Stephen Porges

{{short description|Scientist and professor (born 1945)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| image = Steve_Porges.jpg

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| name = Stephen Porges

| birth_name = Stephen W. Porges

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1945}}

| birth_place = New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States

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| nationality = American

| field = Psychology

| work_institution = Indiana University, University of North Carolina

| alma_mater = Drew University (BA)
Michigan State University (MA, PhD)

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| known_for = Polyvagal theory

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}}

Stephen W. Porges (born 1945) is an American psychologist. He is the Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[https://www.med.unc.edu/psych/directory/stephen-porges/ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine], accessed March 1, 2022 Porges is currently the Director of the Kinsey Institute Traumatic Stress Research Consortium at Indiana University Bloomington,[https://kinseyinstitute.org/about/profiles/sporges.php Indiana University Bloomington], accessed March 1, 2022 which studies trauma.

He was previously a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he was director of the Brain-Body Center at the College of Medicine, and at the University of Maryland.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

He proposed the still-unproven polyvagal theory in 1994, which is not endorsed by current social neuroscience.{{Cite book |last1=Todorov |first1=Alexander |title=Social Neuroscience: Toward Understanding the Underpinnings of the Social Mind |last2=Fiske |first2=Susan |last3=Prentice |first3=Deborah |year=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-972406-2}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}{{Cite book|last=Ward|first=Jamie|title=The Student's Guide to Social Neuroscience|year=2016|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-1-317-43918-9}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}{{Cite book|last1=Schutt|first1=Russell K.|title=Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society|last2=Seidman|first2=Larry J.|last3=Keshavan|first3=Matcheri S.|date=2015|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-72897-4}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}

{{Cite book|last1=Litfin|first1=Karen T.|title=Social Neuroscience: People Thinking about Thinking People|last2=Berntson|first2=Gary G.|date=2006|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-03335-0}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}{{Cite book|last1=Baron-Cohen|first1=Simon|title=Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from Developmental Social Neuroscience|last2=Tager-Flusberg|first2=Helen|last3=Lombardo|first3=Michael|year=2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-969297-2}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}{{Cite book|last1=Cacioppo|first1=Stephanie|title=Introduction to Social Neuroscience|last2=Cacioppo|first2=John T.|year=2020|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-16727-5}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}{{Cite book|last1=Decety|first1=Jean|title=The Oxford Handbook of Social Neuroscience|last2=Cacioppo|first2=John T.|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-534216-1}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}

Porges is currently a psychologist with interests in cranial nerve responses, particularly as they relate to both humans and animals.