Emily E. Balcetis is an American social psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. Her research focuses on people's perception of world and how their motivations, goals, and emotions influence it, especially with regards to

visual perception Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual percept ...

Biography

Balcetis received a B.A. in psychology and a B.F.A. in music performance from the

University of Nebraska at Kearney The University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) is a campus of the public University of Nebraska system and located in Kearney, Nebraska. It was founded in 1905 as the Nebraska State Normal School at Kearney. History In March 1903 the Nebraska S ...

in 2001. She subsequently attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and obtained her Ph.D. in Social Psychology in 2006. Balcetis joined the faculty of New York University in 2006 and was recipient of the NYU College of Arts and Sciences Golden Dozen Teaching Award in 2014. Balcetis is co-editor of the volume, ''Social Psychology of Visual Perception'', with G. Daniel Lassiter''.'' Balcetis was a recipient of the SAGE Young Scholars Award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology in 2011. In 2016, she received the International Society for Self and Identity Outstanding Early Career Award and the Early Career Impact Award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS). Her co-authored paper with David Dunning titled ''Considering the Situation: Why People are Better Social Psychologists than Self-Psychologists'' was named Best Paper by the International Society for Self and Identity in 2011.

Research

Building on ideas first proposed by

Jerome Bruner Jerome Seymour Bruner (October 1, 1915 – June 5, 2016) was an American psychologist who made significant contributions to human cognitive psychology and cognitive learning theory (education), learning theory in educational psychology. Bruner was ...

and Cecile Goodman in 1947, Balcetis has explored how mental and motivational states influence how visual stimuli are perceived and responded to. Her research article with David Dunning ''Cognitive Dissonance and the Perception of Natural Environments'' examined the way in which "motivation to resolve cognitive dissonance affects the visual perception of physical environments."

Cognitive dissonance In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is described as a mental phenomenon in which people unknowingly hold fundamentally conflicting cognitions. Being confronted by situations that challenge this dissonance may ultimately result in some ...

occurs when an individual finds themselves in a situation that is contradictory to their beliefs, logic, behavior, and attitudes. To resolve the conflict and resume harmony the individual must change themselves or their views. In Balcetis and Dunning's study, participants were given the choice of performing a task that induced cognitive dissonance, such as pushing themselves up a hill while kneeling on a skateboard. After choosing to complete this task (but prior to completing it), participants perceived the slope of the hill to be less steep than a control group who were never given the choice of completing the skateboard task. The results of this study suggest that

may be altered by the process of decision making.

Book

* ''Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World'' (Ballantine, 2020, )

Selected articles

* Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2006). See what you want to see: motivational influences on visual perception. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91''(4), 612–625. * Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2010). Wishful seeing: More desired objects are seen as closer. ''Psychological Science, 21''(1), 147–152. * Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2007). Cognitive dissonance and the perception of natural environments. ''Psychological Science, 18''(10), 917–921.

References

External links

Social Perception Action and Motivation Lab at NYU
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Balcetis, Emily Living people Cornell University alumni New York University faculty American social psychologists Year of birth missing (living people) University of Nebraska at Kearney alumni