Research
Areas: attitude change, social cognition, and
quantitative methods.
Interests: Attitude change/social cognition interests
especially address factors that influence the amount and nature of
informationprocessing. Specific programs of research have addressed effects
of mood and emotion, matching of message content to bases of attitudes,
attitude accessibility, attitude ambivalence, and values as influences
on information processing. In recent work, message
position moderates many of these effects. Related research
has also investigated the consequences information processing for persistence of beliefs and
attitudes over time and resistance to social influence (including extensions of
this work to the areas of judgment and decision making -- especially numerical
anchoring -- and stereotyping and prejudice). Much of the research in
attitudes and social cognition also focuses on the biases that can be created in
people's thoughts and perceptions and on the steps that people sometimes make in
attempts to rid their thoughts and perceptions of perceived biases.
Writing on the topics of research methods and quantitative (psychometric) methods has
included papers on construct validity (including multi-trait, multi-method analyses),
factor analysis, and covariance structure modeling.
Academic Biography
Education: B.A. in Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1989 (Summa Cum Laude & Phi Beta Kappa); M.A. in Social Psychology, Ohio State University, 1991;PhD in Social Psychology, Ohio State University, 1994 (minors in Quantitative Psychology and Consumer Behavior)
Academic Positions: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Yale University, 1994-1997; Associate Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, 1997-2003 (tenured in 2000); Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, 2003-2010; Professor, Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, 2010-present
Honors and Awards: American Psychological Association (APA) Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology (area: Social Psychology), 2001 [Citation printed in American Psychologist (2001), 56, 905-908.]; University Faculty Scholar, Purdue University, 2004-2009; Elected to Fellow Status in: APA (2008), Association for Psychological Science (2005), Midwestern Psychological Association (2009), Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP; 2009), Society for Personality and Social Psychology (2008); Fellow in the Center for Behavioral and Social Science, Purdue University, 2004; Elected to SESP membership, 1999; SESP Dissertation Award Finalist -- Honorable Mention Distinction (1994 Dissertation); APA Dissertation Research Award, 1994; Graduate Student Alumni Research Award, Ohio State University, 1993; Herbert Toops Dissertation Research Award, Ohio State University, 1993; Summa Cum Laude & Phi Beta Kappa, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1989
Professional Service
Editing and reviewing: Journals --Social and Personality Psychology Compass - Attitudes and Social Cognition, Section Co-Editor, Jan. 2007 - present; Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Associate Editor, Jan. 2000 - Dec. 2001, Guest Editor, 2009; Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Associate Editor, Jan. 2005 - June 2007; Social Cognition, Guest Editor for Special issue on the use of naive theories in social judgment and behavior, with Richard Petty (Spring 1998); Consulting Editor for Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Jan. 1998 - Dec. 1999, Jan. 2002 - Dec. 2004, Feb. 2009 - present; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Jan. 2002 - present, and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Jan. 2003 - present; Ad hoc reviewer for numerous journals, conferences, and granting agencies. Grant panel -- National Science Foundation, Social Psychology Review Panel, Fall 2008 - Spring 2011.
Federal policy work: Roundtable discussant, National Science Board Task Force on Sustainable Energy, Berkeley, CA (2008); Written and oral testimony for 2007 U.S. House of Representatives hearing on "Contributions of the social sciences to the Energy Challenge," submitted to Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, Committee on Science and Technology. Written testimony available at http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?NewsID=1956
Committees and organization: SPSP Publications Committee (2009-2011); Initiative Leader/Executive Board Member, Purdue University Energy Center at Discovery Park (Social, Economic, and Political Aspects of Energy Use and Policy, 2006-2010); Co-Organizer, SPSP Attitudes Preconference, with Leandre Fabrigar and Tara MacDonald (2001 -- inaugural meeting, 2002, 2003); Co-Organizer, Purdue-Indiana Meeting on Persuasion Science, with Zak Tormala (2006, 2007); Organizer, Attitudes Cavalcade (AttCav, 2008 - present); SESP Dissertation Award Selection Committee (2001); Social Psychology Area Coordinator, Purdue University (2000-2003).