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Mark D. Alicke

Research Area:
Social Judgment & Behavioral Decision Making

Specializations:
Social, Behavioral Decision Making

Contact Information:

Office: 261 Porter Hall

Phone: (740) 593-1068

E-mail: alicke@ohio.edu

Research Interests:
My main research interests are in the role of the self in social judgment and in the processes by which negative evaluations of people and their behavior is translated into judgments of blame and the imposition of sanctions. My first line of research is currently being pursued with an NSF grant to study the "genius effect." The genius effect refers to the tendency for people who are outperformed to exaggerate the abilities of the outperformers. This research is being extended to assess, for example, students' perceptions of other students who are demonstrably superior at specific tasks, and athletes' perceptions of superior competitors.

My second line of research is the basis for a grant proposal that is presently being prepared, based on the publication of a recent theoretical paper called "Culpable Control and the Psychology of Blame." This paper explores implications of his blame theory for the legal system, especially for the process by which jurors reach conclusions regarding criminal responsibility, civil liability, and punishment. Two issues are addressed most prominently in this proposal. The first involves the interplay between "extra-evidential" factors (e.g., racial and gender beliefs, emotional reactions) and evidence evaluation, in particular, how perceptions of legal criteria for assessing guilt and determining punishment are altered by extra-evidential features. The second issue pertains more specifically to the controversial question of whether to allow the victim's family to testify in the sentencing phase of capital murder trials. In some jurisdictions, for example, a victim's family is allowed to describe how the loss of a family member has affected their lives. Such testimony is obviously highly emotional, although to date, little research has been directed toward investigating its impact on punishment decisions.

Selected Publications:

Alicke, M. D., Zerbst, J. I., & LoSchiavo, F. M. (1996).

Personal attitudes, constraint magnitude, and correspondence bias. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 18, 211-228.

Alicke, M. D., Yurak, T., Vredenburg, D. (1996).

Outcomes, consensus, and the relative preference effect.Journal of Research in Personality, 30, 103-113.

Alicke, M. D., & Yurak, T. J. (1996).

Perpetrator personality and judgments of acquaintance rape. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1900-1921.

Alicke, M. D., LoSchiavo, F. M., Zerbst, J. I., & Zhang, S. (1997).

The person who outperforms me is a genius: Esteem maintenance in upward social comparison. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 781-789.

Alicke, M. D.

Losing and Liking It: Self-Maintenance in Upward Social Comparison in Context. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Alicke, M. D. (1999).

Self-orientations in self and social judgment. Psychological Inquiry.

Recent Grants:

• The Person Who Outperforms Me is a Genius -- Total Amount: $263,091 (three years)
• Research Challenge Award (July, 1997) $6,000
• NSF SBR-9728635. "Maintaining Self-Esteem inUpward Social Comparison". June 8, 1998- June 8, 2001; $178,824 (3 years).

Some Recent or Upcoming Presentations:

• Alicke, M. D. Attitude transference. Departmental Colloquium. University of Kentucky. (1998-99)
• Alicke, M. D. The better-than-myself effect. Paper presented at Nags Head Conference on Motivation. Boca Raton, FL.
• Alicke, M. D. The better-than-average effect: Self-enhancement, target derogation, or both? Invited talk at Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists meeting, Richmond, VA.
• Alicke, M. D. Maintaining self-esteem in upward social comparison. Paper presented at Society of Experimental Social Psychology meeting, St. Louis, MO.
• Alicke, M. D., Buckingham, J. T., & Matta, S. M. Personal attitudes and correspondence bias. Poster presented at Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
• Mazzocco, P. J., & Alicke, M. D. Confirmation bias as a mediator/moderator of outcome bias. Poster presented at Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.

Courses Taught:

Undergraduate:
Introduction to Psychology; Social Psychology

Graduate:
Advanced Social Psychology; Social Perception and Cognition

Graduate Students:

• Ian Berger
• Olesya Govorun
• Matthew Hiatt
• Clinton Irvin