Social psychologists at Essex share interests in experimental social psychology, particularly cognitive-motivational social psychology. Our work combines laboratory based, and field studies in health and cultural psychology. We enjoy excellent, well-maintained and supported facilities for computer driven experimentation and a rich participant pool. There is also an observation lab and we have access to supported use of EEG and TMS facilities. The group has international collaborators in the US, Europe and Asia and we regularly welcome visitors and internees.

Recently funded projects;

Cozzolino, P. (2008-2010). The psychology of liberty. Leverhulme.

Orbell, S. (2008-2009). Social and cognitive aspects of ‘sick’ behaviour. ESRC.

Uskul A. (2007-2009).  Cultural Construction of Honor in Turkey and the U.S. National Science Foundation, Social Psychology Program Division.

Uskul, A. (2007-2008). Modes of Subsistence and Socio-Cognitive Processes. British Academy.

Geeraert, N. (2008-2012). The impact of living abroad: Stress, adaptation, and intergroup contact. ESRC..

Cozzolino, P. (2007-2008). Death contemplation, growth, and defense: Social-psychological consequences of dual-existential systems. British Academy

Rakow, T. (2008-2009). Assessing complex graphics for communicating medical risks to the public. British Academy.


Recent publications include:

Niemiec, C. P., Brown, K. W., Kashdan, T. B., Cozzolino, P. J., Breen,  W., Levesque, C., & Ryan, R. M. (in press). Being present in the face  of existential threat: The role of trait mindfulness in reducing  defensive responses to mortality salience. Journal of Personality and  Social Psychology.

Morison, L. A., Cozzolino, P. J., & Orbell, S. (2010). Temporal
perspective and parental intention to accept the Human Papillomavirus vaccination for their daughter. British Journal of Health Psychology,15, 151-165.

Cozzolino, P. J., Sheldon, K. M., Schachtman, T. R., & Meyers, L. S. (2009). Limited time perspective, values, and greed: Imagining a limited future reduces avarice in extrinsic people. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 399-408.

Cozzolino, P. J., & Snyder, M (2008). Good times, bad times: How personal disadvantage moderates the relationship between social dominance and efforts to win. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1420-1433.

Cozzolino, P. J. (2006). Death contemplation, growth, and defense: converging evidence of dual-existential systems? Psychological Inquiry, 17, 278-287.

Cozzolino, P. J., Staples, A. D., Meyers, L. S., & Samboceti, J. (2004). Greed, death, and values: From terror management to transcendence management theory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 278-292.

Hagger, M., Chatzisarantis. N., & Harris, J. (2006). From psychological need satisfaction to intentional behavior: Testing a motivational sequence in two behavioral contexts. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 131-148.

Geeraert, N., & Yzerbyt, V.Y. (2007). Cultural Differences in the Correction of Social Inferences: Does the Dispositional Rebound occur in an Interdependent Culture? British Journal of Social Psychology, 46, 423-435.

Geeraert, N., & Yzerbyt, V.Y. (2007). How fatiguing is dispositional suppression? Disentangling the effects of procedural rebound and ego-depletion. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 216-230.

Geeraert, N., Yzerbyt, V.Y., Corneille, O., & Wigboldus, D. (2004). The return of dispositionalism: On the linguistic consequences of dispositional suppression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 264-272.

Uskul, A. K., Sherman, D., & Fitzgibbon, J. (in press). The Cultural Congruency Effect: Culture, regulatory focus, and the effectiveness of gain- vs. loss-framed health messages. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Kitayama, S., Park, H., Sevincer, A. T., Karasawa, M., & Uskul, A. K. (in press). A cultural task analysis of implicit independence: Comparing North America, Western Europe, and East Asia. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Rakow, T., Demes, K.A & Newell, B.R. (2008). Biased samples not mode of presentation: Re-examining the apparent underweighting of rare events in experience-based choice. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 06, 168-179.

Uskul, A. K., Kitayama, S. & Nisbett, R. N. (2008). Ecocultural basis of cognition: Farmers and fishermen are more holistic than herders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 105, 8552-8556.

Oyserman, D., Uskul, A. K., Yoder, N., Nesse, R., & Williams, D. (2007). Unfair treatment and self-regulatory focus. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 505-512.

Henderson, C.J., Orbell, S. & Hagger, M. (2009). Illness schema activation and attentional bias to coping procedures. Health Psychology, 28, 101-107.

Rakow, T., Newell, B.R., Fayers, K., & Hersby, M. (2005). Evaluating three frameworks for establishing cue-search hierarchies in inferential judgment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 31(5), 1088-1104.

Orbell, S. & Kyriakaki, M. (2008) Temporal framing and persuasion to adopt preventive health behavior: Moderating effects of individual differences in consideration of future consequences on sunscreen use. Health Psychology, 27, 770-779.

Verplanken, B. & Orbell, S. (2003). Reflections on past behavior: A self-report index of habit strength. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 1313-1330.

Orbell, S., Hodgkins, S., & Sheeran, P. (1997). Implementation intentions and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 953-962

Sheeran, P., Abraham, C., & Orbell, S. (1999). Psychosocial correlates of heterosexual condom use: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin,125, 90-132