How do people resolve the ambivalent feelings they have about members of other groups? What mental maneuvers do people use to shield themselves from threats to their self-concepts? How do people deal with having violated their moral and other behavioral standards? At the broadest level, my research focuses on the motivational aspects of social cognition. More specific interests include attitudinal ambivalence, social stigma, defensive and self-protective processes in judgment and memory, and the social psychology of genocide and mass killing.

Primary Interests:

Intergroup Relations
Person Perception
Self and Identity
Social Cognition

Intergroup Relations
Person Perception

Self and Identity
Social Cognition

Books:

Newman, L. S., & Erber, R. (Eds.). (2002). Understanding genocide: The social psychology of the Holocaust. New York: Oxford University Press.

Journal Articles:

Newman, L. S. (2009). Was Walter Lippmann interested in stereotyping? Public opinion and cognitive social psychology. History of Psychology, 12, 7-18.
Newman, L. S. (1993). How individualists interpret behavior: Idiocentrism and spontaneous trait inference. Social Cognition, 11, 243-269.
Newman, L. S., & Bakina, D. A. (2009). Do people resist social-psychological perspectives on wrongdoing? Reactions to dispositional, situational, and interactionist explanations. Social Influence, 4, 256-273.
Newman, L. S., Baumeister, R. F. (1996). Toward an explanation of the UFO abduction phenomenon: Hypnotic elaboration, extraterrestrial sadomasochism, and spurious memories. Psychological Inquiry, 7(2), 99-126.
Newman, L. S., Caldwell, T. L., Chamberlin, B., & Griffin, T. (2005). Thought suppression, projection, and the development of stereotypes. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27, 259-266.
Newman, L. S., Duff, K. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (1997). A new look at defensive projection: Thought suppression, accessibility, and biased person perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 980-1001.
Newman, L. S., Duff, K. J., Schnopp-Wyatt, N., Brock, B., & Hoffman, Y. (1997). Reactions to the O. J. Simpson verdict: "Mindless tribalism" or motivated inference processes? Journal of Social Issues, 53(3), 547-562.
Newman, L. S., & McKinney, L. C. (2002). Repressive coping and threat avoidance: An idiographic Stroop study. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 409-422.

Other Publications:

Newman, L. S. (2002). What is a "social-psychological" account of perpetrator behavior? The person versus the situation in Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners. In L. S. Newman & R. Erber (Eds.), Understanding genocide: The social psychology of the Holocaust (pp. 43-67). New York: Oxford University Press.
Newman, L. S. (2001). A cornerstone for the science of interpersonal behavior? Person perception and person memory, past, present, and future. In G. B. Moskowitz (Ed.), Cognitive social psychology: The Princeton symposium on the legacy and future of social cognition (pp.191-207). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Courses Taught:

Attitude Change
Research Methods in Social Psychology
Social Cognition
Social Psychology
The Social Psychology of Genocide and Mass Killing

Attitude Change
Research Methods in Social Psychology
Social Cognition

Social Psychology
The Social Psychology of Genocide and Mass Killing

Len Newman
Department of Psychology
515 Huntington Hall
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY 13244
United States

Phone: (315) 443-4633
Fax: (315) 443-4085