Gene Heyman earned a PhD in experimental psychology from Harvard University (1977). His thesis tested economic interpretations of the “matching law,” a behavioral principle that describes how animals and people make choices. After a year of teaching undergraduate classes, Heyman took a post-doctoral position in the Department of Pharmacological and Physiological Sciences at the University of Chicago. The psychopharmacological studies led to a research position in drug discovery for a pharmaceutical company. In 1987, Heyman returned to the Harvard Psychology Department. One of his goals was to develop an animal model of addiction that would shed light on how addictive drugs gained control over behavior. He also began teaching an undergraduate course on addiction. This proved a pivotal experience. He writes:

I based my lectures on a wide variety of sources, including historical, epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory studies. The readings changed my mind about the nature of addiction. I had accepted as true the received wisdom that addicts were involuntary, compulsive drug users. The research pointed to a different, more complex, and interesting conclusion. Scientific accounts of how addicts behave revealed that the factors that influence most decisions, such as economics, familial responsibilities, and values, also persuaded addicts to quit using drugs. My book, Addiction: A Disorder of Choice, summarizes key features of the natural history of addiction and introduces a simple, conceptual framework that makes sense of self-destructive choices, such as those made by addicts. My approach is based on elementary, well-established principles and research in economics and the psychology of choice.

Heyman has received several Harvard teaching awards and published more than fifty papers and chapters on topics in choice, basic behavioral processes, psycho-pharmacology, and addiction. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and private foundations. Most recently he has been teaching Introduction to Psychology as a Natural Science at Boston College, where he is a Visiting Associate Professor.