As an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, Gregory Walton's research examines the nature of self and identity, often in the context of academic motivation and achievement. He is interested in social factors relevant to motivation, in stereotypes and group differences in school achievement, and in social-psychological interventions to raise achievement and narrow group differences.

Walton earned his A.B. in Philosophy from Stanford and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale University. After graduate school, he worked for a year as a fellow in the Office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Waterloo.