Attitude & Decision Making - Alan Lambert
A major focus of our research is to understand the role of emotion and affect in the process by which people form attitudes and judgments about persons and events. Our most recent work has pursued this aim in the context of research and theory on political psychology.
Partial listing of topics currently being investigated by our lab:
Political psychology, broadly defined
- Factors that induce “shift to the right” effects—which would include the tendency for liberals to temporarily respond in a more conservative manner
- Rally ‘round the flag effects (e.g. after the 9-11 attacks)
- Consequences of mortality salience for political judgment
- Cognitive and affective biases surrounding choices for political candidates
- The psychology of the “undecided voter”
Biases in Judgment and Decision Making
- “Wishful thinking” effects
- The role of expertise in increasing and decreasing judgment bias
- Personality dynamics behind “conspiracy theories” (e.g. what type of person tends to hold such beliefs?)
“The justice motive”
- The role of “just world beliefs” in driving judgment and behavior
- Emotional consequences of revenge
- “Sins of the father effects”; how and why people transfer blame across generations
- Perceptions of fairness
- Distribution of wealth and resources across ethnic groups (e.g. Whites vs. Blacks vs. Hispanics)
[video:https://wustl.box.com/s/xr9zccoaiead15ww4dla26sqdj4sba0u align:center autoplay:0]
