Josh Ackerman
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BIO
Joshua M. Ackerman’s research explores the role that adaptive psychological mechanisms play in behavioral and decision-making contexts. Much of what we think about (or don’t think about), the decisions we make (or not), and the (dis)satisfaction we have with those decisions is driven by a fundamental set of evolved predispositions interacting with subtle features of our current environments. In approaching psychology from this perspective, his research has concentrated on interpersonal cognition how and why people think, prefer, choose, and act with or because of each other. This work has led to projects investigating threat identification, romantic relationships, self-control and risky decisions, and nonconscious effects of touch sensations. Currently, he is interested in understanding how exposure to contagious disease cues and bodily factors such as immune system functioning interact to influence various forms of social behavior.
- Iris M. Wang, Mallory K. Roman, Gabrielle Goldstein, Josh Ackerman. 2024. Crowding at the ballot box: Germ aversion and voting methods in the 2020 U.S. general election. Political Psychology
- Shinobu Kitayama, Salvador, Cristina E., Josh Ackerman. 2023. The Germ Aversion Paradox: When Germ Aversion Predicts Reduced Alpha Power Suppression to Norm Violations. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology 5:100150.
- Shinobu Kitayama, Salvador, Cristina E., Josh Ackerman. 2023. The germ aversion paradox: When germ aversion predicts reduced alpha power suppression to norm violations. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology 5:100150.
- Ackerman, Joshua Maxwell, Sng, Oliver . 2020. Too many people, women, men? The psychological effects of population density and sex ratio. Current Opinion in Psychology 32:38-42.
- Ackerman, Joshua Maxwell, Prokosch, Marjorie L, Gassen, Jeffrey , Hill, Sarah E. 2019. Caution in the time of cholera: Pathogen threats decrease risk tolerance. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences 13(4):311-334.
- Ackerman, Joshua Maxwell, Kronrod, Ann . 2019. I'm so touched! Self-touch increases attitude extremity via self-focused attention. Acta Psychologica 195:12-21.
- Ackerman, Joshua Maxwell, Hill, Sarah E, Murray, Damian R. 2018. The behavioral immune system: Current concerns and future directions. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 12(2):e12371.
- Ackerman, Joshua Maxwell, Tybur, Joshua M, Mortensen, Chad R. 2018. Infectious Disease and Imperfections of Self-Image. Psychological Science 29(2):228-241.
- Ackerman, Joshua Maxwell. 2018. Persuasion by Proxy: Effects of Vicarious Self-Control Use on Reactions to Persuasion Attempts. Social Cognition 36(3):275-300.
- Ackerman, Joshua Maxwell. 2018. Best practices for interpreting large-scale replications. Nature Human Behaviour 2(10):712.