Steven Franconeri

Steve Franconeri is a professor of Psychology at Northwestern University, where he directs the Cognitive Science Program and the Visual Thinking Laboratory. He also holds courtesy appointments in Design at the McCormick School of Engineering and in Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management.

His lab studies how the visual system, the largest single system in the brain, can help people think, remember and communicate more efficiently. He is lead author of “The Science of Visual Data Communication: What Works” in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, and has served as academic chair of the primary data visualization conference.

In 2025 he founded Point Taken, a game and workshop series that uses argument mapping to make disagreements clearer and calmer. In a study with 38 Northwestern participants, mapping an argument together increased understanding of opposing views and lowered animosity across political lines.