Primary Interests:
- Aggression, Conflict, Peace
- Emotion, Mood, Affect
- Personality, Individual Differences
- Social Cognition
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Brian P. Meier
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My research focuses on the social-cognitive mechanisms of behavior. Although I have a strong interest in several areas of social behavior (e.g., mindfulness and pro-social actions), the bulk of my interest is in embodiment and aggression. My embodiment research reveals that our perceptual experiences can guide our behavior in ways consistent with common metaphors. For example, people who are high in depressive symptoms have a tendency to visually attend to lower areas in vertical space ("feeling down"). Thus, it seems that we could learn a lot more about behavior by paying attention to the metaphors people use.
My research in aggression has mostly focused on the personality trait of agreeableness. I have examined the ways in which people high in agreeableness regulate their behavior when confronted with hostile situations. My colleagues and I have found that people high in agreeableness automatically activate helpful thoughts when exposed to aggressive contexts (e.g., a provocation). These thoughts likely lead to the effective self-regulation of aggressive behavior.
I am also a co-director of Camp Psych, which is a summer camp in psychology for high school students (www.gettysburg.edu/camppsych).
Journal Articles:
- Hauser, D. J., Carter, M. S., & Meier, B. P. (2009). Mellow Monday and furious Friday: The approach-related link between anger and time representation. Cognition and Emotion, 23, 1166-1180.
- Landau, M. J., Meier, B. P., & Keefer, L. A. (2010). A metaphor-enriched social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 1045-1067.
- Meier, B. P., & Dionne, S. (2009). Downright sexy: Verticality, implicit power, and perceived physical attractiveness. Social Cognition, 27, 883-892.
- Meier, B. P., Hauser, D. J., Robinson, M. D., Friesen, C. K., & Schjeldahl, K. (2007). What’s “up” with God?: Vertical Space as a representation of the divine. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 699-710.
- Meier, B. P., & Hinsz, V. B. (2004). A comparison of human aggression committed by groups and individuals: An interindividual-intergroup discontinuity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 551-559.
- Meier, B. P., & Robinson, M. D. (2004). Why the sunny side is up: Associations between affect and vertical position. Psychological Science, 15, 243-247.
- Meier, B. P., Robinson, M. D., & Wilkowski, B. M. (2006). Turning the other cheek: Agreeableness and the regulation of aggression-related primes. Psychological Science, 17, 136-142.
- Meier, B. P., Wilkowski, B. M., & Robinson, M. D. (2008). Bringing out the agreeableness in everyone: Using a cognitive self-regulation model to reduce aggression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1383-1387.
- Wilkowski, B. M., & Meier, B. P. (2010). Bring it on: Angry facial expressions potentiate approach-motivated motor behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 201-210.
- Wilkowski, B. M., Meier, B. P., Robinson, M. D., Carter, M. S., & Feltman, R. (2009). “Hotheaded” is more than an expression: The embodied representation of anger in terms of heat. Emotion, 9, 464-477.
Courses Taught:
- Advanced Social Psychology
- D'oh! Psychology and The Simpsons
- Introduction to Psychology
- Introduction to Social Psychology
- Introduction to Statistics
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Brian P. Meier
Department of Psychology
Gettysburg College
300 North Washington Street
Gettysburg, PA 17325
United States