Professor Simone Schnall

Research

Simone Schnall is the Director of the Cambridge Body, Mind and Behaviour Laboratory and Fellow of Jesus College. By combining insights and methods from social psychology and cognitive science her research explores how thoughts and feelings interact. She aims to understand how people make judgments and decisions about other people, and about physical properties of the world. For example, Schnall's research has examined the role of bodily influences in the context of, first, moral judgments and behaviours, and second, perceptions of the spatial environment.

Funding for Schnall’s research has been provided by grants from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK), the National Science Foundation (USA), National Institute of Mental Health (USA), and private foundations. Schnall previously served as Associate Editor for Social Psychological and Personality Science and is a Consulting Editor for Perspectives on Psychological Science.

Current research topics include judgments and decisions in moral and legal contexts, perceptions of the physical environment, and risky behaviours in finance (e.g., risk management in banks). In general the work seeks to understand why people often think and behave in seemingly surprising ways, and how to capitalize on insights from behavioural science to encourage adaptive choices in everyday life.

Publications

Key publications:

Schnall, S. (2017). Disgust as embodied loss aversion. European Review of Social Psychology, 28, 50-94.

Krpan, D., & Schnall, S. (2014). When perception says "no" to action: Approach cues make steep hills appear even steeper. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 55, 89-98.

Schnall, S., Zadra, J., & Proffitt, D. R. (2010). Direct evidence for the economy of action: Glucose and the perception of geographical slant. Perception, 39, 464-482.

Schnall, S., Roper, J., & Fessler, D. M. T. (2010). Elevation leads to altruistic behavior. Psychological Science, 21, 315-320.

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., & Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1096-1109.

Schnall, S., Benton, J., & Harvey, S. (2008). With a clean conscience: Cleanliness reduces the severity of moral judgments. Psychological Science, 19, 1219-1222.

Schnall, S., Harber, K., Stefanucci, J. & Proffitt, D. R. (2008). Social support and the perception of geographical slant. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1246-1255.