Linda J. Skitka

Institution University of Illinois at Chicago Current Position Professor of Psychology Highest Degree Ph.D. in Social Psychology from University of California, Berkeley, 1989 Research Interests Attitudes Attribution Emotion Ethics/Morality Helping/Pro-Social Behavior Interpersonal Processes Judgment/Decision Making Personality Political Psychology Self/Identity Social Cognition Courses Taught Advanced Statistics Computing in Psychology Psychological Perspectives on Justice Research Design and Analysis I (Advanced ANOVA) Research Design and Analysis II (Multivariate Statistics) Social Psychological Research Methods Social Psychology   Linda J. Skitka Department of Psychology (M/C 285) University of Illinois at Chicago 1007 West Harrison Street Chicago, Illinois 60607-7137 U.S.A. Home Page Phone: (312) 996-4464 Fax: (312) 413-4122 My research bridges a number of areas of inquiry including social, political, and moral psychology. In particular, I am interested in the psychological antecedents and consequences of moral convictions and exploring how people's moral convictions differ from other kinds of strong attitudes; the cognitive and motivational foundations of ideological disagreements and political psychology more generally; and questions relating to distributive and procedural justice. For example, what leads people to identify some attitudes as morally grounded and others not? Are people more likely to take a stand in defense of attitudes rooted in moral conviction, than otherwise strong but non-moral attitudes, or attitudes rooted more in religious conviction? Are people with strong moral convictions less likely to pay attention to procedural safeguards (e.g., the law) designed to protect civil society when they are in pursuit of morally mandated ends? What is the decision making calculus underlying how people decide whether to support various social policies, such as spending on the poor, and why do political liberals and political conservatives see these issues in fundamentally different ways? When can you get a liberal to behave like a conservative and vice versa? Taken together, my program of research aims to ask interesting theoretical questions, while at the same time shedding light on how variables like political orientations, moral convictions, and justice concerns play out in everyday life. Journal Articles: Mullen, E., & Skitka, L. J. (2006). Exploring the psychological underpinnings of the moral mandate effect: Motivated reasoning, group differentiation, or anger? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 629-643. Skitka, L. J. (in press). The psychology of moral conviction. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. Skitka, L. J. (2009). Exploring the “lost and found” of justice theory and research. Social Justice Research, 22, 98-116. Skitka, L. J., & Bauman, C. W. (2008). Moral conviction and political engagement. Political Psychology, 29, 29-54. Skitka, L. J., Bauman, C. W., & Lytle, B. L. (2009). Limits on legitimacy: Moral and religious convictions as constraints on deference to authority. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 97, 567-578. Skitka, L. J., Bauman, C. W., & Sargis, E. G. (2005). Moral conviction: Another contributor to attitude strength or something more? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 895-917. Skitka, L. J., & Mullen, E. (2008). Moral convictions often override concerns about procedural fairness: A reply to Napier and Tyler. Social Justice Research, 21 529-546. Skitka, L. J., Mullen, E., Griffin, T., Hutchinson, S., & Chamberlin, B. (2002). Dispositions, ideological scripts, or motivated correction? Understanding ideological differences in attributions for social problems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 470-487. Wisneski, D. C., Lytle, B. L., & Skitka, L. J. (2009). Gut reactions: Moral conviction, religiosity, and trust in authority. Psychological Science, 20, 1059-1063. Other Publications: Bauman, C. W., & Skitka, L. J. (2009). In the mind of the perceiver: Psychological implications of moral conviction. In D. Bartels, C. W. Bauman, L. J. Skitka, & D. Medin (Eds.), Moral judgment and decision making. Psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 50, pp. 341-364). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Skitka, L. J., Aramovich, N., Lytle, B. L., & Sargis, E. (2009). Knitting together an elephant: An integrative approach to understanding the psychology of justice reasoning. In D. R. Bobocel, A. C. Kay, M. P. Zanna, & J. M. Olson (Eds.), The psychology of justice and legitimacy: The Ontario symposium, Vol. 11 (pp. 1 – 26). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press. Skitka, L. J., Bauman, C. W., & Lytle, B. L. (2008). Morality as a foundation of leadership and a constraint on deference to authority. In D. Forsyth & C. Hoyt (Eds.), Social psychology and leadership (pp. 300-315). Westport, CN: Praeger Press. Skitka, L. J., Bauman, C. W., & Mullen, E. (2008). Morality and justice: An expanded theoretical perspective and review. In K. A. Hedgvedt & J. Clay-Warner (Eds.), Advances in group processes (Vol. 25, pp. 1-27). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Skitka, L. J., & Morgan, G. S. (2009). The double-edged sword of a moral state of mind. In D. Narvaez & D. K. Lapsley (Eds.), Moral self, identity, and character: Prospects for new field of study (pp. 355 - 374). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Skitka, L. J., & Sargis, E. G. (2006). The Internet as psychological laboratory. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 529-555.

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