Ronald Baenninger, Ph.D.

 

Email:  ronald.baenninger@temple.edu
Phone: Unavailable

Interests: Aggression, violence and predation in humans and other species. Interactions between humans and other species. Rituals and displays of vertebrates (including humans).

Professor Baenninger has devoted his professional career to the comparative study of violence and aggression, within and between several different species of vertebrates, including humans.  As Editor-in-Chief of Aggressive Behavior , the international, multidisciplinary journal published by John Wiley & Sons, he has had an impact on this field of research for many years.  He is also a member of the Governing Council of the International Society for Research on Aggression, and its official Archivist.

After earning his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, Dr. Baenninger was awarded an M.S. degree in Industrial Administration by Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University).  Following a stint on the faculty of Bethany College, his doctorate was earned at The Johns Hopkins University under the guidance of James S. Myer in Experimental Psychology. His dissertation research was on spontaneous mouse-killing by rats and he also carried out studies of instinctive aggression in Siamese fighting fish ( Betta splendens ).

These studies continued after Dr. Baenninger joined the faculty at Temple University, augmented with field work on interspecies aggression in Panama (on Barro Colorado Island), and in Kenya and Tanzania with Richard Estes. A longtime interest in the rituals and displays that reduce aggression in animals led to a research focus on yawning as a communicative signal.  Following from the work on interspecies predation and aggression Dr. Baenninger has spent several years writing books and research articles on the topic of relationships between humans and other animals.  In recent years his research has focused on roles of animals in development of empathy and cruelty in humans.