Overview of Research Interests

I am interested in the function and effects of a number of different specific emotions (particularly, jealousy, embarrassment, envy, and humor) as well as the role of such emotions in health and well-being. I am also interested in how emotional states interact with processes of cognition and judgment.

Specific Research Interests

1. Jealousy: Specific Innate Modular Theories versus Social Cognitive Theories

I have investigated a number of interrelated questions about jealousy including the following. Are there specific innate sex differences in patterns of jealousy that can be understood in terms of evolutionary pressures in human beings’ ancestral past? How do people’s hypothetical judgments about how they would react to infidelity relate to their reactions to actual infidelity? If theories postulating specific innate jealousy mechanisms do not fit the data well, what sort of alternative theories are more promising? I have examined these questions using both questionnaire and experimental (chiefly psychophysiological) methods.

2. Emotional Effects on Cognitive Processes and Judgment

Using emotionally charged words and pictures I have carried out several projects examining how emotional content in visual stimuli affects selective attention and memory. Currently I am looking at the effects of a number of different specific emotional states (including anxiety, sadness, anger, and embarrassment) on judgment and decision-making, examining topics such as preferences for risky alternatives and temporal discounting of rewards and punishments.

3. Embarrassment and Shame

I am very interested in the nature of embarrassment and shame and their effects on real-world behaviors. In one set of studies using psychophysiological techniques, I documented the changes in the autonomic nervous system that arise in response to embarrassment, and in response to a person’s efforts to suppress expressions of embarrassment. Currently, I am examining the various ways in which the prospect of embarrassment deters people from seeking needed medical care, and how experiences of shame and embarrassment in patient-physician interactions affect health-related behaviors.

4. Ticklish Laughter and Humor

The laughter induced by tickling presents a mystery that has drawn the attention of notable thinkers such as Aristotle, Bacon, and Darwin. On the one hand, tickling induces behavioral responses (laughter & smiling) that resemble those elicited by humor. Yet, many people report that, unlike humorous stimulation (such as hearing a funny joke), they find it aversive to be tickled. Also puzzling is the fact that people cannot tickle themselves. I have carried out a number of experiments to shed light on some basic questions about this intriguing phenomenon, including: Is ticklish laughter a reflexive response, or is the laughter caused by people’s finding humor in the social situation? Why can’t people tickle themselves? In our most recent studies, we have been using facialometric analysis (FACS coding) to compare in detail the smiles and other facial expressions induced by tickle, humor, and pain.