Several projects in my lab examine social cognitive processes that impact judgment and behavior. Factors examined range from low thought, automatic processes to high thought, metacognitive processes (alone and in combination, see Wheeler & DeMarree, 2009).

One area of emphasis is how relatively automatic factors, such as primes, can impact the self-concept and self-evaluation. Even non-self primes, such as outgroup stereotypes, are capable can shift self-conceptions (DeMarree et al., 2005), identity (Wheeler et al., 2008), and expectations of future outcomes (DeMarree et al., in prep; for a review, see Wheeler et al., 2007).

One of my interests is attitude strength, and in particular the construct of ambivalence. Researchers have distinguished the actually presence of positive and negative reactions towards the same object (objective ambivalence; OA) from the experience of conflict (subjective ambivalence, SA). Current projects examine the relationship between these two constructs as well as additional antecedents of subjective ambivalence.

Another interest is in people’s regulation of their attitudes. Initial research suggests that people sometimes possess attitudes that are different from the attitudes they would like to possess (e.g., wanting to like a political candidate more). I am exploring the consequences of these discrepancies, including the strategies people employ to obtain their desired attitudes.

Finally, I am interested in metacognitive processes in persuasion. I examine multiple roles of confidence in persuasion (for a review, see Briñol & Petty, 2009). Increasing confidence in one’s initial inclinations of pre-existing attitudes can lead to decreased sensitivity to the quality of persuasive messages, whereas increasing confidence in message-relevant thoughts increases the impact these thoughts have on persuasion. Past projects have examined confidence as a function of self-affirmation (Briñol et al., 2007). Ongoing projects are examining individual differences in self-confidence.

In my final stream of research, I examine the self-concept and self-evaluation. In addition to the projects described above (automatic influences on the self, self-confidence in persuasion), my research on the self applies the concepts of attitude strength to the self. Self-evaluations that are high in accessibility (DeMarree et al., 2010) and low in objective ambivalence (DeMarree et al., 2011) demonstrate the same properties as strong attitudes (i.e., they are resistant to change and predictive of behavior; for reviews, see DeMarree et al., 2007a, 2007b). I am also interested in understanding compensatory processes related to the self (DeMarree & Morrison, 2012).