New York University
SOCIAL PERCEPTION ACTION
and MOTIVATION LAB
Lab Director: Dr. Emily Balcetis
Publications
2023
Huang, L., Jia, S., Balcetis, E., & Zhu, Q. (2022). ADVERT: An adaptive and data-driven attention enhancement mechanism for phishing prevention. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security. OSF
Qu-Lee, J., & Balcetis, E. (2022). The call for ecological validity is right but missing perceptual idiosyncrasies is wrong. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45.
Qu-Lee, J., Siedel, B., Harel, D., Granot, G., & Balcetis, E. (2022). The relationship between visual confirmation bias, belief consistency, and belief polarization. Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology. 1-38 OSF
Rosenfeld, D. L., Balcetis, E., Bastian, B., Berkman, E. T., Bosson, J. K., Brannon, T. N., Burrow, A. L., Cameron, C. D., Chen, S., Cook, J. E., Crandall, C., Davidai, S., Dhont, K., Eastwick, P. W., Gaither, S. E., Gangestad, S. W., Gilovich, T., Gray, K., Haines, E. L., Haselton, M. G., Haslam, N., Hodson, G., Hogg, M. A., Hornsey, M. J., Huo, Y. J., Joel, S., Kachanoff, F., Kraft-Todd, G., Leary, M. R., Ledgerwood, A., Lee, R. T., Loughnan, S., MacInnis, C. C., Mann, T., Murray, D. R., Parkinson, C., Pérez, E. O., Pyszczynski, T., Ratner, K., Rothgerber, H., Rounds, J. D., Shaller, M., Silver, R. C., Spellman, B. A., Strohminger, N., Swim, J. K., Thoemmes, F., Urganci, B., Vandello, J. A., Volz, S., Zayas, V., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2022). Psychological science in the wake of COVID-19: Social, methodological, and metascientific considerations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17, 311-333.
2022
Liaquat, U., Jost, J., & Balcetis, (2023). System justification motivation as a source of backlash against equality-promoting policies. Social Issues and Policy Review, 17, 1, 131-154. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12093
2021
Balcetis, E., Guenther, C., & Cole, S. (2021). Where you look and how far you go: The relationship between attentional styles and running performance. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 2, 100014. OSF
Cole, S., & Balcetis, E. (2021). Motivated perception for self-regulation: How visual experience serves and is served by goals. B. Gawronski (Ed.) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 64, 129-186.
2020
Cole, S., Dominick, J., & Balcetis, E. (2020). Out of reach and under control: Distancing as a self-control strategy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47, 6, 939-952. OSF
Balcetis, E., Duncan, D., & Cole, S. (2020). How walkable neighborhoods promote physical activity: Policy implications for development and renewal. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7(2), 173-180 .
Balcetis, E., Cox, B., Marson, J., Islam, S., Dgheim, D., Terino, B., Brinkman, C., & Vasquez, J. (2020). Growing leaders: Testing learning modules that foster belongingness and growth mindsets about leadership among adolescents. Journal of Educational & Psychological Research, 2 (2), 114-123. OSF
Balcetis, E., Manivannan, M., & Cox, E. B. (2020). Concrete messages increase healthy eating preferences. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology, and Education, 10(2), 669-681. OSF
Balcetis, E. Riccio, M., Duncan, D., & Cole, S. (2020). Keeping the goal in sight: Testing the influence of narrowed visual attention on physical activity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46 (3), 485-496. Pre-Registration Supplement
Cox, E. C., Zhu, Q., & Balcetis, E. (2020). Stuck on a phishing lure: Differential use of base rates in self and social judgments of susceptibility to cyber risk. Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, 1-28. OSF
2019
Balcetis, E., & Cole, S. (2019). Clarifying conundrums: How goal hierarchies resolve seeming contradictions in motivated responding. Psychological Inquiry, 30 (3), 136-139.
Riccio, M., Shrout, P., & Balcetis, E. (2019). Interpersonal pursuit of intrapersonal health goals: Social cognitive-motivational mechanisms by which social support promotes self-regulatory success. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 13, e12495.
Balcetis, E., & Cardenas, S. (2019). Visual experience in self and social judgment: How a biased majority claim a superior minority. Self and Identity, 18, 363-277.
2018
Granot, Y., & Balcetis, E., Feigenson, N., & Tyler, T. R. (2018). In the eyes of the law: Perception versus reality in appraisals of video evidence. Psychology, Public Policy, and the Law, 24, 93-104.
Kappes, H. B., Balcetis, E., & De Cremer, D. (2018). Motivated reasoning during recruitment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103, 270-280.
2017
Granot, Y., Stern, C., & Balcetis, E. (2017). Zip code of conduct: Crime rate affects legal punishment of police. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 3 (2), 176-186.
Sternisko, A., Granot, Y., & Balcetis, E. (2017). One-sighted: How visual attention biases legal decision-making. In New Developments in Visual Attention Research (pp. 105-139). Nova Science Publishers, Inc.: Hauppage, NY.
2016
Alter, A., Stern, C. Granot, Y., & Balcetis, E. (2016). The “bad is black” effect: Why people believe evil-doers have darker skin than do-gooders. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 1653-1665.
Balcetis, E., Stern, C., & Cole, C. (2016). Perceiving systematically, not just differently: Calling for perceptual models with explanatory power. Psychological Inquiry, 27:4, 275-280.
Cole, S., Trope, Y., & Balcetis, E. (2016). In the eye of the betrothed: Perceptual downgrading of attractive alternative romantic partners. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Balcetis, E., & Cole, S. (2016). Motivating the action-in-perception hypothesis: Approach and avoidance motives as a process-model for action's effects on perception. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1(5), 83-85.
Balcetis, E., & Cole, S. (in press). Task demand not so damning: Improved techniques that mitigate demand in studies that supporttop-down effects. Commentary on Firestone and Scholl’s “Cognition does not affect perception: Evaluating the evidence for'top-down' effects.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
Balcetis, E. (2016). Approach and avoidance as organizing structures for motivated distance perception. Emotion Review, 8, 115-128.
Balcetis, E. (2016). Author reply: Future tests of motivated distance perception from multiple perspectives. Emotion Review, 8, 133-135.
Stern, C., Balcetis, E., Cole, S., West, T. V., & Caruso, E. (2016). Government instability shifts skin tone representations of and intentions to vote for political candidates. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110, 76-95.
2014
Granot, Y., Balcetis, E., Schneider, K., & Tyler, T. (2014). Blind justice: The effects of group identification and visual attention on legal punishment decisions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 2196-2208.
Cole, S., Riccio., M., & Balcetis, E. (2014). Focused and fired up: Narrowed attention produces perceived proximity and increases goal-relevant action. Motivation and Emotion, 38, 815–822.
Moskowitz, G. & Balcetis, E. (2014). The conscious roots of selfless, unconscious goals. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37, 151.
2013
Cole, S. & Balcetis, E. (2013). Sources of resources: Bioenergetic and psychoenergetic resources influence distance perception. Social Cognition, 31, 721-732.
Riccio, M., Cole, S., & Balcetis, E. (2013). Seeing the expected, the desired, and the feared: Influences on perceptual interpretation and directed attention. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7, 401-414.
Stern, C., Cole, S., Gollwitzer, P., Oettingen, G., & Balcetis, E. (2013). Effects of implementation intentions on anxiety, perceived proximity, and motor performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 623-635.
Balcetis, E., Cole, S., Chelberg, M. B., & Alicke, M. (2013). Searching out the ideal: Awareness of ideal body standards predicts lower global self-esteem in women. Self and Identity, 12, 99-113.
Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2013). Considering the situation: Why people are better social psychologists than self-psychologists. Self and Identity, 12, 1-15.
Selected as the 2011 International Society for Self and Identity Best Paper
Cole, S., Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2013). Affective signals of threat produce perceived proximity. Affective signals of threat produce perceived proximity. Psychological Science, 24, 34-40.
Cole, S., Balcetis, E., & Zhang, S. (2013). Visual perception and regulatory conflict: Motivation and physiology influence distance perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142, 18-22.
Dunning, D., & Balcetis, E. (2013). Wishful seeing: How preferences shape visual perception. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 33-37.
2012
Balcetis, E., Dunning, D., & Granot, Y. (2012). Subjective value determines initial dominance in binocular rivalry. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 122-129.
Zell, E., & Balcetis, E. (2012). The influence of social comparison on visual representation of one’s face. PLoS ONE 7, (5): e36742. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036742
2011 & Earlier
Alter, A., & Balcetis, E. (2011). Fondness makes the distance grow shorter: Desired locations seem closer because they seem more vivid. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 16-21.
Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2010). Wishful seeing: Desired objects are seen as closer. Psychological Science, 21, 147-152.
Balcetis, E., & Cole, S. (2009). Body in mind: The role of embodied cognition in self-regulation. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 3, 1-16.
Balcetis, E., & Cole, S. (2010). Teaching and Learning Guide for “Body in mind: The role of embodied cognition in self-regulation.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4, 499-505.
Balcetis, E. (2009). How a biased majority claim moral minority: Tracking eye movements to base rates in social predictions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 970-973.
Caruso, E., Mead, N., & Balcetis, E. (2009). Political partisanship influences perception of biracial candidates’ skin tone. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 20168–20173.
Balcetis, E., Dunning, D., & Miller, R. (2008). Do collectivists “know themselves” better than individualists?: Cross-cultural studies of the “holier than thou” phenomenon. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1252-1267.
Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2008). A mile in moccasins: How situational experience diminishes dispositionism in social inference. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 102-114.
Balcetis, E. (2007). Where the motivation resides and self-deception hides: How motivated cognition accomplishes self-deception. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 1-21.
Balcetis, E., & Dale, R. (2007).Conceptual set as a top-down constraint on visual object identification. Perception, 36, 581-595.
Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2007). Cognitive dissonance reduction and perception of the physical world. Psychological Science, 18, 917-921.
Selected by Gilbert Chin, Editor of Science, as "Editor's Choice" Nov 3, 2007 in Science.
Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2006). See what you want to see: Motivational influences on visual perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 612-625.
Balcetis, E., & Dale, R. (2005). The eye is not naked: Context clothes visual perception. In Proceedings of the 25th Cognitive Science Society (pp. 109-114), Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Balcetis, E., & Cole, S. D. (2014). Motivated distance perception serves action regulation. In Forgas, J., & Harmon-Jones, E.(Eds.). The control within: Motivation and Its Regulation. (pp. 263-278). New York: Psychology Press.
Balcetis, E., & Cole, S. (2013). On misers, managers, and monsters: The social cognition of visual perception. pp. 329-351. Invited chapter in D. Carlston (Ed.). Handbook of social cognition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cole, S., & Balcetis, E. (2010). Of visions and desires: Biased perceptions can serve self-protective functions. Invited chapter in C. Sedikides & M. Alicke (Eds.) Handbook of self-enhancement and self-protection. New York: Guilford Press.
Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2010). Wishful seeing: Motivational influences on visual perception of the physical environment. In E. Balcetis, & D. Lassiter (Eds.) The social psychology of visual perception. Psychology Press, New York, NY.
Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2005). Judging for two: Some connectionist proposals for how the self informs and constrains social judgment. Invited chapter for M. Alicke, D. Dunning, & J. Krueger (Eds.), Self and social judgment. New York: Psychology Press.