Hans Eysenck

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Lore & Background

Eysenck was born in Berlin, Germany. His mother was Silesian-born film star Helga Molander, and his father, Eduard Anton Eysenck, was an actor and nightclub entertainer once voted the 'handsomest man on the Baltic coast'. His mother was Lutheran and his father was Catholic. Eysenck was brought up by his maternal grandmother who was a Jewish convert to Catholicism. Subjected to the Nuremberg laws, she was deported and died in a concentration camp. An initial move to England in the 1930s became permanent because of his opposition to the Nazi party and its persecutions. 'My hatred of Hitler and the Nazis, and all they stood for, was so overwhelming that no argument could counter it.' He received his PhD in 1940 from University College London working under Professor Sir Cyril Burt. Eysenck was Professor of Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, from 1955 to 1983. He created and developed a distinctive dimensional model of personality structure based on empirical factor-analytic research, attempting to anchor these factors in biogenetic variation. In 1981, Eysenck became a founding member of the World Cultural Council. He was the founding editor of the international journal Personality and Individual Differences, and wrote about 80 books and more than 1,600 journal articles. He was an atheist. Eysenck died of a brain tumour in a London hospice in 1997.

Reader's Guide

Eysenck's significance lies in his major contributions to the modern scientific theory of personality and his development of a biogenetically based dimensional model. However, his legacy is deeply contested. An enquiry on behalf of King's College London found the papers by Eysenck coauthored with Ronald Grossarth-Maticek to be 'incompatible with modern clinical science', with 26 of the joint papers considered suspect. Fourteen papers were retracted in 2020, and over 60 statements of concern were issued by scientific journals in 2020 about publications by Eysenck. David Marks and Rod Buchanan have argued that 87 publications by Eysenck should be retracted. His research on race and IQ, first published in 1971, was a significant source of controversy. Eysenck supported Arthur Jensen's questioning of whether variation in IQ between racial groups was entirely environmental. Some of Eysenck's later work was funded by the Pioneer Fund, an organization which promoted scientific racism. Eysenck also received funding for consultation research via the New York legal firm Jacob & Medinger, which was acting on behalf of the tobacco industry; according to The Independent newspaper, Eysenck received more than £800,000 in this way. His career thus exemplifies both influential theoretical innovation and serious questions about research integrity.

Did You Know?

• Eysenck was brought up by his maternal grandmother, a Jewish convert to Catholicism who was deported and died in a concentration camp.
• He was once punched in the face by a protester during a talk at the London School of Economics over his views on race and IQ.
• Eysenck received more than £800,000 from the tobacco industry via the New York legal firm Jacob & Medinger for consultation research.
• An enquiry on behalf of King's College London found 26 of Eysenck's joint papers with Ronald Grossarth-Maticek suspect, leading to 14 retractions in 2020.
• Eysenck was a founding member of the World Cultural Council in 1981.