Chair

Prof. Dr. Iris Schneider
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I research ambivalence and difficulty in decision-making and judgment. I am especially interested in how people can use their ambivalence and inner conflict as a tool for better decision-making and self-regulation.
The world is a complicated place and issues are often multifaceted and complex. People often face opposing motives, desires, and goals. For instance, people can experience conflict between doing what is healthy vs. what is fun, between doing what’s good for themselves vs. what is good for others, or between liking and disliking another person, policy, or issue. I study the consequences of this inner conflict on cognition and behavior. How do people regulate this conflict? How can people use these experiences to make better decisions and less biased judgments? How do people feel about other people who express feelings of conflict? And what is the role of conflict in promoting sustainability, such as reduction of meat consumption and food waste? In my lab, we empirically examine these questions.
- Ambivalence
- Choice and choosing
- Evaluative conflict
- Decision-making
- Judgment
- Social cognition
Schneider, I. K., Novin, S., van Harreveld, F., & Genschow, O. (2020). Benefits of being ambivalent: The relationship between trait ambivalence and attribution biases. British Journal of Social Psychology, 60, 570-586. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12417[data and materials on OSF]
Schneider, I. K., Gillebaart, M., & Mattes, A. (2019). Meta-analytic evidence for ambivalence resolution as a key process in effortless self-control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 5, 103846. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103846
Schneider, I. K., & Schwarz, N. (2017). Mixed feelings: The case of ambivalence. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 15, 39–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.05.012
Schneider, I. K., Veenstra, L., van Harreveld, F., Schwarz, N., & Koole, S. L. (2016). Let's not be indifferent about neutrality: Neutral ratings in the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) mask mixed affective responses. Emotion, 16, 426–430. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000164
Schneider, I. K., van Harreveld, F., Rotteveel, M., Topolinski, S., van der Pligt, J., Schwarz, N., & Koole, S. L. (2015). The path of ambivalence: Tracing the pull of opposing evaluations using mouse trajectories. Frontiers in Psychology, 6:996. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00996 *