Jon Krosnick - Personal Life

Personal Life

Krosnick was born on January 5, 1959 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to an opera-singer, Evelyn Rieber Krosnick, and Arthur Krosnick, who loved opera. Arthur was a physician who was a diabetes specialist and researcher. Evelyn was a music educator. They were patrons of George Nakashima and collected furniture he designed for their home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Jon Krosnick has a sister, Jody Arlyn, who is a surgeon. He became interested in music at an early age, starting to learn how to play the piano at age 6 and going to a music camp at Interlochen at age 9, where he first encountered jazz drummer Peter Erskine. Erskine would later be a musical influence on him. Krosnick continued playing percussion instruments from elementary school on, becoming a member of the electric jazz band, Charged Particles.

Krosnick went to Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and graduated in 1976. He later graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1980 with a B.A. in Psychology. He then received both an M.A. in 1983 and a PhD in Social Psychology in 1986 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. On June 1, 1986, Krosnick married Catherine Ann Heaney. He joined the departments of psychology and political science at Ohio State University, Columbus, as a lecturer in 1985, became an assistant professor in 1986, and was promoted to associate professor in 1991. He became a professor and was a member of the Ohio State University (OSU) political psychology program and co-directed the OSU summer institute in political psychology. In 2004, Krosnick became a professor at Stanford, where his wife also accepted a faculty position. The couple have a daughter who attends Stanford as an undergrad. Jon and Catherine now live in Portola Valley, next to Stanford.