Faculty & Research Published Research Research Social Psychology Education Facet Area of Focus - Research Craig Volden Christopher J. Ruhm Bala Mulloth Eileen Chou Benjamin Castleman Sarah Turner Edgar O. Olsen Sophie Trawalter Christine Mahoney Timothy Wilson Adam Leive James H. Wyckoff William Shobe Charles Holt Daniel W. Player Daphna Bassok Harry Harding Jay Shimshack Jeanine Braithwaite John Pepper Richard Bonnie David Leblang John Holbein Leora Friedberg Molly Lipscomb James Savage Sebastian Tello-Trillo Frederick P. Hitz Gabrielle Adams Gerald Warburg Isaac Mbiti Paul S. Martin Raymond C. Scheppach Ruth Gaare Bernheim Andrew S. Pennock Gerald Higginbotham Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi Jennifer Lawless Michele Claibourn Noah Myung Philip Potter (-) Benjamin Converse Facet People - Research Facet UVA Partner - Research Published Research Better Sharing of “Eco-Innovations” Can Combat Rising Climate Despair Authors: Benjamin Converse Climate despair is emerging as a psychosocial threat. Ben Converse, associate professor of public policy and psychology at the Batten School, along with Batten post-doc Maura Austin and other UVA researchers, have found a potential source of hope that is underutilized. Learn more Published Research Next Week, Next Month, Next Year: How Perceived Temporal Boundaries Affect Initiation Expectations Authors: Benjamin Converse, M. Hennecke To move from commitment to action, planners must think about the future and decide when to initiate. We demonstrate that planners prefer to initiate on upcoming days that immediately follow a temporal boundary. Learn more Published Research Social Psychology Slow Motion Increased Perceived Intent Authors: Benjamin Converse, Eugene M. Caruso, Zachary C. Burns To determine the appropriate punishment for a harmful action, people must often make inferences about the transgressor’s intent. In courtrooms and popular media, such inferences increasingly rely on video evidence, which is often played in “slow motion.” Learn more Published Research Education Jump-starting early childhood education at home: Early learning, parent motivation, and public policy. Authors: Benjamin Converse, Chloe Gibbs, E.A. Mahoney, S.C. Levine, S.L. Beilock By the time children begin formal schooling, their experiences at home have already contributed to large variations in their math and language development, and once school begins, academic achievement continues to depend strongly on influences outside of school. It is thus essential that educational reform strategies involve primary caregivers. Learn more Published Research On Rivalry and Goal Pursuit: Shared Competitive History, Legacy Concerns, and Strategy Selection Authors: Benjamin Converse, David A. Reinhard Seven studies converge to show that prompting people to think about a rival versus a nonrival competitor causes them to view current competitions as more connected to past ones, to be more concerned with long-term legacy, and to pursue personal goals in a more eager, less cautious manner. These results are consistent with a social–cognitive view of rivalry that defines it as a competitive relational schema. Learn more Published Research Social Psychology Investing in Karma: When Wanting Promotes Helping Authors: Benjamin Converse, A., Risen, J. L., & Carter, T. J. People often face outcomes of important events that are beyond their personal control, such as when they wait for an acceptance letter, job offer, or medical test results. We suggest that when wanting and uncertainty are high and personal control is lacking, people may be more likely to help others, as if they can encourage fate’s favor by doing good deeds proactively. Learn more Published Research Social Psychology Instrumentality boosts appreciation: Helpers are more appreciated while they are useful Authors: Benjamin Converse, A. Fishbach We propose that in social interactions, appreciation depends on the helper’s instrumentality: The more motivated one is to accomplish a goal and the more one perceives a potential helper as able to facilitate that goal, the more appreciation one will feel for that helper. Three experiments support this instrumentality-boost hypothesis by showing that beneficiaries feel more appreciation for their helpers while they are receiving help toward an ongoing task than after that task has been completed or after the helper has been deemed no longer instrumental. Learn more Published Research Identifying and counteracting temptations Authors: Benjamin Converse, A. Fishbach, K. D. Vohs & R. F. Baumeister (Eds.) Learn more Published Research Social Psychology You’re having fun when time flies: The hedonic consequences of subjective time progression Authors: Benjamin Converse, A.M. Sackett, T. Meyvis, L.D. Nelson, A.L. Sackett Learn more
Published Research Better Sharing of “Eco-Innovations” Can Combat Rising Climate Despair Authors: Benjamin Converse Climate despair is emerging as a psychosocial threat. Ben Converse, associate professor of public policy and psychology at the Batten School, along with Batten post-doc Maura Austin and other UVA researchers, have found a potential source of hope that is underutilized. Learn more
Published Research Next Week, Next Month, Next Year: How Perceived Temporal Boundaries Affect Initiation Expectations Authors: Benjamin Converse, M. Hennecke To move from commitment to action, planners must think about the future and decide when to initiate. We demonstrate that planners prefer to initiate on upcoming days that immediately follow a temporal boundary. Learn more
Published Research Social Psychology Slow Motion Increased Perceived Intent Authors: Benjamin Converse, Eugene M. Caruso, Zachary C. Burns To determine the appropriate punishment for a harmful action, people must often make inferences about the transgressor’s intent. In courtrooms and popular media, such inferences increasingly rely on video evidence, which is often played in “slow motion.” Learn more
Published Research Education Jump-starting early childhood education at home: Early learning, parent motivation, and public policy. Authors: Benjamin Converse, Chloe Gibbs, E.A. Mahoney, S.C. Levine, S.L. Beilock By the time children begin formal schooling, their experiences at home have already contributed to large variations in their math and language development, and once school begins, academic achievement continues to depend strongly on influences outside of school. It is thus essential that educational reform strategies involve primary caregivers. Learn more
Published Research On Rivalry and Goal Pursuit: Shared Competitive History, Legacy Concerns, and Strategy Selection Authors: Benjamin Converse, David A. Reinhard Seven studies converge to show that prompting people to think about a rival versus a nonrival competitor causes them to view current competitions as more connected to past ones, to be more concerned with long-term legacy, and to pursue personal goals in a more eager, less cautious manner. These results are consistent with a social–cognitive view of rivalry that defines it as a competitive relational schema. Learn more
Published Research Social Psychology Investing in Karma: When Wanting Promotes Helping Authors: Benjamin Converse, A., Risen, J. L., & Carter, T. J. People often face outcomes of important events that are beyond their personal control, such as when they wait for an acceptance letter, job offer, or medical test results. We suggest that when wanting and uncertainty are high and personal control is lacking, people may be more likely to help others, as if they can encourage fate’s favor by doing good deeds proactively. Learn more
Published Research Social Psychology Instrumentality boosts appreciation: Helpers are more appreciated while they are useful Authors: Benjamin Converse, A. Fishbach We propose that in social interactions, appreciation depends on the helper’s instrumentality: The more motivated one is to accomplish a goal and the more one perceives a potential helper as able to facilitate that goal, the more appreciation one will feel for that helper. Three experiments support this instrumentality-boost hypothesis by showing that beneficiaries feel more appreciation for their helpers while they are receiving help toward an ongoing task than after that task has been completed or after the helper has been deemed no longer instrumental. Learn more
Published Research Identifying and counteracting temptations Authors: Benjamin Converse, A. Fishbach, K. D. Vohs & R. F. Baumeister (Eds.) Learn more
Published Research Social Psychology You’re having fun when time flies: The hedonic consequences of subjective time progression Authors: Benjamin Converse, A.M. Sackett, T. Meyvis, L.D. Nelson, A.L. Sackett Learn more