Theodore Mead Newcomb (July 24, 1903 – December 28, 1984) was an American social psychologist, professor and author.

A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Newcomb as the 57th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

He graduated as valedictorian of his high school, and during his address he criticized the New York State Legislature for "Having denied seats to two legally elected members on grounds that they were bolshvistic socialists."

Newcomb graduated summa cum laude from Oberlin College in 1924 and attended Union Theological Seminary.

[3] He was also editor of Psychological Review from 1954-1958 [4] Newcomb died at home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1984 at 81 years old.

[5] He was survived by his wife, the former Mary Esther Shipherd; two daughters, Esther Goody, of Cambridge, England, and Suzanne Mosher, of Chelsea, Michigan; a son, Theodore M. Newcomb, Jr., of Seattle; seven grandchildren, and a sister, Constance Eck, of East Lansing, Michigan.

After a four-year longitudinal study he was able to show degrees of change concerning then contemporary public issues and how that varied directly with length of stay in the college and the status position within the student body.

Newcomb offered 17 men entering college free rent as long as they recorded their attitudes, likes, and dislikes each week.

[2][6] The study led to a number of principles of attraction that lead to the formation of groups both elaborated by Newcomb, and then later by other researchers.

[6] Newcomb found that many of the dyads in his Bennington College study consisted of roommates and individuals in adjoining rooms.

For example, one group favored liberal politics and religious ideas, were enrolled in the arts college, were from the same part of the country, as well they shared comparable aesthetic, social, and theoretical views.