Head of Department
Email jamin.halberstadt@otago.ac.nz
Tel 64 3 479 7644
Professor Jamin Halberstadt is a member of the Social Perception Area of Research Excellence, the Memory Theme, the Otago Lifespan Development Research Group, and was a founding member of the OZONE young researcher advisory group. He has supervised 8 PhD students (4 still in progress), and has been named an outstanding research supervisor 4 times by the Otago University Student Association.
Internationally, he is a Fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology and serves as an Associate Editor of the Society’s journal. He has published over 50 research articles and chapters in top international journals, and presents regularly at international conferences. In 2012 he will begin a term as an Associate Editor of the journal Psychological Science.
Jamin joined the Department in 1997. He has over 20 years of research experience, and has taught over 15 years at both graduate and undergraduate levels.
Teaching
Research Interests
- Social cognition
- Social categorisation
- Facial attractiveness
- Emotion perception
- Decision making
Find out more about Professor Halberstadt's research interests
Publications
Silva Luna, D., Bering, J. M., & Halberstadt, J. (2021). Public faith in science in the United States through the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic [Short communication]. Public Health in Practice, 100103. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2021.100103
Stojanov, A., Bering, J. M., & Halberstadt, J. (2020). Does perceived lack of control lead to conspiracy theory beliefs? Findings from an online MTurk sample. PLoS ONE, 15(8), e0237771. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237771
Stojanov, A., & Halberstadt, J. (2020). Does lack of control lead to conspiracy beliefs? A meta-analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology, 50, 955-968. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2690
Swan, T., & Halberstadt, J. (2020). The fitness relevance of counterintuitive agents. Journal of Cognition & Culture, 20(3-4), 188-217. doi: 10.1163/15685373-12340081
Colombo, M. S., Bremer, C., Gross, J., Halberstadt, J., & Hayne, H. (2020). “What was his name, again?”: A new method for reducing memory-based errors in an adult false-belief task. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 16(2), 300-316. doi: 10.5964/ejop.v16i2.1998
Authored Book - Research
Jong, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2016). Death anxiety and religious belief: An existential psychology of religion. Londun, UK: Bloomsbury, 232p.
Chapter in Book - Research
Jahanitabesh, A., & Halberstadt, J. (2014). Do you see what I see? Rumination, construal and emotion perception in depression. In S. R. Nasato (Ed.), Advances in social cognition research. (pp. 181-198). New York: Nova Science.
Halberstadt, J., & Jong, J. (2014). Scaring the bejesus into people: The role of religious belief in managing implicit and explicit anxiety. In J. P. Forgas & E. Harmon-Jones (Eds.), Motivation and its regulation: The control within. (pp. 331-350). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Owen, H. E., & Halberstadt, J. (2014). Truth in text: The influence of language complexity and style on perceived self-reflection and truthfulness. In S. R. Nasato (Ed.), Advances in social cognition research. (pp. 199-213). New York: Nova Science.
Secher, J., Jackson, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2014). Anger: Causes, experience and outcomes of the mercurial emotion. In S. R. Nasato (Ed.), Advances in social cognition research. (pp. 151-179). New York: Nova Science.
Halberstadt, J., & Winkielman, P. (2013). When good blends go bad: How fluency can explain when we like and dislike ambiguity. In C. Unkelbach & R. Greifeneder (Eds.), The experience of thinking: How the fluency of mental processes influences cognition and behaviour. (pp. 133-150). Hove, East Sussex: Psychology Press.
Yamaguchi, M., & Halberstadt, J. (2011). It's all about me: Maladaptive self-focused attention as a mediator of the relationship between extrinsic goals and well-being. In I. Brdar (Ed.), The human pursuit of well-being: A cultural approach. (pp. 95-106). New York: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-1375-8
Catty, S., & Halberstadt, J. (2008). The use and disruption of familiarity in intuitive judgements. In H. Plessner, C. Betsch & T. Betsch (Eds.), Intuition in judgement and decision making. (pp. 295-308). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Yamaguchi, M., & Halberstadt, J. (2008). Attainment of intrinsic and extrinsic goals revisited: The interaction of goal and well-being dimensions. In B. P. Reimann (Ed.), Personality and social psychology research. (pp. 93-105). New York: Nova Science.
Halberstadt, J., & Wilson, T. D. (2008). Reflections on conscious reflection: Mechanisms of impairment by reasons analysis. In J. E. Adler & L. J. Rips (Eds.), Reasoning: Studies of human inference and its foundations. (pp. 548-596). Cambridge University Press.
Fernando, K., & Halberstadt, J. (2007). Effects of explanation on emotion attribution. In F. R. Lewis (Ed.), Focus on nonverbal communication research. (pp. 199-213). Nova Science.
Halberstadt, J. (2007). Proximate and ultimate origins of a bias for prototypical faces: An evolutionary social cognitive account. In J. P. Forgas, M. G. Haselton & W. von Hippel (Eds.), Evolution and the social mind: Evolutionary psychology and social cognition. (pp. 245-262). New York: Psychology Press.
Halberstadt, J. B., Rhodes, G., & Catty, S. (2003). Subjective and objective familiarity as explanations for the attraction to average faces. In S. P. Shohov (Ed.), Advances in psychology research: Volume 22. (pp. 35-50). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Niedenthal, P. M., & Halberstadt, J. B. (2003). Top-down influences in social perception. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology: Volume 14. (pp. 49-76). East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press Ltd.
Niedenthal, P. M., & Halberstadt, J. B. (2000). Grounding categories in emotional response. In J. P. Forgas (Ed.), Feeling and Thinking: The Role of Affect in Social Cognition. (pp. 357-386). United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Niedenthal, P. M., & Halberstadt, J. B. (2000). Emotional response as conceptual coherence. In E. Eich, J. F. Kihlstrom, G. H. Bower, J. P. Forgas & P. M. Niedenthal (Eds.), Counterpoints: Cognition and Emotion. (pp. 169-203). New York: Oxford University Press.
Halberstadt, J. B., Niedenthal, P. M., & Setterlund, M. B. (1996). Cognitive organization of different tenses of the self mediates affect and decision making. In L. L. Martin & A. Tesser (Eds.), Striving and Feeling: Interactions Among Goals, Affect, and Self-Regulation. (pp. 123-150). Hillsdale, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates.
Niedenthal, P. M., & Halberstadt, J. B. (1995). The acquisition and structure of emotional response categories. In D. L. Medin (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation. (pp. 23-64). New York: Academic Press.
Journal - Research Article
Stojanov, A., Bering, J. M., & Halberstadt, J. (2020). Does perceived lack of control lead to conspiracy theory beliefs? Findings from an online MTurk sample. PLoS ONE, 15(8), e0237771. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237771
Colombo, M. S., Bremer, C., Gross, J., Halberstadt, J., & Hayne, H. (2020). “What was his name, again?”: A new method for reducing memory-based errors in an adult false-belief task. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 16(2), 300-316. doi: 10.5964/ejop.v16i2.1998
Swan, T., & Halberstadt, J. (2020). The fitness relevance of counterintuitive agents. Journal of Cognition & Culture, 20(3-4), 188-217. doi: 10.1163/15685373-12340081
Stojanov, A., & Halberstadt, J. (2020). Does lack of control lead to conspiracy beliefs? A meta-analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology, 50, 955-968. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2690
Alogna, V. K., & Halberstadt, J. (2020). The divergent effects of prayer on cheating. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 10(4), 365-378. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2019.1574881
Atkinson, L., Murray, J. E., & Halberstadt, J. (2020). Older adults' emotion recognition ability is unaffected by stereotype threat. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 605724. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.605724
Ruffman, T., Halberstadt, J., Murray, J., Jack, F., & Vater, T. (2020). Empathic accuracy: Worse recognition by older adults and less transparency in older adult expressions compared to young adults. Journals of Gerontology Series B, 75(8), 1658-1667. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbz008
Alogna, V. K., Bering, J., Balkcom, E., & Halberstadt, J. (2019). Religious intuitions and the nature of “belief”. Studia Humana, 8(3), 58-68. doi: 10.2478/sh-2019-0025
Balkcom, E. R., Alogna, V. K., Curtin, E. R., Halberstadt, J. B., & Bering, J. M. (2019). Aversion to organs donated by suicide victims: The role of psychological essentialism. Cognition, 192, 104037. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104037
Jahanitabesh, A., Cardwell, B. A., & Halberstadt, J. (2019). Sadness and ruminative thinking independently depress people's moods. International Journal of Psychology, 54(3), 360-368. doi: 10.1002/ijop.12466
Jackson, J. C., van Egmond, M., Choi, V. K., Ember, C. R., Halberstadt, J., Balanovic, J., … Gelfand, M. J. (2019). Ecological and cultural factors underlying the global distribution of prejudice. PLoS ONE, 14(9), e0221953. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221953
Jackson, C. M., Jackson, J. C., Bilkey, D., Jong, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2019). The dynamic emergence of minimal groups. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 22(7), 921-929. doi: 10.1177/1368430218802636
Stojanov, A., & Halberstadt, J. (2019). The conspiracy mentality scale: Distinguishing between irrational and rational suspicion. Social Psychology, 50(4), 215-232. doi: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000381
Swan, T., & Halberstadt, J. (2019). The Mickey Mouse problem: Distinguishing religious and fictional counterintuitive agents. PLoS ONE, 14(8), e0220886. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220886
Morris Trainor, Z., Jong, J., Bluemke, M., & Halberstadt, J. (2019). Death salience moderates the effect of trauma on religiosity. Psychological Trauma, 11(6), 639-646. doi: 10.1037/tra0000430
Cardwell, B. A., & Halberstadt, J. (2019). Religious believers do not distinguish good from poor reasons for God’s existence. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 29(3), 147-160. doi: 10.1080/10508619.2018.1564446
Jackson, J. C., Jong, J., Bluemke, M., Poulter, P., Morgenroth, L., & Halberstadt, J. (2018). Testing the causal relationship between religious belief and death anxiety. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 8(1), 57-68. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2016.1238842
Jong, J., Ross, R., Philip, T., Chang, S.-H., Simons, N., & Halberstadt, J. (2018). The religious correlates of death anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 8(1), 4-20. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2016.1238844
Segal, K., Jong, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2018). The fusing power of natural disasters: An experimental study. Self & Identity, 17(5), 574-586. doi: 10.1080/15298868.2018.1458645
Jackson, J. C., Jong, J., Bilkey, D., Whitehouse, H., Zollmann, S., McNaughton, C., & Halberstadt, J. (2018). Synchrony and physiological arousal Increase cohesion and cooperation in large naturalistic groups. Scientific Reports, 8, 127. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18023-4
Barton, D. N., & Halberstadt, J. (2018). A social Bouba/Kiki effect: A bias for people whose names match their faces. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(3), 1013-1020. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1304-x
Jackson, J. C., Lemay, Jr, E. P., Bilkey, D., & Halberstadt, J. (2017). Beyond “birds of a feather”: A social inference approach to attachment-dependent grouping. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 73, 216-221. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2017.06.004
Carr, E., Huber, D. E., Pecher, D., Zeelenberg, R., Halberstadt, J., & Winkielman, P. (2017). The ugliness-in-averageness effect: Tempering the warm glow of familiarity. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 112(6), 787-812. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000083
Schmitt, D. P., Alcalay, L., Allik, J., Alves, I. C. B., Anderson, C. A., Angelini, A. L., … Fernando, K., … Halberstadt, J., … Zupančič, A. (2017). Narcissism and the strategic pursuit of short-term mating: Universal links across 11 world regions of the international sexuality description project-2. Psychological Topics, 26(1), 89-137.
Jackson, J. C., Bilkey, D., Jong, J., Rossignac-Milon, M., & Halberstadt, J. (2017). Strangers in a stadium: Studying group dynamics with in vivo behavioral tracking. Social Psychological & Personality Science, 8(5), 509-518. doi: 10.1177/1948550617709112
Jong, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2017). What is the causal relationship between death anxiety and religious belief? Religion, Brain & Behavior, 7(4), 296-298. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2016.1249916
Halberstadt, J., Jackson, J. C., Bilkey, D., Jong, J., Whitehouse, H., McNaughton, C., & Zollmann, S. (2016). Incipient social groups: An analysis via in-vivo behavioral tracking. PLoS ONE, 11(3), e0149880. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149880
Bluemke, M., Jong, J., Grevenstein, D., Mikloušić, I., & Halberstadt, J. (2016). Measuring cross-cultural supernatural beliefs with self- and peer-reports. PLoS ONE, 11(10), e0164291. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164291
Owen, H. E., Halberstadt, J., Carr, E. W., & Winkielmann, P. (2016). Johnny Depp, reconsidered: How category-relative processing fluency determines the appeal of gender ambiguity. PLoS ONE, 11(2), e0146328. doi: 10.1371/journal. pone.0146328
Ruffman, T., Wilson, M., Henry, J. D., Dawson, A., Chen, Y., Kladnitski, N., Myftari, E., Murray, J., Halberstadt, J., & Hunter, J. A. (2016). Age differences in right-wing authoritarianism and their relation to emotion recognition. Emotion, 16(2), 226-236. doi: 10.1037/emo0000107
Jackson, J., Halberstadt, J., Jong, J., & Felman, H. (2015). Perceived openness to experience accounts for religious homogamy. Social Psychological & Personality Science, 6(6), 630-638. doi: 10.1177/1948550615574302
Alogna, V. K., Attaya, M. K., Aucoin, P., BahníK, Š., Birch, S., Birt, A. R., … Halberstadt, J., … Jackson, J. C., Jong, J., … Ng, C., … Zwaan, R. A. (2014). Registered replication report: Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9(5), 556-578. doi: 10.1177/1745691614545653
