Staff profile

**I am accepting applications for MRes students.**

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, MIT, 2020

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Regina, 2020

Ph.D. in Social-Personality Psychology, University of Rochester, 2019

M.A. in Social-Personality Psychology, University of Rochester, 2017

M.A. in Experimental Psychology, University of Texas (Permian Basin), 2014

Research Profile

I take a "systems biology" approach to understanding human psychology. 

I'm interested in understanding whether higher-order social and cognitive functions can be connected to basic biological processes. I use physiological methods to understand what is happening in our bodies when we experience emotions and stress. My main area of research right now is emotional piloerection in humans. 

• Emotion
• Proteomics
• Pseudoscience and misinformation
• Psychophysiology
• Religion
• Science communication
• Systems Biology
• Piloerection

Journal Article

• McPhetres, J., Rutjens, B., Weinstein, N., & Brisson, J. (online). Modifying attitudes about modified foods: increased knowledge leads to more positive attitudes. Journal of Environmental Psychology,
• McPhetres, J., & Zuckerman, M. (online). Religiosity predicts negative attitudes towards science and lower levels of science literacy. PLoS ONE,
• McPhetres, J. (online). Oh, the things you don’t know: Awe promotes awareness of knowledge gaps and science interest. Cognition and Emotion,
• McPhetres, J., Gao, H. H., Kemp, N., & Khati, B. (2024). Piloerection persists throughout repeated exposure to emotional stimuli. PLoS ONE, 19(9), Article e0309347. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0309347
• McPhetres, J. (2024). Diverse stimuli induce piloerection and yield varied autonomic responses in humans. Biology Open, 13(8), Article bio060205. https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.060205
• McPhetres, J., Han, A., Gao, H. H., Kemp, N., Khati, B., Pu, C. X., Smith, A., & Shui, X. (2024). Individuals lack the ability to accurately detect emotional piloerection. Psychophysiology, 61(9), Article e14605. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14605
• Većkalov, B., Zarzeczna, N., McPhetres, J., van Harreveld, F., & Rutjens, B. T. (2024). Psychological Distance to Science as a Predictor of Science Skepticism Across Domains. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50(1), 18–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221118184
• Pennycook, G., Bago, B., & McPhetres, J. (2023). Science beliefs, political ideology, and cognitive sophistication. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(1), 80-97. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001267
• Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Bago, B., & Rand, D. G. (2022). Beliefs About COVID-19 in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States: A Novel Test of Political Polarization and Motivated Reasoning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48(5), 750-765. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211023652
• McPhetres, J., & Zickfeld, J. H. (2022). The physiological study of emotional piloerection: A systematic review and guide for future research. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 179, 6-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.06.010
• Kotzur, P., Stricker, J., Fricke, R., McPhetres, J., & Meyer, B. (2022). How does team diversity relate to the willingness to collaborate with asylum seekers? It depends on the diversity dimensions investigated and boundary conditions. PLoS ONE, 17(3), Article e0266166. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266166
• Tierney, W., Hardy, J., Ebersole, C. R., Viganola, D., Clemente, E. G., Gordon, M., Hoogeveen, S., Haaf, J., Dreber, A., Johannesson, M., Pfeiffer, T., Huang, J. L., Vaughn, L. A., DeMarree, K., Igou, E. R., Chapman, H., Gantman, A., Vanaman, M., Wylie, J., Storbeck, J., …Uhlmann, E. L. (2021). A creative destruction approach to replication: Implicit work and sex morality across cultures. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 93, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.104060
• Većkalov, B., Zarzeczna, N., Niehoff, E., McPhetres, J., & Rutjens, B. T. (2021). A matter of time… consideration of future consequences and temporal distance contribute to the ideology gap in climate change scepticism. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 78, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101703
• McPhetres, J., Albayrak-Aydemir, N., Barbosa Mendes, A., Chow, E. C., Gonzalez-Marquez, P., Loukras, E., Maus, A., O’Mahony, A., Pomareda, C., Primbs, M. A., Sackman, S. L., Smithson, C. J., & Volodko, K. (2021). A decade of theory as reflected in Psychological Science (2009–2019). PLoS ONE, 16(3), Article e0247986. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247986
• McPhetres, J., Rand, D. G., & Pennycook, G. (2021). Character deprecation in fake news: Is it in supply or demand?. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 24(4), https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430220965709
• McPhetres, J., & Shtulman, A. (2021). Piloerection is not a reliable physiological correlate of awe. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 159, 88-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.11.011

Other (Print)

• McPhetres, J. (2019). Are you scared of GMOs?