Scott O. Lilienfeld (December 23, 1960 – September 30, 2020)[1] was a professor of psychology at Emory University and advocate for evidence-based treatments and methods within the field.

Along with having his work featured in major U.S. newspapers and journals such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Scientific American, Lilienfeld made television appearances on 20/20, CNN and the CBS Evening News.

"[7] Lilienfeld studied psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1982.

[7][9] Lilienfeld considered himself a generalist, saying "this breadth makes me a better researcher and thinker" with a broad perspective on the field of psychology.

Lilienfeld, along with his colleague Sally Satel, has dedicated much of his career in psychology to debunking "the pop neuroscience that keeps making headlines".

[13] They target such practices as functional magnetic resonance imaging (or neuroimaging)[14] to "detect" moral and spiritual centers of the brain,[15][16] which they call "oversimplified neurononsense".

[7]Lilienfeld has written critically about eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR),[18] the use of the Rorschach test to make psychological diagnosis,[3] recovered memory therapy,[19] real-world application of the concept of microaggressions,[20] and misconceptions in autism research, such as the MMR vaccine controversy, noting that "multiple controlled studies conducted on huge international scales have debunked any statistical association between the MMR vaccine and autism", and fad treatments such as facilitated communication.

[23] During a James Randi Educational Foundation panel at the 2014 Amaz!ng Meeting, Lilienfeld was asked if he thought rationality could be taught.

Psychotherapist Donald Meichenbaum remembered his scholarship and critical-mindedness and his wise insistence on healthy professional self-doubt and self-criticism.

Shauna Bowes, a doctoral student at Emory University, emphasized the direct applicability of Lilienfeld's research to individuals' lives and remembered him as a passionate and dedicated teacher.