Associate Professor of Psychology and Neural Science
Social
Please visit my lab: NYU Social Neuroscience Lab

Research

My research examines the roles of social cognition and emotion in the regulation of behavior, and the neural mechanisms underlying these processes. Much of my work examines these processes in the context of prejudice and stereotyping, although my interests extend to the areas of motivation and health psychology. In each area, issues of behavioral regulation are central and the focus is on mechanism.

Although the questions that guide my work address classic social psychological issues, my approach is interdisciplinary; I integrate theory and methodology from social psychology, cognitive/affective neuroscience, and psychophysiology to inform my hypotheses and the designs of my studies. This integrative approach is useful because it often leads to novel hypotheses and it promotes the synthesis of research findings across disciplines.

My research may be described broadly as social neuroscience; I typically use EEG, event-related potentials (ERPs), and fMRI in combination with behavioral and self-report measures to study social processes.

Biography

Education

Ph.D. University of Wisconsin – Madison (2003)
B.A. Macalester College, St. Paul, MN (1996)

Positions

Associate Processor of Psychology and Neural Science, New York University (2011-present)
Assistant Professor of Neural Science, New York University (2010-2011)
Assistant Professor of Psychology, New York University (2005-2011)
Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Psychology, UCLA (2003-2005)

Selected Honors and Awards

2010             Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE),Office of Science and Technology Policy, The White House
2010             Janet T. Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions, Association for Psychological Science
2010             Early Career Award for Social Cognition, International Social Cognition Network
2009             Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER), National Science Foundation
2009             SAGE Young Scholars Award, Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology
2004             Dissertation Award, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)
2003             Tursky Award for Predoctoral Research, Society of Psychophysiological Research
2002             Dissertation Research Award, American Psychological Association

Selected Publications

Ofan, R. H., Rubin, N., Amodio, D. M. (in press). Seeing race: N170 responses to race and their relation to automatic racial attitudes and controlled processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Gonsalkorale, K., Sherman, J. W., Allen, T. J., Klauer, K. C., & Amodio, D. M. (in press). Accounting for Successful Control of Implicit Racial Bias: The Roles of Association Activation, Response Monitoring, and Overcoming Bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Amodio, D. M., & Ratner, K. G. (in press). A memory systems model of implicit social cognition. Current Directions in Psychological Science.

Halim, M. L., Ruble, D. N., & Amodio, D. M. (in press).From Pink Frilly Dresses to “One of the Boys”: Developmental Changes in Gender Identity and Implications for Intergroup Gender Bias. Social and Personality Psychology Compass.

Amodio, D. M., & Bartholow, B. D. (in press). Event-related potential methods in social cognition. In A. Voss, C. Stahl, & C. Klauer (Eds.), Cognitive methods in social psychology.

Amodio, D. M., & Ratner, K. G. (in press). The Neuroscience of Social Cognition. In D. Carlston (Ed.) Handbook of social cognition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Amodio, D. M., & Ratner, K. (in press). Mechanisms for the regulation of intergroup responses:  A social neuroscience analysis. To appear in J. Decety and J. T. Cacioppo, Handbook of social neuroscience. Oxford University Press.

Amodio, D. M. & Harmon-Jones, E. (in press). Social-personality neuroscience. In M. Snyder & K. Deaux (Eds.), Handbook of social and personality psychology. Oxford University Press.

Harmon-Jones, E., Harmon-Jones, C., & Amodio, D. M. (in press). A neuroscientific perspective on dissonance, guided by the Action-Based Model. In B. Gawronski and F. Strack (Eds.), Cognitive consistency: A unifying concept in social psychology.

Harmon-Jones, E., Harmon-Jones, C., Amodio, D. M., & Gable, P. A. (in press). Attitudes toward emotions: Conceptualization and measurement of evaluations of specific emotions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Tyler, T., & Amodio, D. M. (in press). Psychology and economics: A clash of methods? In A.  Schotter and G. Frechette (Eds.), The handbook of economic methodologies. Oxford University Press.

Harmon-Jones, E. & Amodio, D. M. (in press). Electroencephalographic methods. In H. Cooper (Ed.), Handbook of research methods in psychology. Washington, DC:  American Psychological Association.

Harmon-Jones, E., Amodio, D. M., & Harmon-Jones, C. (in press). Action-based model of dissonance: On cognitive conflict and attitude change. In J. P. Forgas, J. Cooper, & B. Crano (Eds.), Attitudes and attitude change. New York: Psychology Press.

Amodio, D. M. & Harmon-Jones, E. (2011). Trait emotions and affective modulation of the startle eyeblink: On the unique relationship of trait anger. Emotion, 11, 47-51.

Amodio, D. M. (2011). Self-regulation in intergroup relations: A social neuroscience framework. In A. Todorov, S. T. Fiske, and D. Prentice (Eds.) Social Neuroscience: Toward Understanding the Underpinnings of the Social Mind (pp. 101-122). New York: Oxford University Press.

Amodio, D. M. (2010). Can neuroscience advance social psychological theory? Social neuroscience for the behavioral social psychologist. Social Cognition, 28, 695-716.

Amodio, D. M. (2010). Coordinated roles of motivation and perception in the regulation of intergroup responses: Frontal cortical asymmetry effects on the P2 event-related potential and behavior. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 2609-2617.

Mendoza , S. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., & Amodio, D. M. (2010). Reducing the expression of implicit stereotypes: Reflexive control through implementation intentions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 512-523.

Amodio, D. M. & Devine, P. G. (2010). Regulating behavior in the social world: Control in the context of intergroup bias. In R. R. Hassin, K. N. Ochsner, and Y. Trope (Eds). Self control in society, mind and brain (pp. 49-75). New York: Oxford University Press.

Amodio, D. M., & Mendoza, S. A. (2010). Implicit intergroup bias: Cognitive, affective, and motivational underpinnings. In B. Gawronski and B. K. Payne (Eds.) Handbook of implicit social cognition (pp. 353-374). New York: Guilford.

Amodio, D. M. (2009). Intergroup anxiety effects on the control of racial stereotypes: A psychoneuroendocrine analysis. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 60-67.

Amodio, D.M. & Lieberman, M.D. (2009). Pictures in our heads: Contributions of fMRI to the study of prejudice and stereotyping. In T. Nelson (Ed.) Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (pp. 347-366). New York: Erlbaum Press.

Master, S. L., Amodio, D. M., Stanton, A. L., Yee, C. Y., Hilmert, C. J., & Taylor, S. E. (2009). Neurobiological correlates of coping through emotional approach. Brain, behavior and immunity, 23, 27–35.

Harmon-Jones, E., Amodio, D. M., & Harmon-Jones, C. (2009). Action-based model of dissonance. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 119-166.

Bartholow, B. D., & Amodio, D. M. (2009). Using event-related brain potentials in social psychological research: A brief review and tutorial. In E. Harmon-Jones and J. Beer (Eds). Methods in social neuroscience (pp.198-232). New York: Guilford.

Amodio, D. M. (2008). The social neuroscience of intergroup relations. European Review of Social Psychology, 19, 1-54.

Amodio, D. M., Devine, P. G., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2008). Individual differences in the regulation of intergroup bias: The role of conflict monitoring and neural signals for control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 60-74.

Amodio, D. M., Master, S. L., Yee, C. M., & Taylor, S. E. (2008). Neurocognitive components of the behavioral inhibition and activation systems: Implications for theories of self-regulation. Psychophysiology, 45, 11-19.

Amodio, D. M. & Devine, P. G. (2008). On the interpersonal functions of implicit stereotyping and evaluative race bias: Insights from social neuroscience. In R. E. Petty, R. H. Fazio, & P. Briñol (Eds.), Attitudes: Insights from the new wave of implicit measures (pp. 193-226). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Amodio, D. M., Jost, J. T., Master, S. L., & Yee, C. M. (2007). Neurocognitive correlates of liberalism and conservatism. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 1246-1247.

Amodio, D. M., Devine, P. G., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2007). A dynamic model of guilt: Implications for motivation and self-regulation in the context of prejudice. Psychological Science, 18, 524-530.

Robinson, M. D., Ode, S., Wilkowski, B. M., & Amodio, D. M. (2007). Neurotic contentment: A self-regulation view of neuroticism-linked distress. Emotion, 7, 579–591.

Amodio, D. M., Devine, P. G., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2007). Studying the social brain:  A social cognitive neuroscience approach to prejudice control. In E. Harmon-Jones & P. Winkielman (Eds.), Fundamentals of social neuroscience (pp. 353-375).  New York:  Guilford.

Harmon-Jones, E., Amodio, D. M., & Zinner, L. R.  (2007). Social psychological methods in emotion elicitation. In J. A. Coan and J. J. B. Allen (Eds.) Handbook of emotion elicitation and assessment (pp. 91-105), New York: Oxford University Press.

Amodio, D. M. & Devine, P. G.  (2006). Stereotyping and evaluation in implicit race bias:  Evidence for independent constructs and unique effects on behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 652-661.

Alternative mechanisms for regulating racial responses according to internal vs. external cues. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1, 26-36.

Amodio, D. M., & Frith, C. D. (2006). Meeting of minds: The medial frontal cortex and social cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7, 268-277.
*Recognized in 2010 by Nature Reviews as highest-cited paper from 2006 volume.

Amodio, D. M., & Showers, C. J. (2005). “Similarity breeds liking” revisited:  The moderating role of commitment. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22, 817-836.

Amodio, D. M. & Devine, P. G. (2005). Changing prejudice: The effects of persuasion on implicit and explicit forms of race bias. In T. C. Brock & M. C. Green (Eds.), Persuasion:  Psychological insights and perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 249-280). Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications.

Amodio, D. M., Shah, J. Y., Sigelman, J., Brazy, P. C., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2004). Implicit regulatory focus associated with resting frontal cortical asymmetry. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 225-232.

Amodio, D. M., Harmon-Jones, E., Devine, P. G., Curtin, J. J., Hartley, S. L., & Covert, A. E. (2004). Neural signals for the detection of unintentional race bias.  Psychological Science, 15, 88-93.

Amodio, D. M., Harmon-Jones, E., & Devine, P. G. (2003). Individual differences in the activation and control of affective race bias as assessed by startle eyeblink responses and self-report.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 738-753.

Devine, P. G., Plant, E. A., Amodio, D. M., Harmon-Jones, E., & Vance, S. L.  (2002). The regulation of explicit and implicit race bias:  The role of motivations to respond without prejudice.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 835-848.

Address

David Amodio
Associate Professor of Psychology

Department of Psychology
New York University
6 Washington Place, Room 782
New York, NY 10003
Phone: (212) 998-3875
Fax: (212) 995-4966
Email: david.amodio@nyu.edu

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