Social Psychology Faculty

Effects of motivation and emotion on social cognition; evolutionary psychology; individual differences; judgment and decision making; romantic attraction and romantic relationships; interpersonal power; prosocial behavior; friendship and affiliation; intergroup psychology & prejudice.

Why are people sometimes inclined to make risky choices? Why do people sometimes pay particular attention to outgroup members, sometimes to attractive others, and still other times to high status group members? Why do we sometimes "see" particular attributes in others, even when those attributes are not really there? My research addresses questions like these, using cognitive and evolutionary frameworks to explore ways in which social motives and emotions influence processes such as attention, person perception, judgment, and decision-making. Much of my current work involves the following areas: risky decision-making, romantic attraction and the maintenance of romantic relationships, interpersonal power, friendship and affiliation, and prosocial behavior. I am also interested in applications of these phenomena to clinical psychology.

Maner, J. K., Miller, S. L., Schmidt, N. B., & Eckel, L. A. (in press). Submitting to Defeat: Social Anxiety, Dominance Threat, and Decrements in Testosterone. Psychological Science.
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Maner, J. K., Rouby, D. A., & Gonzaga, G. (in press). Evolved Mechanisms for Relationship Maintenance: Automatic Inattention to Attractive Alternatives. Evolution & Human Behavior.
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Maner, J. K., DeWall, C. N., & Gailliot, M. T. (in press). Selective attention to signs of success: Social dominance and early stage interpersonal perception. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
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Maner, J.K., Gailliot, M.T., Rouby, D.A., & Miller, S.L. (2007). Can’t take my eyes off you: Attentional adhesion to mates and rivals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 389-401.
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Maner, J.K., DeWall, C.N., Baumeister, R.F., & Schaller, M. (2007). Does social exclusion motivate interpersonal reconnection? Resolving the “porcupine problem.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 42-55.
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Maner, J. K., Gailliot, M. T., Butz, D., & Peruche, B. M. (2007). Power, risk, and the status quo: Does power promote riskier or more conservative decision-making? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33,451-462.
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Maner, J.K., Gailliot, M.T., & DeWall, C.N. (2007). Adaptive Attentional Attunement: Evidence for Mating-Related Perceptual Bias. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28, 28-36.
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Maner, J. K., & Gerend, M. A. (2007). Motivationally selective risk judgments: Do fear and curiosity boost the boons or the banes? Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 103, 256-267.
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Maner, J. K., & Schmidt, N. B. (2006). The Role of Risk-Avoidance in Anxiety. Behavior Therapy, 37, 181-189.
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Maner, J. K., Kenrick, D. T., Neuberg, S. L., Becker, D. V., Robertson, T., Hofer, B., Delton, A., Butner, J., & Schaller, M. (2005). Functional projection: How fundamental social motives can bias interpersonal perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 63-78.
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Maner, J., Kenrick, D., Becker, D., Delton, A., Hofer, B., Wilbur, C., & Neuberg, S. (2003). Sexually selective cognition: Beauty captures the mind of the beholder. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 1107-1120.
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Maner, J. K., Luce, C. L., Neuberg, S. L., Cialdini, R. B., Brown, S., Sagarin, B. J. (2002). The effects of perspective taking on helping: Still no evidence for altruism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1601-1610.
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Kenrick, D. T., Maner, J. K., Butner, J., Li, N. P., Becker, D. V., & Schaller, M. (2002). Dynamical evolutionary psychology: Mapping the domains of the new interactionist paradigm. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6, 347-356.