Anton Gollwitzer

Yale University | YU · Department of Psychology

What predicts people’s powerful and universal dislike of social deviancy? Across six studies, aversion towards non-social pattern deviancy, for example, a row of triangles with one triangle out of line, predicted aversion towards stigmatized individuals, social norm breakers, statistically negative and positive deviants, and a racial minority group...

In six studies (N = 1,143), we investigated social psychological skill - lay individuals' skill at predicting social psychological phenomena (e.g., social loafing, attribution effects). Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated reliable individual differences in social psychological skill. In Studies 2, 3, and 4, attributes associated with decreased cognitive a...

To avoid uncertainty, people may take a shortcut to knowledge. They recognize something as unknowable, but claim to know it nonetheless (e.g., whether I will find true love is unknowable, but I know I will). In Study-set 1, such paradoxical knowledge was common and spanned across valence and content. Study-set 2 revealed an antecedent of paradoxica...

Social-cognitive skills can take different forms, from accurately predicting individuals’ intentions, emotions, and thoughts (person perception or folk psychology) to accurately predicting social phenomena more generally. Past research has linked autism spectrum (AS) traits to person perception deficits in the general population. We tested whether...

Social distancing is the single most effective method to reduce the spread of COVID-19. As such, researchers across varying fields are currently attempting to identify the variables that predict social distancing and which interventions can heighten social distancing. Yet, much of this research relies on self-report measures (in part because of soc...

Nearly five billion people use and receive news through social media and there is widespread concern about the negative consequences of misinformation on social media (e.g., election interference, vaccine hesitancy). Despite a burgeoning body of research on misinformation, it remains largely unclear who is susceptible to misinformation and why. To...

Can false claims by political leaders be brushed aside as harmless, or does such rhetoric carry serious consequences? By applying large language models to U.S. Presidential speeches spanning 1850 to 2024, we find that presidential assertions of falsehoods as fact—which we term misplaced certainty—are associated with a subsequent rise in politically...

Third-party intervention is a cornerstone of cooperative societies, yet we know little about how children develop an understanding of this social behavior. The present work generates a cross-cultural and developmental picture of how 6-, 9-, and 12-year-olds (N = 447) across four societies (India, Germany, Uganda, and the United States) reason about...

Despite a surge of research into misinformation, it is largely unclear who falls for misinformation and why. We conducted a systematic individual participant data meta-analysis covering 256,337 unique choices made by 11,561 participants across 31 experiments. Our meta-analysis reveals the impact of key demographic and psychological factors on onlin...

False news can manipulate public opinion, stir up fear and hatred, and undermine the credibility of legitimate news sources. Although many studies have examined false news sharing, there has been no comprehensive, comparative, and computational investigation of the interventions that can reduce this harmful behavior. To do so, we introduce a novel...

Does political partisanship extend to childhood? To what degree are children, a largely non‐political population, impacted by parents’ and communities’ political orientations? We examined children's behaviours and attitudes during a politically divisive event – the COVID‐19 pandemic. Children (4‐ to 12‐year‐olds; N = 313) of liberal (vs. conservati...

False beliefs pose significant societal threats, including health risks, political polarization and even violence. In two studies ( N = 884) we explored the efficacy of an individual‐based approach to correcting false beliefs. We examined whether the character virtue of intellectual humility (IH)—an appreciation of one's intellectual boundaries—enc...

Preventive health practices have been crucial to mitigating viral spread during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In two studies, we examined whether intellectual humility—openness to one's existing knowledge being inaccurate—related to greater engagement in preventive health practices (social distancing, handwashing, mask‐wearing). In Study 1, we found that...

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing the accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment...

We propose that deviancy aversion—people’s domain-general discomfort toward the distortion of patterns (repeated forms or models)—contributes to the strength and prevalence of social norms in society. Five studies ( N = 2,390) supported this hypothesis. In Study 1, individuals’ deviancy aversion, for instance, their aversion toward broken patterns...

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment on s...

Past research has independently examined the concepts of certainty and future thought. Here we combine these concepts by examining the cognitive and behavioral outcomes of certainty about the future during periods of societal uncertainty. Three studies (N = 1218) examined future certainty, defined as feeling certain about some future event or outco...

We examine conspiracy beliefs in the context of misplaced certainty—certainty that is unsubstantiated by one’s own or others’ skepticism. A conspiracy theory held with misplaced certainty may entail, for instance, “knowing” or feeling certain that secret actors are plotting against society yet acknowledging that this claim lacks evidence or is oppo...

Examining the epistemic and social-cognitive structures underlying fanaticism, radicalization, and extremism should shed light on how these harmful phenomena develop and can be prevented. In nine studies (N = 3,277), we examined whether discordant knowing-felt knowledge about something that one perceives as opposed by most others-underlies fanatici...

Past research has demonstrated that both consequentialist motives (such as deterrence) and deontological motives (such as "just deserts") underlie children's and adults' punitive behavior. But what motives do we ascribe to others who pursue punishment? The present work explores this question by assessing which punitive motives children (6- and 7-ye...

COVID-19 is a profoundly partisan issue in the United States. We examined whether COVID-19 partisanship extends even to children, a largely non-partisan population that may function as a reservoir for new COVID-19 variants due to low vaccination rates. Across the U.S., children (4- to 12-year-olds; N = 313) with liberal (versus conservative) parent...

Past research has demonstrated that both consequentialist motives (such as deterrence) and deontological motives (such as ‘just deserts’) underlie children’s and adults’ punitive behavior. But what motives do we ascribe to others who pursue punishment? The present work explores this question by assessing which punitive motives children (6- and 7-ye...

Do children, like most adults, believe that only kin and close others are obligated to help oneanother? In two studies (total N = 1140), we examined whether children (~5- to ~10-yos) andadults across five different societies consider social relationship when ascribing prosocialobligations. Contrary to the view that such discriminations are a natura...

Do children, like most adults, believe that only kin and close others are obligated to help one another? In two studies (total N = 1140), we examined whether children (∼5- to ∼10-yos) and adults across five different societies consider social relationship when ascribing prosocial obligations. Contrary to the view that such discriminations are a nat...

Research investigating the early emergence of racial prejudice has been largely limited to contexts in which racial prejudice is most likely to emerge—multiracial societies that have pronounced racial inequality (e.g., United States, South Africa). The present study assessed whether pro‐White racial bias is also early emerging in a homogenous Black...

Research investigating the early emergence of racial prejudice has been largely limited to contexts in which racial prejudice is most likely to emerge—multiracial societies that have pronounced racial inequality (e.g., United States, South Africa). The present study assessed whether pro-White racial bias is also early emerging in a homogenous Black...

Despite much research on certainty and future thought, it remains unclear how certainty about the future influences the ways people think, feel, and act. Three studies (N = 1218) examined how certainty about the future impacts people’s cognition, affect, and behavior during two major events of future uncertainty; the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020...

In an effort to combat COVID-19 and future pandemics, researchers have attempted to identify the factors underlying social distancing. Yet, much of this research relies on self-report measures. In two studies, we examine whether self-reported social distancing predicts objective distancing behavior. In Study 1, individuals’ self-reported social dis...

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-01028-x.

Numerous polls suggest that COVID-19 is a profoundly partisan issue in the United States. Using the geotracking data of 15 million smartphones per day, we found that US counties that voted for Donald Trump (Republican) over Hillary Clinton (Democrat) in the 2016 presidential election exhibited 14% less physical distancing between March and May 2020...

Social distancing, handwashing, and mask wearing are key to preventing the spread of COVID-19. However, people vary in the degree to which they follow these practices. Previous findings have indicated that women adhere more to preventive health practices than men do. We examined whether this pattern held true for the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing...

To what extent can simple, domain-general factors inform moral judgment? Here we examine whether a basic cognitive-affective factor predicts moral judgment. Given that most moral transgressions break the assumed pattern of behavior in society, we propose that people's domain-general aversion towards broken patterns – their negative affect in respon...

Social distancing and hygiene practices are key to preventing the spread of Coronavirus. However, people vary in the degree to which they follow these practices. Consistent with previous findings that women adhere more to preventative health practices, in Study 1, women reported engaging in preventative practices regarding COVID-19 (e.g., social di...

Few things bind disparate groups together like a common obstacle. Yet, numerous polls suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has been subject to a deep partisan divide. Using geo-tracking data of over 17 million smartphone users around the United States, we examined whether partisan differences predict objective physical-distancing behaviors. U.S. coun...

At a 2015 campaign event, Donald Trump claimed, “I have the best words.” While remarks like these have inspired extensive commentary on grandiosity in politics, few studies have investigated how grandiosity manifests in political speech. This research finds that grandiose U.S. presidents ( n = 35) use words differently than their humbler presidenti...

Research has documented an overlap between people's aversion toward nonsocial pattern deviancy (e.g., a row of triangles with 1 triangle out of line) and their social prejudice. It is unknown which processes underlie this association, however, and whether this link is causal. We propose that pattern deviancy aversion may contribute to prejudice by...

Research suggests that people's aversion towards pattern deviancy – distortions of repeated forms or models – contributes to social phenomena, such as prejudice. Yet, the factors motivating pattern deviancy aversion remain unclear. Potentially, anxious attachment, as it entails hypervigilant detection of and reactivity to social inconsistency and u...

Considerable debate has focused on whether adults possess an implicit system for representing others’ mental states. Some argue that people automatically represent the perspective of others using evidence from altercentric interference—cases in which another agent’s perspective affects the speed with which one can report one’s own perspective. Othe...

Study 1 reaction time data. (DOCX)

Much research has examined the role news media and social media play in political polarization. There has been less focus on whether and how social media influences people’s perception of political polarization in society. In one study (N = 328), we examined whether increased social media use relates to perceiving the United States political climat...

Research has elucidated that defendants in criminal cases behave differently depending on their age. How age specifically affects plea bargain behavior, however, has only been sparsely investigated. In four studies we observed that age influences whether lay individuals’plea bargain decision making is concordant (i.e., accept plea bargains if guilt...

Two studies examined whether implementation intentions, self-regulatory “if-then” plans, can alter social projection – people's tendency to automatically assume that other people share their attitudes. In Study 1 (N = 120), participants provided their attitudes on twenty items (e.g., “I like mechanics magazines”), and then formed either (1) a goal...

Psychotic symptoms have been shown to be associated with numerous social factors, such as migration and urban upbringing, of which one plausible common component is loneliness. This suggests a relationship between loneliness and positive psychotic symptoms. According to current cognitive models of psychosis, the relationship between loneliness and...

The current study examined valence transfer in the crossmodal paradigm in order to test the generalizability of the phenomenon and to contribute to a better understanding of the underlying processes. Western European participants evaluated Asian ideographs to be more visually pleasant when in the presence of pleasant sounds than when in the presenc...

The current intervention tested whether a metacognitive self-regulatory strategy of goal pursuit can help economically disadvantaged children convert positive thoughts and images about their future into effective action. Mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) entails mental contrasting a desired future with relevant obstacles of r...

Resumo Esta intervenção testou se uma estratégia metacognitiva autorregulatória de persecução de metas pode ajudar crianças economicamente desfavorecidas a converterem imagens e pensamentos positivos sobre o seu futuro em acção efectiva. O Contraste Mental com Intenções de Implementação (MCII) implica contrastar mentalmente um futuro desejado com o...

Two brief intervention studies tested whether teaching students to mentally contrast a desired future with its present reality resulted in better academic performance than teaching students to only think about the desired future. German elementary school children (N = 49; Study 1) and US middle school children (N = 63; Study 2) from low-income nei...

Oettingen & Gollwitzer (2010) Quando Viktor Frankl (1959/1984) reflectiu sobre a forma de dominar os desafios da vida, no seu caso a horrenda tarefa de sobreviver a um campo de concentração, ele descobriu a seguinte resposta: "Não importava o que é que nós esperávamos da vida, mas o que é que a vida esperava de nós. Nós precisávamos de parar de nos...