In my research, I focus on the interrelation between emotions, judgments and decisions in people’s everyday life. Broadly speaking, I’m interested in understanding how people reason and perceive their emotions and how emotions affect judgments and decisions.
To answer these questions, I focus on the following areas.
One is the degree to which people believe they should “listen to their heart” when making judgments and decisions in everyday life. I am especially interested in situations where people’s decisions are strongly guided by their emotions, but—often upon later reflection—people would prefer to be less swayed by emotions. Why are people’s beliefs about what should guide their judgment and decision making sometimes so different from how people make judgments and decisions? What are some of the strategies to bridge this gap?
In a second area, I am interested in people’s perception of their (and others’) emotional experiences. How are people perceiving the intensity of their own (and others’) emotions? Emotions experienced in the moment are perceived as more intense compared with emotions experienced in the past, but how does the context of in which an emotion is experienced change and constrain people’s perceptions of the experience’s intensity?
A third area concerns how specific emotions influence judgments in an intergroup context. One mechanism by which emotions can influence people’s judgments is through emotions’ appraisals. For example, anger might be interpreted as signifying conflict between groups and thus, can have various consequences for intergroup dynamics (e.g. increasing ingroup protective judgment and behavior).
Judgments, Emotions, Decisions, and Intuitions Lab (JEDI) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, directed by Leaf Van Boven (Department of Psychology and Neuroscience) and Peter McGraw (Leeds School of Business).
CU Stereotyping and Prejudice Lab (CUSP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, directed by Irene Blair, Geoff Cohen, Tiffany Ito, Chick Judd, and Bernadette Park.
Center for Research on Judgment and Policy (CRJP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, directed by Leaf Van Boven and Gary McClelland.