|
Colin Holbrook
Postdoctoral Fellow
UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution & Culture
|
|
I apply experimental psychological methods to topics at the intersection of emotion, threat-detection and evaluation.
I am especially preoccupied with distinguishing genuine psychological adaptations from by-products.
My doctoral thesis explored the influence of unconsciously perceived threat cues on social and aesthetic judgment.
These studies, conducted in Tibet, Northern Ireland, and the United States, supported a novel reframing of the widely studied effect known as 'worldview defense'
as a by-product of background alarm rather than content-dedicated adaptations for 'terror management' or other functions.
(See here for the decrypted version.)
Current studies focus on conceptual metaphors of size and strength evolved to represent the relative formidability of oneself vs. prospective foes.
I am also investigating emotional mediators of pro- and antisocial behavior, the effects of oxytocin on threat-detection, and the moderating influence of socioeconomic status on moral sentiments.
In recent projects, I examined the psychobiology of parental precautions against potential threats to offspring, rationales people use to justify
inflicting harm, the contribution of breastfeeding to maternal aggression, and folk concepts of intentionality in immoral contexts.
|
PUBLICATIONS
Fessler, D.M.T., Holbrook, C., & Snyder, J.K. (2012). Weapons make the man
(larger): Relative formidability influences perceived size and strength. PLoS-ONE.
LINK
Holbrook, C., Sousa, P., & Hahn-Holbrook, J. (2011). Unconscious vigilance:
Worldview defense without adaptations for terror, coalition or uncertainty management. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 451-466.
PDF
Hahn-Holbrook, J., Holt-Lunstad, J., Holbrook, C., Coyne, S., & Lawson, E. T. (2011).
Maternal defense: Breastfeeding increases aggression by decreasing stress. Psychological Science, 22, 1288-1295.
PDF
Hahn-Holbrook, J.*, Holbrook, C.*, & Haselton, M. (2011). Parental precaution: Adaptive
ends and neurobiological means. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35, 1052-66.
(*equal authorship.) PDF
Sousa, P., & Holbrook, C. (2010). Folk concepts of intentional action in the contexts
of amoral and immoral luck. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 1, 351-370.
PDF
Hahn-Holbrook, J., Holbrook, C., & Bering, J. (2010). Snakes, spiders, strangers:
How the evolved fear of strangers may misdirect efforts to protect children from
harm. In J. M. Lampinen & K. Sexton-Radek (Eds.) Protecting children from violence:
Evidence-based interventions. New York: Psychology Press.
PDF
Sousa, P., Holbrook, C., & Piazza, J. (2009). The morality of harm. Cognition, 113, 80-92.
PDF
Holbrook, C., Fessler, D.M.T., & Gervais, M. (forthcoming). Revenge without redundancy:
Functional outcomes do not require discrete adaptations for vengeance or forgiveness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
Fessler, D.M.T., & Holbrook, C. (forthcoming). Baumard et al.'s moral markets lack market dynamics. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
Piazza, J., Sousa, P., & Holbrook, C. (under review). When are judgments of utilitarian harm authority dependent?
Holbrook, C., & Fessler, D.M.T. (under review). Cut down to size: Osama bin Laden's death reduces terrorists' imagined physical formidability.
Holbrook, C. (under review). Jesus has left the Bardo: Supernatural beliefs, unconscious threat and evaluation bias in Tibet.
Fessler, D.M.T., & Holbrook, C. (under review). Friends shrink foes: The presence of comrades decreases the envisioned physical formidability of an opponent
Holbrook, C., Piazza, J., & Fessler, D.M.T. (in preparation). Empirical challenges to the 'Authentic' versus 'Hubristic' appraisal model of pride.
Holbrook, C., Rosch, E., & Hahn-Holbrook, J. (in preparation). Known unknowns: Inductive reasoning under conscious ignorance.
|
A few images from my research in Tibet:
|
