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 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 8 books and over 400 journal articles and chapters.
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.
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.
Jason Clark [Visiting Scholar – Sponsor: Duane Wegener]
Jason received his Ph.D. from Purdue University and he is currently serving as a visiting scholar at OSU. His work focuses on persuasion and behavior change along with stereotype threat and self-affirmation. He has published numerous articles in some of the top journals in social psychology.
Yanhong Zhang [Visiting Scholar – Sponsor: Richard Petty]
Yanhong is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Psychology at Yangtze University in Jingzhou, China. She is spending the current academic year as a visiting scholar at OSU. Her past research includes projects on implicit gender stereotypes and cyberbullying. Her current research focus of interest is on the relationship between loneliness and cell phone addiction. She can be reached at: zhang.13672@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 as well as a minor in international relations in 2021. She is currently a second year graduate student in the social psychology doctoral program working on hers masters thesis. Her research interests broadly include political affirmations and empathy. She is currently working on understanding differences in outcomes between perceived and actual message elaboration. She can be reached at acevedo-torres.1@osu.edu
Kelly Amaddio [Graduate Student – Advisor: Duane Wegener]
Kelly earned her BS in behavioral science from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2013 and her MS in Engineering Management-Human Factors Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 2015. Before coming to OSU, she taught Leadership and Psychology at the US Air Force Academy’s Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership. She is current a first year student in the decision psychology doctoral program where her research interests focus on social influence and persuasion, especially regarding misinformation. She also serves as an active duty Information Operations Officer in the US Air Force. She can be contacted at amaddio.4@osu.edu.
Keathun Cunningham [Graduate Student – Advisor: Duane Wegener]
Keathun received his BA in psychology from The Ohio State University in 2022. He is currently a first year graduate student in the social psychology doctoral program working on his masters thesis. His research interests concern the validation and invalidation of attitudes that people have of stigmatized groups, for example in ex-offenders. He can be contacted at cunningham.899@osu.edu.
Grace Edmonds [Graduate Student – Advisor: Duane Wegener]
Grace earned her bachelors degree with honors in psychology at Queen’s University in Canada where she was involved in research in computational memory, visual cognition, and sexual health. She is currently a first year student in the social psychology doctoral program working on her masters thesis. Her current research interests focus on stereotyping, discrimination, and intergroup relations. She can be contacted at: edmonds.127@osu.edu
Jacob Goebel [Graduate student – Advisor: Duane Wegener]
Jake received his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Vassar College in 2018 and he then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University working with Alin Coman focused on decision making. His masters thesis on the topic of social networks was completed in 2022. He is currently a third year student in the social psychology doctoral program, continuing his thesis research on social networks. He can be reached at goebel.83@osu.edu.
Nick Khaligh [Graduate Student — Advisor: Duane Wegener]
Nick received his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from George Mason University and his MS in psychology at OSU. He is now a fourth year student in the social psychology doctoral program continuing his masters thesis work on the topic of human values. Nick can be reached at: khaligh.1@osu.edu.
Mark Matthews [Graduate Student – Co-advisors: Duane Wegener and Richard Petty]
Mark received his BA in psychology with minors in both history and professional writing from The Ohio State University at Mansfield in 2016 and his MA in general psychology from the University of Dayton in 2018. He is a fourth year student in the social psychology Ph.D. program. His research aims to examine: (1) how individual differences in beliefs and personality affect persuasion processes, and (2) the ways in which people answer the question, “Who am I,” and the consequences thereof. Currently Mark is working on a distance learning project capturing the life stories from people across all 50 United States (AmericanDiscoveryTour.com).
Joe Siev [Graduate Student — Advisor: Richard Petty]
Joe completed a B.A. in history at the University of Maryland-College Park in 2009 and an M.A. in social psychology in 2019 at OSU, where he is currently a Ph.D. candidate. His research investigates the psychology of extremism, including factors that motivate people to make extreme sacrifices for their beliefs (e.g., martyrdom), and causes and consequences of perceiving others to be extremists about their opinions. Conversely, Joe is also interested in the psychology of moderation and is currently exploring motives for avoiding identification with political parties and other groups (e.g., labeling oneself as an independent). He would be happy to hear from you at: siev.1@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 third year graduate student in the social psychology doctoral program. She is broadly interested in political identity and the strength of people’s commitments to their political attitudes when those attitudes are challenged. She is currently examining what variables contribute to the perception of political scandal. She can be reached at: williams.7548@osu.edu.
