Roy F. Baumeister holds the Eppes Eminent Professorship in the Department of Psychology at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. in experimental social psychology from Princeton University in 1978. He has also taught and conducted research at the University of California at Berkeley, Case Western Reserve University, University of Texas, University of Virginia, the Max-Planck Institute in Munich (Germany), and Stanford's Center for Advanced Study. He has contributed more than 300 professional publications (including 18 books), spanning such topics as self and identity, performance under pressure, self-control, self-esteem, finding meaning in life, sexuality, decision making, thoughts on free will, aggression and violence, suicide, interpersonal processes, social rejection, the need to belong, and human nature. His research on self-regulation has been funded for many years by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Templeton Foundation.

Kathleen D. Vohs is Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Vohs received her Ph.D. in psychological and brain sciences from Dartmouth College in 2000, after which she conducted research at the University of Utah and Case Western Reserve University. In 2003, she joined the Marketing Division at the University of British Columbia, where she was awarded the Canada Research Chair in Marketing Science and Consumer Psychology. In 2007, Vohs was named a McKnight Land-Grant Professor at the University of Minnesota. Vohs has contributed to more than 80 professional publications, including coediting 3 books. Her theories highlight the role of the self, and her research has been extended to the domains of chronic dieting, bulimic symptoms, sexuality, and impulsive and compulsive spending. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada, and the American Cancer Society.