Dr Travis Proulx

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Research topics and related papers

Expectancy Violation and Compensation

Theory

Proulx, T., Inzlicht, M., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2012). Understanding all inconsistency compensation as a palliative response to violated expectations. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(5), 285-291.

Jonas, E., McGregor, I., Klackl, J., Agroskin, D., Fritsche, I., Holbrook., C, Nash., K., Proulx., T., & Quirin., M. (2014). Threat and Defense: From anxiety to approach. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 219-286.

Reasearch

Zarzeczna, N., von Hecker, U., Proulx, T., & Haddock, G. (2020). Powerful men on top: Stereotypes interact with metaphors in social categorizations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 46(1), 36.

Sleegers, W. W., Proulx, T., & van Beest, I. (2019). Confirmation bias and misconceptions: Pupillometric evidence for a confirmation bias in misconceptions feedback. Biological Psychology, 145, 76-83.

Proulx, T., Sleegers, W., & Tritt, S. M. (2017). The expectancy bias: Expectancy-violating faces evoke earlier pupillary dilation than neutral or negative faces. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 70, 69-79.

Sleegers, W. W., Proulx, T., & van Beest, I. (2017). The social pain of Cyberball: Decreased pupillary reactivity to exclusion cues. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 69, 187-200.

Sleegers, W. W., Proulx, T., & van Beest, I. (2015). Extremism reduces conflict arousal and increases values affirmation in response to meaning violations. Biological Psychology, 108, 126-131.

The Meaning Maintenance Model

Theory

Proulx, T., & Inzlicht, M. (2012). The five ‘A’s of meaning maintenance: Making sense of the theories of sense-making. [Target Article] Psychological Inquiry, 23, 317-335.

Proulx, T., & Heine, S. J. (2010). The frog in Kierkegaard's beer: Finding meaning in the violation-compensation literature. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(10), 889-905.

Heine, S. J., Proulx, T., & Vohs, K. D. (2006). The meaning maintenance model: On the coherence of social motivations. Personality and Social Psychological Review, 10 (2), 88-111.

Research

Randles, D., Proulx, T., & Heine, S. J. (2011). Turn-frogs and careful-sweaters: Non-conscious perception of incongruous word pairings provokes fluid compensation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(1), 246-249.

Proulx, T., Heine, S. J., & Vohs, K. D. (2010). When is the unfamiliar The Uncanny?: Meaning affirmation after exposure to absurdist literature, humor, and art. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 817-829.

Proulx, T., & Heine, S. J. (2009). Connections from Kafka: Exposure to meaning violations improves implicit learning of artificial grammar. Psychological Science, 20, 1125 – 1131.

Proulx, T., & Heine, S. J. (2008). The case of the transmogrifying experimenter: Affirmation of moral schema following implicit change detection. Psychological Science, 19 (12), 1294 – 1300.

Attitudes Towards Political Outgroups

Theory

Proulx, T., & Brandt, M. J. (2017). Beyond Threat and Uncertainty: The Underpinnings of Conservatism. Social Cognition, 35(4), 313-323.

Research

Reiss, S., Klackl, J., Proulx, T., & Jonas, E. (2019). Strength of socio-political attitudes moderates electrophysiological responses to perceptual anomalies. PloS one, 14(8), e0220732.

Suhay, E., Brandt, M. J., & Proulx, T. (2016). Lay Belief in Biopolitics and Political Prejudice. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1948550616667615.

Teaching

2019 – present: Coordinator and Instructor, Department of Psychology, Cardiff University. (Thinking About Human Behaviour)

2016 – 2019:  Instructor, Department of Psychology, Cardiff University. (Social Psychology)

2011 – 2016:  Coordinator and Instructor, Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University.  (Social Cognition, Existential Psychology) Minor Coordinator, Department of Social Psychology Graduate Masters Program.

 2007 – 2010:  Coordinator and Instructor, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University. (Psychology of Meaning; Adolescent Development: Rationality, Morality, Identity; Cultural Psychology)

Biography

Employment

 April 2016 - Present:

Cardiff University

Senior Lecturer – Social Psychology

 January 2011 – April 2016:

Tilburg University

Assistant Professor – Social Psychology

 January 2010 – 2011:

Simon Fraser University

Assistant Professor – Social Psychology

 September 2008 – December 2009:

 University of California, Santa Barbara

Postdoctoral Researcher - Self and Intergroup Relations Lab

Supervisor: Brenda Major

Postgraduate education

January 2006 - September 2008:

University of British Columbia

Major: Developmental Psychology

Degree: Ph.D.

Supervisor: Michael Chandler

Ph.D. Dissertation: Jekyll & Hyde & Me: Age-Graded and Cultural Variations in Perceptions of Self-Unity

 January 2004 – December 2005:

University of British Columbia

Major: Developmental Psychology

Degree: M.A.

Supervisor: Michael Chandler

M.A. Thesis: Listener’s Gaze: Communicative Intent and Word Learning

 September 2001 – December 2003:

 University of British Columbia

Major: Interdisciplinary Studies

Degree: M.A.

Supervisor: Darrin Lehman

M.A. Thesis: Absurdity as the Source of Existential Anxiety: A Critique of Terror Management Theory

Undergraduate education

September 1997 – May 2001:

University of British Columbia

Major: Psychology

Degree awarded: B.A.

Honours and awards

Awards/external committees

content

Supervisions

Postgraduate research interests

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.

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:

Worldviews and cognitive dissonance

Ideological contempt