Professor Jamin Halberstadt, Our People, Department of Psychology, University of Otago, New Zealand

Jamin Halberstadt

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

PSYC 212 Social and Applied Psychology
PSYC 426 Social Cognition

Research Interests

Social cognition
Social categorisation
Facial attractiveness
Emotion perception
Decision making

Find out more about Professor Halberstadt's research interests

^ Top of page

Publications

Jong, J., Baimel, A., Ross, R., McKay, R., Bluemke, M., & Halberstadt, J. (2020). Traumatic life experiences and religiosity in eight countries [Data descriptor]. Scientific Data, 7, 140. doi: 10.1038/s41597-020-0482-y

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

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

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

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

Authored Book - Research
Chapter in Book - Research
Journal - Research Article

Authored Book - Research

Jong, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2016). Death anxiety and religious belief: An existential psychology of religion. Londun, UK: Bloomsbury, 232p.

^ Top of page

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.

^ Top of page

Journal - Research Article

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

Ruffman, T., Halberstadt, J., Murray, J., Jack, F., & Vater, T. (2019). Empathic accuracy: Worse recognition by older adults and less transparency in older adult expressions compared to young adults. Journals of Gerontology Series B. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbz008

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

Stojanov, A., & Halberstadt, J. (2019). The conspiracy mentality scale: Distinguishing between irrational and rational suspicion. Social Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000381

Alogna, V. K., & Halberstadt, J. (2019). The divergent effects of prayer on cheating. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 1-14. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2019.1574881

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Halberstadt, J., & Winkielman, P. (2014). Easy on the eyes, or hard to categorize: Classification difficulty decreases the appeal of facial blends. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 50, 175-183. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.08.004

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

Löckenhoff, C. E., Chan, W., McCrae, R. R., De Fruyt, F., Jussim, L., De Bolle, M., … Halberstadt, J., … Terracciano, A. (2014). Gender stereotypes of personality: Universal and accurate? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45(5), 675-694. doi: 10.1177/0022022113520075

McCrae, R. R., Chan, W., Jussim, L., De Fruyt, F., Löckenhoff, C. E., De Bolle, M., … Halberstadt, J., Yamaguchi, M., … Terracciano, A. (2013). The inaccuracy of national character stereotypes. Journal of Research in Personality, 47(6), 831-842. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2013.08.006

Halberstadt, J., Pecher, D., Zeelenberg, R., Ip Wai, L., & Winkielman, P. (2013). Two faces of attractiveness: Making beauty in averageness appear and reverse. Psychological Science, 24(11), 2343-2346. doi: 10.1177/0956797613491969

Jong, J., Bluemke, M., & Halberstadt, J. (2013). Fear of death and supernatural beliefs: Developing a new supernatural belief scale to test the relationship. European Journal of Personality, 27(5), 495-506. doi: 10.1002/per.1898

More publications...