Erin Hennes

Ph.D., 2013, New York University

Research Interests:

Erin focuses on cognitive and motivational biases in information processing, particularly in the context of contemporary social issues such as environmental sustainability and racial and gender inequality. Specifically, she examines the consequences of the motivation to resist changes to existing sociostructural arrangements on basic psychological processes such as perceptual judgment, recall, and evaluation of scientific and media information. She takes a multi-method, interdisciplinary approach that integrates data from laboratory experiments, public opinion surveys, focus group interviews, and longitudinal field research to investigate how information and misinformation is encoded, elaborated, and disseminated. Her work with Margo Monteith and Evelyn Carter has recently been funded by a Diversity Transformation Award at Purdue University. Erin is also actively involved in developing and training advanced quantitative methods. Slides and syntax for her 2016 SPSP workshop with Sean Lane on simulation methods for power analysis can be found here.

Erin holds a B.A. in Music, Psychology, and Liberal Arts and Management from Indiana University. She completed her PhD in Social Psychology with a minor in Quantitative Methods at New York University, where she was funded by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Grant and was a finalist for the Society of Experimental Social Psychology Dissertation Award. Following graduation, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles and a Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Representative Publications:

Hennes, E. P., Ruisch, B. C., Feygina, I., Monteiro, C. A., & Jost, J. T. (2016) Motivated recall in the service of the economic system: The case of anthropogenic climate change. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.145, 755-771.

Hennes, E. P., Nam, H. H., Stern, C., & Jost, J. T. (2012). Not all ideologies are created equal: Epistemic, existential, and relational needs predict system-justifying attitudes. Social Cognition, 30, 669-688.

Lane, S.P. & Hennes, E.P. (in press). Power struggles: Estimating sample size for multilevel relationships research. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

Interested in Joining the Lab?

Dr. Hennes is admitting new graduate students for Fall 2017.

Dr. Hennes is accepting applications for research assistants.  Interested individuals should complete an application, found here, and indicate whether they are interested in obtaining PSY 390 course credit or participating in the lab as a volunteer.

The Hennes Social Cognition of Social Justice lab is an inclusive and diverse team of scholars.  We welcome individuals of all identities, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.  Dr. Hennes has completed Safe Zone and Green Zone training.