Social Psychology Network

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Leaf Van Boven

Leaf Van Boven

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  • SPN Mentor

I study the interrelation between emotion, judgment, decision making, and identity among ordinary people in everyday life. I’m interested in how people understand—and sometimes misunderstand—their social world in everyday life. I’m also interested in how behavioral scientists can use psychological insights to help people make better decisions, live happier lives, and have a more positive impact on business, economics, politics, and the environment. My lab uses uses laboratory experiments, national surveys, field studies, and archival data to examine questions such as: How does attention influence people's experience of emotion, their judgments of risk, and their decision making? How do people’s political stances influence their perception of political polarization in the United States? How do people’s decisions to pursue happiness through the acquisition of life experience versus material possessions influence their happiness, well being, and social relationships?

Primary Interests:

  • Emotion, Mood, Affect
  • Judgment and Decision Making
  • Life Satisfaction, Well-Being
  • Person Perception
  • Political Psychology
  • Self and Identity
  • Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

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Journal Articles:

  • Andrade, E., & Van Boven, L. (2010). Feelings not foregone: When people underestimate the affective impact of inaction. Psychological Science, 21, 706-711.
  • Epley, N., Keysar, B., Van Boven, L., & Gilovich, T. (2004). Perspective taking as egocentric anchoring and adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 327-339.
  • Huber, M., Van Boven, L., McGraw, A. P., Johnson-Graham, L. (2011). Whom to help? Immediacy bias in judgments and decisions about humanitarian aid allocation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 115, 283–293.
  • Kane, J., Van Boven, L., & McGraw, A. P. (2012). Prototypical prospection: Future events are more prototypically represented and simulated than past events. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 354–362.
  • Oskarsson, A., Van Boven, L., Hastie, R., & McClelland, G. (2009). What’s next? Judging sequences of binary events. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 262-285.
  • Savitsky, K. K., Van Boven, L., Epley, N., & Wight, W. (2005). The unpacking effect in allocations of responsibility for group tasks. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 447-“457.
  • Van Boven, L., & Ashworth. (2007). Looking forward, looking back: Anticipation is more evocative than retrospection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136, 289-300.
  • Van Boven, L., & Campbell, M., & Gilovich, T. (2010). Stigmatizing materialism: On stereotypes and impressions of materialistic versus experiential pursuits. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 551-563.
  • Van Boven, L., Dunning, D., & Loewenstein, G. (2000). Egocentric empathy gaps between owners and buyers: Misperceptions of the endowment effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 66-“76.
  • Van Boven, L., & Gilovich, T. (2003). To do or to have? That is the question. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 1193-“1202.
  • Van Boven, L., Judd, C., & Sherman, D. (2012). Perceiving political polarization: Social projection of attitude extremity and processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103, 84–100.
  • Van Boven, L., Kamada, A., & Gilovich, T. (1999). The perceiver as perceived: Everyday intuitions about the correspondence bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1188-1199.
  • Van Boven, L., Kane, J., McGraw, A. P., & Dale, J. (2010). Feeling close: Emotional intensity reduces perceived psychological distance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 872-885.
  • Van Boven, L., Kruger, J., Savitsky, K., & Gilovich, T. (2000). When social worlds collide: Overconfidence in the multiple audience dilemma. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 620-629.
  • Van Boven, L., & Loewenstein, G. (2003). Projection of transient drive states. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1159-“1168.
  • Van Boven, L., Loewenstein, G., & Dunning, D. (2005). The illusion of courage in social predictions: Underestimating the impact of fear of embarrassment on other people. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 96, 130-141.
  • Van Boven, L., & Robinson, M. (2012). Boys don’t cry: Stereotype accessibility and stereotypic sex differences in emotion memory. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 303–309.
  • Van Boven, L., White, K., & Huber, M. (2009). Immediacy bias in emotion perception: Current emotions seem more intense than previous emotions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 368-382.
  • Van Boven, L., White, K., Kamada, A., & Gilovich, T. (2003). Intuitions about situational correction in self and others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 249-“258.
  • White, K., & Van Boven, L. (2012). Immediacy bias in social emotional comparisons. Emotion, 12, 737–747.

Courses Taught:

  • Emotion and Intuition
  • Heuristics and Biases
  • Judgment and Decision Making

Leaf Van Boven
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Muenzinger Hall UCB 345
University of Colorado Boulder
Boulder, Colorado 80309
United States of America

  • Work: (303) 735-5238
  • Mobile: (720) 771-2261
  • Fax: (303) 492-2967

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