Research

I have applied my interest in attitudes and social cognition to the development of three programs of work.

1) Attitude generalization and goal-pursuit:

In my primary line of research, I have developed a theoretical model in which individual differences in attitude generalization tendencies–referred to as people’s valence weighting bias–interact with assessments afforded by the goal-pursuit situation (e.g., “have I done enough?” when studying for a test) to shape self-regulatory behavior (e.g., amount of time spent studying for a test). We find that in some contexts, those who tend to overweight the positives perform more poorly. For instance, those with a more positive valence weighting bias tend to spend less time reading a text passage in preparation for an in-lab quiz, and in turn, perform worse on the quiz. However, those who preferentially weigh negative information perform more poorly in other contexts: undergraduates with a more negative valence weighting bias tend to procrastinate to a greater extent in completing a research participation requirement.

2) The consequences of believing specific conspiracy theories: More recently, I have explored the consequences of believing specific conspiracy theories. In one line of work, my collaborators and I find that believing in specific conspiracy theories at baseline—namely conspiracy theories about COVID-19—predict increases in conspiracist ideation—the general tendency to believe conspiracy theories—over time. That is, endorsing conspiracy theories about a given event appear to pave the way for subsequent increases in one’s openness to a variety of other conspiracy theories. My latest research focuses on understanding the qualities of beliefs that make them particularly likely to predict behavior. Across several studies using large, nationally-representative samples, we find that conspiracy beliefs predict behavior most strongly when they are held with strength (e.g. certainty, importance) and actionability (i.e., having behavioral implications).

3) Bypassing as an avenue for attitude and behavior change:

I have also conducted research that leverages a non-confrontational technique for bringing about attitude and behavior change called bypassing. In one series of experiments, I find that after exposure to misinformation, providing alternative beliefs about the object in question with the opposite evaluative implication can change attitudes and behavioral intentions just as much, and sometimes more so, than the provision of a correction.