Jeffrey Huntsinger
Associate Professor, Social Psychology; Department Chair
Education
Doctorate: Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Virginia, 2007
Masters: MA in Social Psychology from the University of Virginia, 2003
Bachelors: BA in Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University, 1999
Research Interests
Dr. Huntsinger is a social psychologist who studies how social hierarchies shape attitudes and policies affecting disabled people. Grounded in Social Dominance Theory (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999), their research examines how beliefs about merit, productivity, and “normal” ability can function as legitimizing myths that justify inequality.
Using survey research and experiments, Dr. Huntsinger investigates whether individual differences in social dominance orientation predict support for exclusionary policies in areas such as education, employment, healthcare, and criminal justice. Their work positions disability as a central — rather than peripheral — dimension of group-based hierarchy.
In addition to advancing theory, Dr. Huntsinger applies this research to real-world contexts by developing strategies to reduce ableist bias in organizations and inform more equitable policy design.
In a second line of research, Dr. Huntsinger explores the moral roots of vaccine hesitancy and refusal. Using Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt & Graham, 2007) as a framework, this research has found that moral purity, and related contamination beliefs, predicts vaccine hesitancy. Several interventions targeting this foundation have been shown to reduce hesitancy and increase vaccine uptake intentions.
Lastly, Dr. Huntsinger’s long-standing research program examines how affective feelings (e.g., moods and emotions) govern thinking and decision-making. Grounded in the Affect-As-Cognitive-Feedback Account (Huntsinger, Isbell & Clore 2014) this research shows that affective feelings provide adaptive feedback during decision making and have flexible effects on thinking depending on the cognitive context.
Courses Taught
PSYC 238 Sex & Gender: Differences & Similarities
PSYC 275 Social Psychology
Publications/Research Listings
Google Scholar: Jeffrey Huntsinger
Huntsinger, J. R., & Ray, C. (in press). A flexible influence of affective feelings on creative and analytic performance. Emotion.
Huntsinger, J. R., Isbell, L., & Clore, G. L. (2014). The affective control of thought: Malleable, not fixed. Psychological Review, 141, 600-618.
Huntsinger, J. R. (2013) Does emotion directly tune the scope of attention? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 265-270.
Huntsinger, J. R. (2012). Does positive affect broaden and negative affect narrow attentional scope? A new answer to an old question. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 595-600.