Professor Geoff Haddock

Biography

Undergraduate education

I attended the University of Toronto, where I received my B.Sc. in 1989.

Postgraduate education

I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Waterloo.  My Ph.D. thesis explored the extent to which affective and cognitive information differentially influence attitudes across individuals.  Upon completion of my Ph.D., I spent a year as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan before moving to the United Kingdom in 1995.

Employment

1994-1995: Lecturer and Visiting Scholar, The University of Michigan

1995-1999: Lecturer, University of Exeter

1999-2000: Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter

2000-2001: Lecturer, University of Bristol

2001-2006: Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University

2006-2010: Reader, Cardiff University

2010-present: Professor, Cardiff University

Honours and awards

Awards/external committees

Editorial Duties

1999-2003: Associate Editor: British Journal of Social Psychology

2007-2011: Associate Editor: British Journal of Psychology

2011-2012: Associate Editor: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

2013-2015: Associate Editor: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

2005-2009: Consulting Editor: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

2004-present:  Consulting Editor: British Journal of Social Psychology

2006-2014: Consulting Editor:  European Journal of Social Psychology

2013-present:  Consulting Editor: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

2020-present: Associate Editor, Royal Society Open Science

Examination Duties

2003-7: External Examiner, Undergraduate Degrees in Psychology, University of   Surrey

2006-2010: External Examiner, Undergraduate Degrees in Psychology,   University of Sheffield

2011-2015: External Examiner.  M.Sc. Degrees, University of Kent

2011-2015: External Examiner,  Undergraduate Degrees in Psychology, University of Aberdeen

2015-2020: External Examiner,  Undergraduate Degrees in Psychology, University of Essex

2017-2021: External Examiner, Undergraduate Degrees in Psychology, City University

2017-present: External Examiner, M.Sc. Degrees, University College London

2020-present: External Examiner, Undegraduate Degrees in Psychology, Universuty of Reading

Review Boards

2010-present: Member of ESRC Peer Review College

2016-present: Academic Advisor, Commonwealth Scholarship Commission

2017-2021: Member of ESRC Grants Assessment Panel (Panel A)

2021-present: Memeber of ESRC Strategic Advisory Network

International Research Conference Organisation

2000: European Association of Experimental Social Psychology conference   titled “Attitudes Research in the 21st Century: Integrating Mental Models and   Motivation”, Gregynog, Wales (with G. R. Maio)

2004: European Association of Experimental Social Psychology conference   titled “Conscious and Unconscious Attitudinal Processes”, La Cristalera, Spain   (with G. R. Maio, P. Briñol, & R. E. Petty)

2008: European Association of Experimental Social Psychology conference   titled “Affective Processes in Evaluation”, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (with G.   R. Maio, P. Briñol, R. Holland, & R. E. Petty)

2012:  European Association of Social Psychology conference titled “Motivational  components of attitudes”, Ghent, Belgium (with G. R. Maio, P. Briñol, R. Holland, R. E. Petty,  & A. Spruuyt)

2016: European Association of Social  Psychology conference titled “Experience-based  versus information-based attitude processes: On the psychology of attitudes”, Cologne, Germany (with C. Unkelbach, A. Gast, S. Topolinski, P. Briñol, R. Holland, G. Maio, R.  Petty, & D. Wegener)

Professional memberships

European Assocation of Social Psychology

Society of Experimental Social Psychology (Fellow)

Society for Personality and Social Psychology (Fellow)

Publications

We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.

Teaching

At Level 5, I teach on the Social Psychology module, where my lectures cover the topics of helping behaviour and aggression.

At Level 6, I teach on the Attitudes and Attitude Change module.  The aims of the module are: (a) to develop students’ understanding of the concept of attitude and its importance in social psychology and (b) make students familiar with theories of  attitude and, especially, the research that has been used to test these  theories.

Project supervision is in the area of the psychology of attitudes.

Research topics and related papers

My research concentrates on the psychology of attitudes.  I am interested in questions such as how do we form and organise our opinions?  How do our opinions change and evolve over time?  For example, here are two different types of questions I find interesting:

How do different people respond to different types of persuasive appeals?

When I was growing up, there used to be a series of famous television advertisements in which former professional athletes exalted their preference for a particular brand of beer.  While some of the athletes noted that the beer tasted great, others replied that it was less filling than other beers.  From an attitudes point of view, you can say   that the first part of the message highlights a positive affective response   associated with the beverage (i.e., its taste), whereas the second part highlights a positive attribute about the beverage (i.e., its low caloric intake).  Using this analogy, my colleagues and I are interested in knowing whether some people are more persuaded by an affective people and others more   persuaded by a cognitive appeal.  To date, our research (see Haddock & Maio, 2019) has demonstrated that the effectiveness of affect- and cognition-based messages is dependent upon individual differences in need for affect (Maio &   Esses, 2001) and need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982).

How does mindfulness relate to attitudinal processes?

More recently, I have become  interested in potential inks between mindfulness and attitudinal  phenomena.  Mindfulness reflects a conscious awareness of  what is occurring in the present, with less attention devoted to rumination  about the past or anxieties about the future. Numerous streams of research have  documented the psychological benefits associated with heightened levels of  mindfulness.  In our work, we are seeking  to understand how mindfulness is associated with the content, structure, and  function of attitudes, as well as how mindfulness is linked with outcomes such  as eating behavior and intergroup relations.

How does child salience influence behaviour?

My collaborators and I are currently investigating how child salience influences affect, cognition, and behaviour.  For example, we have found that priming people with the concept of children leads to more importance attached to self-transcendence values and less importance attached to self-enhancement.  We have received funding from the ESRC to further investigate these issues.

https://childsalience.wordpress.com/

Funding

2004-2006: "Implicit and explicit bases of values: Implications for behaviour change" - Economic and Social Research Council (£46890 - with Prof. G. R. Maio).

2004-2006: "Do memory-impaired individual retain access to their attitudes" -   Alzheimer's Research Trust (£6820 - with Dr. M. A. Newson and Prof. G. Wilcock).

2004-2007: "Effects of affective, cognitive, and behavioural anti-racism advertisements" - Economic and Social Research Council (£136236 - with Prof. G. R. Maio).

2009-2013: "Lifestyle change: Values and volition" - Economic and Social   Research Council (FEC £424490 - with Dr. K. Tapper and Prof. G. R. Maio).

2015-2018: “The impacts of mindfulness on values and attitudes” – The  Leverhulme Trust (£153878)

2017-2020: “Effects of mental representations of children on prosocial motivation” - Economic and Social Research Council (FEC £533021 - with Prof. G. R. Maio, Dr. C. Foad, Dr. J. Karremans and Prof. E. Webb)

2018-2020: “Pilot real-time REF review” – Research England (£20000 – with Dr. N. Weinstein and Professor J. Wilsdon)

2020: PPE use among police officers in response to COVID-19 – Research contract with the National Police Coordination Centre (£17243 – with Dr. E. Collins)

2020-2021: The relationship between religion and science in practice: The role of religiosity in complying with scientific health - Science and Religion Project Research Network (£19925 – with Dr. N. Zarzeczna, Dr. P. Hanel, & Dr. B. Rutjers)

Research group

I am a member of the social and environmental psychology research group.

Research collaborators

Within the School, my primary collaborators are Travis Proulx, and Ulrich von Hecker.  Recent external collaborators include colleagues from the University of Bath, City Univerity, Swansea University, the University of Exeter, the University of Sheffield, the University of Reading, as well as colleagues from Israel, Italy and the Netherlands.

Supervision

Postgraduate research interests

My primary area of research is the psychology of attitudes.  Within this area, I have a number of  research interests, including: (a) the role of affective and cognitive  processes in attitudes, (b) the impact on mindfulness on attitudes and attitude change, (c) attitude ambivalence, (d) how individual differences influence attitude processes, and (e) how child salience influences behaviour.

If you are interested in applying for a PhD, or for further information  regarding my postgraduate research, please contact me directly (contact details available on the 'Overview' page), or submit a formal application.

Past projects

Previous students

Tom Huskinson – Tom’s research explored whether people  generally base their attitudes on different types of information, and the implications  of these individual differences on attitude-relevant phenomena.  Tom is currently an Associate Director at  IPSOS-MORI.

Helen Penny – Helen’s research explored anti-fat  prejudice among children.  She explored the pervasiveness of this  prejudice, the age at which anti-fat prejudice is present, and the effects of  anti-fat prejudice. Upon completing her Ph.D., Helen completed clinical  training at the Institute of Psychiatry. Helen is currently a member of academic staff at Cardiff University.

Rose Thompson – Rose’s research explored how stories  can be used to change attitudes.  She examined whether narratives are more  effective in eliciting attitude change among some individuals, and how  narratives work to change attitudes. Rose is currently a Senior Researcher at  the McPin Foundation.

Paul Hutchings – Paul’s research explored how individual  differences in prejudice influence how people facial expressions of in-group  and out-group members. Paul is currently Programme Director in Psychology at the University of Wales Trinity St. David.

Ben Windsor-Shellard – Ben’s research explored the correlates  and consequences of implicit-explicit attitude ambivalence. Ben is currently a Research Scientist at the Office for National Statistics.

Karis Vaughan –  Karis’ research explored the role of mindfulness in eating behaviour and weight  management. Karis is currently an Associate Medical Writer at Oxford PharmaGenesis.