Current Areas of Research
We have four major lines of ongoing research that all rest on multi-level integrative analyses of social behavior.
In a program of research supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, we are seeking to understand the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying affect and emotion, with a particular emphasis on implicit individual differences in affective processing.
In a program of research supported by the National Institute on Aging, we are conducting a study of social connectedness and health. A unique aspect of this study is the simultaneous collection of economic, sociological, interpersonal, psychological, autonomic, endocrinological, and immunological data in a longitudinal, population-based design.
In a program of research supported by the Templeton Foundation, we are examining the psychological and neural bases of anthropomorphism and dehumanization, social connection to non-human surrogates and their health consequences, and the neurobiological substrates of religious beliefs and experiences.
Finally, in research sponsored by the Department of Army, we are investigating whether learning theory may provide a superior approach to assessing what people know or do not know.
Additional information is available by perusing recent publications, available by clicking the Publications and Reprints link on the right.
