling like an individual" in T. Postmes & J. Jetten (eds.) Individuality and the Group: Advances in Social Identity (37–55). (Sage Publications, 2006).
• "Mobilizing and weakening peer influence as mechanisms for changing behavior: Implications for alcohol intervention programs" in M. J. Prinstein & K. A. Dodge (eds.) Understanding Peer Influence in Children and Adolescents (161–180). (Guilford, 2008).
• "The psychology of social norms and the promotion of human rights" in R. Goodman, D. Jinks, & A. K. Woods (eds.), Understanding Social Action, Promoting Human Rights (Oxford University Press, in press)