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The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
Dr Mario WeickLecturer in Psychology |
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Research interests
I study the impact of social and situational factors on people’s perceptions, judgments, and actions. Most of my work has concentrated on the role of power and control. I look at how powerful and powerless people differ in their perceptions, in the way they make judgments, and in their actions. This research cuts across different domains and often combines social and organisational psychology with cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience/psychophysiology. In my research I often use a mixture of research methods, including group- and individual-research, online and paper-based questionnaires, secondary data, reaction-time measures, eye-tracking, immersive virtual reality, motion tracking, physiological reactivity, and EEG/ERP.
I welcome students wishing to undertake research in our recently established Immersive Virtual Reality suite and/or Psychophysiology laboratory.
Key Publications
Guinote, A., Weick, M., & Cai, A. (In press). Does power magnify the expression of dispositions? Psychological Science.
Weick, M., Guinote, A., & Wilkinson, D. (2011). Lack of power enhances visual perceptual discrimination. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65, 208-213.
Weick, M., & Guinote, A. (2010). How long will it take? Power biases time predictions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 595-604.
Weick, M., & Guinote, A. (2008). When subjective experiences matter: Power increases reliance on the Ease of Retrieval. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 956-970. (Awarded the European Social Cognition Network (ESCON) Best Paper Award)
Also view these in the Kent Academic Repository
Articles
Weick, Mario and Guinote, Ana and Wilkinson, D.T. (2011)
Lack of power enhances visual perceptual discrimination.
Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65 (3). pp. 208-213.
Abstract
Powerless individuals face much challenge and uncertainty. As a consequence, they are highly vigilant and closely scrutinize their social environments. The aim of the present research was to determine whether these qualities enhance performance in more basic cognitive tasks involving simple visual feature discrimination. To test this hypothesis, participants performed a series of perceptual matching and search tasks involving color, texture and size discrimination. As predicted, those primed with powerlessness generated shorter reaction times and made fewer eye movements than either powerful or control participants. The results indicate that the heightened vigilance shown by powerless individuals is associated with an advantage in performing simple types of psychophysical discrimination. These findings highlight, for the first time, an underlying competency in perceptual cognition that sets powerless individuals above their powerful counterparts, an advantage that may reflect functional adaptation to the environmental challenge and uncertainty that they face.
Abrams, D. and Weick, M. and Thomas, Dominique et al. (2011)
On-line ostracism affects children differently from adolescents and adults.
British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 29 (1). pp. 110-123.
Abstract
This research examines adults, and for the first time, childrens and adolescents reaction to being ostracised and included, using an on-line game, Cyberball with same and opposite sex players. Ostracism strongly threatened four primary needs (esteem, belonging, meaning and control) and lowered mood among 8-9-year olds, 13-14-year-olds, and adults. However, it did so in different ways. Ostracism threatened self-esteem needs more among 8-9-yearolds than older participants. Among 13-14-year-olds, ostracism threatened belonging more than other needs. Belonging was threatened most when ostracism was participants first experience in the game. Moreover, when participants had been included beforehand, ostracism threatened meaning needs most strongly. Gender of other players had no effect. Practical and developmental implications for social inclusion and on-line experiences among children and young people are discussed.
Weick, M. and Guinote, A. (2010)
How long will it take? Power biases time predictions.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46 (4). pp. 595-604. ISSN 0022-1031.
Abstract
People tend to underestimate the time it takes to accomplish tasks. This bias known as the planning fallacy
derives from the tendency to focus attention too narrowly on the envisaged goal and to ignore additional information that could make predictions more accurate and less biased. Drawing on recent research showing that power induces attentional focus, four studies tested the hypothesis that power strengthens the tendency to underestimate future task completion time. Across a range of task domains, and using multiple operationalizations of power, including actual control over outcomes (Study 1), priming (Studies 2 and 3), and individual differences (Study 4), power consistently led to more optimistic and less accurate time predictions. Support was found for the role of attentional focus as an underlying mechanism for those effects. Differences in optimism, self-efficacy, and mood did not contribute to the greater bias in powerful individuals forecasts. We discuss the implications of these findings for institutional decision processes and occupational health.
Wilkinson, D.T. and Guinote, Ana and Weick, Mario et al. (2010)
Feeling socially powerless makes you more prone to bumping into things on the right and induces leftward line bisection error.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17 (6). pp. 910-914. ISSN 1069-9384.
Abstract
Social power affects the manner in which people view themselves and act towards others, a finding that has attracted broad interest from the social and political sciences. However, there has been little interest from those within cognitive neuroscience. Here we demonstrate that the effects of power extend beyond social interaction and invoke elementary spatial biases in behaviour consistent with preferential hemispheric activation. In particular, participants who felt relatively powerless, compared to those who felt more powerful, were more likely to bisect horizontal lines to the left of centre, and bump into the right-, as opposed to the left-hand, side when walking through a narrow passage. These results suggest that power induces hemispheric differences in visuo-motor behaviour, indicating that this ubiquitous phenomenon not only affects how we interact with one another, but also with the physical world.
Weick, M. and Guinote, A. (2008)
When subjective experiences matter: power increases reliance on ease of retrieval.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94 (6). pp. 956-970. ISSN 0022-3514.
Abstract
Past research on power focused exclusively on declarative knowledge and neglected the role of subjective experiences. Five studies tested the hypothesis that power increases reliance on the experienced ease or difficulty that accompanies thought generation. Across a variety of targets, such as attitudes, leisure-time satisfaction, and stereotyping, and with different operationalizations of power, including priming, trait dominance, and actual power in managerial contexts, power consistently increased reliance on the ease of retrieval. These effects remained I week later and were not mediated by mood, quality of the retrieved information, or number of counterarguments. These findings indicate that powerful individuals construe their judgments on the basis of momentary subjective experiences and do not necessarily rely on core attitudes or prior knowledge, such as stereotypes.
| Date | Award | Amount |
|---|---|---|
2010-2011 |
Weick, M. |
£4,981 |
2009 -2011 |
Weick, M |
£32,239.50 |
2009-2010 |
Weick, M |
£109, 482 |
2006 |
Weick, M |
$800 |
Reviewing
- Fellow of the ESRC Peer Review College
- Consulting editor, European Journal of Social Psychology
- Ad-hoc reviewer: British Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Social Sciences, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Psychological Science, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, Social Psychological and Personality Science
Training
- Founder and coordinator of the UK Social Cognition Network and Training Scheme (SCONET) (with Dr. Roger Giner-Sorolla)
- Innovation, Creativity, and Enterprise (ICE)
Administration
- Deputy Director of Research
- RPS (Research Participation Scheme) Coordinator
Contact Details
School of Psychology
Keynes College
University of Kent
Canterbury, Kent
CT2 7NP
United Kingdom
Tel. +44 (0)1227 824253
Fax. +44 (0)1227 827030
Email: Mario Weick
Office: Keynes E2.08
Office Hours: Monday 4-5pm, Tuesday 11am-12 noon.