Dr. Baumeister is president-elect of the International Positive Psychology Association, as well as professor of psychology (emeritus) at the University of Queensland, with ongoing connections to Florida State University, the University of Bamberg (Germany), and Jacobs University (Germany). He received his PhD in experimental social psychology from Princeton University in 1978 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley. He has roughly 700 publications, and his 42 books include Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty, The Cultural Animal, Meanings of Life, and the New York Times bestseller Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.

As of summer 2021, Google Scholar tallies that his works have been cited over 230,000 times in the scientific literature, with annual tallies routinely over 18,000 and an H-index of 188. His research interests include self and identity, belongingness and interpersonal rejection, finding meaning in life, sexuality, aggression, self-control and self-esteem, uncertainty, addiction, decision-making, and thinking about the future.