Richard E. Petty [Faculty]
Rich received his MA and PhD degrees from Ohio State University where he currently is Distinguished University Professor of psychology. Much of his current work (and that of the students and colleagues with whom he collaborates) focuses broadly on the situational and individual difference factors responsible for changes in beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Topics of special current interest include: understanding the role of meta-cognitive (e.g., confidence/certainty) as well as implicit (automatic or unconscious) factors in persuasion, resistance to change, and advocacy; the effect of racial and ethnic prejudice, specific emotions, and morality on social judgment and behavior; and investigating how people correct their evaluations for various factors they think may have biased their judgments. He has received career contribution awards from APA, SESP, SPSP, SCP, and PMIG. His prior service includes being Editor of PSPB and serving as President of SPSP, FPSP, and MPA. His work has resulted in 9 books and over 450 journal articles and chapters. He can be contacted at petty.1@osu.edu
Duane T. Wegener [Faculty]
Duane received his MA and PhD degrees from Ohio State University. After serving as Assistant Professor of psychology at Yale and Associate Professor and Full Professor at Purdue University, he joined OSU in 2010 where he is currently Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of psychology. His research focuses on attitudes and bias correction. Current topics include influences on the amount and nature of information processing, antecedents of various aspects of attitude strength, meta-cognitive influences on use of attitudes in judgment and behavior, and antecedents and consequences of perceptions of persuasive source characteristics. His research extends theories of attitudes and bias correction across domains such as stereotyping, misinformation effects, impression formation, and judgment and decision-making. His recognitions include the APA Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to social psychology (2001) and serving as editor of PSPB (2013-2016). His research has resulted in 1 book and over 100 journal articles and book chapters. He can be contacted at wegener.1@osu.edu
Patrick J. Carroll [Faculty]
Pat is currently Professor of psychology at OSU-Lima. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Florida, he was a NIMH postdoctoral fellow in social psychology at Ohio State from 2004-2007. His research focuses on the social revision of identity and the ultimate consequences of those identity revisions for mental health and well-being. He also studies the psychology of the changer. This line of inquiry explores how and why someone would try to change another person’s self-views. He has published in several prominent journals, including Social Psychological and Personality Science, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and the Review of General Psychology. He has also served on the editorial board of several journals and as associate editor for a special issue of Basic and Applied Social Psychology. Finally, Carroll co-edited the 2010 Handbook of the Uncertain Self as well as its 2025 second edition as well as being the lead editor of the 2015 Handbook of Personal Security.
Lanier Holt [Faculty]
Lanier received his MA and PhD degrees from Indiana University in Bloomington. He is a former journalist and currently Associate Professor of communications at OSU. An award winning researcher and teacher, his research examines the social and psychological effects media messages have on audiences’ perception of African Americans, women and other traditionally marginalized groups. Holt’s research sits at the confluence of Journalism, media effects and social psychology. Using framing, social dominance and social identity theories, he investigates the underlying psychological mechanisms that operate when audiences are exposed to race-related news media and how it influences their opinions about Blacks.
Pablo Briñol [Research Associate — Sponsor: Richard Petty]
Pablo received his MA and PHD degrees from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid where he currently serves as Distinguished Professor of psychology. After a postdoc with Richard Petty, he continues as a regular visiting scholar at Ohio State. His primary research interest focuses on the study of the psychological mechanisms underlying attitudes and persuasion with an emphasis on metacognitive processes and measures of change. In 2017 he received the Kurt Lewin Medal from the European Association of Social Psychology as a leading mid-career researcher in social psychology. His research has appeared in the field’s top journals and includes more than 100 publications.
James Hillman [Postdoctoral Fellow – Sponsor: Richard Petty]
James earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Queen’s University in 2024. He is in his second year of a postdoctoral fellowship funded by SSHRC. His research interests cover three broad topics: belonging, narratives, and change. In terms of belonging, his research examines how people perceive and react to inconsistency with those around them. He has developed Social Verification Theory (Hillman et al., 2023, Personality and Social Psychology Review) as a theoretical framework to understand how validation, dissonance, and conformity integrate with belonging needs. James is also interested in the study of narratives and change. His work on narratives explores how people’s perceptions of common narratives (whether true or not) can guide their expectations of change. He can be reached at hillman.218@osu.edu.
Jonah Koetke [Postdoctoral Fellow – Sponsor: Richard Petty]
Jonah received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 2025. He is in his first year at OSU funded in a postdoctoral position funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. His research focuses on (1) ideological conflict and (2) limited public acceptance of accurate and science-based information. In both these areas, his research often examines the implications of having intellectual humility and/or perceiving intellectual humility in others. His work has been published in journals such as Nature: Human Behavior, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Social Psychological and Personality Science. He can be reached at koetke.2@osu.edu
Borja Paredes [Postdoctoral Fellow — Sponsor: Richard Petty]
Borja received his MA from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and his Ph.D. from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of psychology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Presently he is a visiting scholar at OSU funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. His primary research interest focuses on the study of persuasion, identity, and meta cognition. His research output includes more than 40 publications which have appeared the field’s top journals including the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and the European Journal of Social Psychology. Borja can be reached at paredes.45@osu.edu
Sam Taylor [Postdoctoral Fellow – Advisor: Richard Petty]
Sam received his masters and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Bath (UK) in 2025. He is in his first year at Ohio State on a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. His research focuses on values (particularly shared values and value similarity), attitude strength, and open-mindedness. His work has been published in journals such as Social Psychological and Personality Science, Royal Society Open Science, and the Journal of Clinical Pathology. He can be reached at taylor.4713@osu.edu
Darcy Acevedo-Torres [Graduate Student – Advisor: Richard Petty]
Darcy received her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez in 2021. She completed her masters thesis in 2023 and is currently a fifth year graduate student in the social psychology doctoral program. She is currently working on understanding differences in outcomes between perceived and actual message elaboration, public reactions to protest actions, public reactions to the wealthy, and when exactly the ‘minimal groups’ paradigm works. She can be reached at acevedo-torres.1@osu.edu
Brett Burton [Graduate Student – Advisor: Richard Petty]
Brett earned his BA in psychology at Gettysburg College in 2022. He completed his masters thesis in 2025 which examined the role of attitudinal conflict and extremity in predicting extreme belief endorsement. He is currently a third year graduate student in the social psychology doctoral program. His research focuses on (1) extreme beliefs and attitudes (including conspiracy theories), (2) consumer extremism and persuasion, and (3) group dynamics and the effect of power and status. Much of his current work centers around the role of ambivalence in predicting extremity in belief and behavioral outcomes. Brett can be reached at burton.702@osu.edu.
Angela Wang [Graduate Student – Advisor: Steven Spencer]
Angela received her B.A. in Psychology and Computer Science from Williams College in 2022, where she worked with Professors Jeremy Cone and Steven Fein. She completed her masters thesis at OSU in 2024 on cultural differences in confronting sexism between China and The U.S. She is is currently a fourth year graduate student in the social psychology doctoral program. Her research broadly focuses on culture and how it affects stereotypes and prejudice as well as attitudes and persuasion more generally. Angela can be reached at wang.16048@osu.edu.
Sydney Williams [Graduate Student — Advisor: Richard Petty]
Sydney received her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Central College in 2020 and her MA in psychology from OSU in 2022. She is currently a sixth year Ph.D. candidate in the social psychology doctoral program. Her research investigates the emotional and cognitive processes that shape responses to political (and other) scandals, with a particular focus on how expectancy violations influence judgments of their severity. More broadly, she examines the psychological foundations of prejudice and discrimination, aiming to generate insights that can inform efforts to reduce bias and foster more equitable social interactions. Sydney can be reached at: williams.7548@osu.edu.
Allie Woodard [Graduate Student — Advisor: Duane Wegener]
Allie completed her BS in psychology at Ohio State in 2025. As an undergraduate, she explored multiple research areas including, stereotyping and prejudice, self-control, and pharmacy education. Allie is now a first year graduate student in the social psychology doctoral program. Currently, she is broadly interested in attitude change and misinformation as well as prejudice toward the transgender and nonbinary community. Allie can be reached at woodard.209@osu.edu.
