David S. March
check Recruiting a graduate student for Fall of 2024
Education
University of Tennessee, 2019
Research Interests
I am interested in how processes occurring outside awareness affect the formation, change, and measurement of attitudes and their subsequent effect on behavior. My research focuses on the unique processing of objects perceived as posing an immediate threat to bodily harm. I have developed a theoretical model that challenges existing dual process models of evaluation by proposing a speed and strength distinction between the implicit processing of threatening versus nonthreatening stimuli. My research has begun testing the underlying properties of this model and some of the model's implications for certain other phenomena, like prejudice.This work advances psychological theory on social cognition by integrating parallels among disparate literatures like attitudes, fear, and cognitive neuroscience, which ultimately paint a fuller picture of the evaluative processes operating in the human mind.
Lab Description
I am interested in how processes occurring outside awareness affect the formation, change, and measurement of attitudes and their subsequent effect on behavior. My research focuses on the unique processing of objects perceived as posing an immediate threat to bodily harm. I have developed a theoretical model that challenges existing dual process models of evaluation by proposing a speed and strength distinction between the implicit processing of threatening versus nonthreatening stimuli. My research has begun testing the underlying properties of this model and some of the model's implications for certain other phenomena, like prejudice.This work advances psychological theory on social cognition by integrating parallels among disparate literatures like attitudes, fear, and cognitive neuroscience, which ultimately paint a fuller picture of the evaluative processes operating in the human mind.
Zsido, A. N., Inhof, O., Kiss, B. L., Bali, C., & March, D. S. (2023). Threatening stimuli have differential effects on movement preparation and execution – A study on snake fear. People and Nature, 0, 0. doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10500
March, D., Olson, M., & Gaertner, L. (2023). Automatic threat processing shows evidence of exclusivity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 46, 131. doi:10.1017/S0140525X22002928
Olivett, V., Maranges, H. M., & March D. S. (2023). The unique roles of threat perception and misinformation accuracy judgments in the relationship between political orientation and COVID-19 health behaviors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 53, 508-518. doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12960
March, D. S. (2022). Perceiving a danger within: Black Americans associate Black men with physical threat. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 0, 0. doi.org/10.1177/19485506221142970
Coles, N. A., March, D. S, Marmolejo-Ramos, F. [and 30 others] (2022). A multi-lab test of the facial feedback hypothesis by the many smiles collaboration. Nature Human Behaviour, 6, 1731-1742. doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/cvpuw
March, D. S., & Gaertner, L. (2022). Female advantage in threat avoidance manifests in threat reaction, but not threat detection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45, 142. doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X22000462
March, D. S., Gaertner, L., & Olson, M. A. (2022). On the automatic nature of threat: Physiological and evaluative responses to survival-threats outside conscious perception. Affective Science, 3, 135-144. doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00090-6
Olivett, V. J., & March, D. S. (2021) White civilians’ implicit danger evaluation of police officers underlies explicit perception of police. Current Research: Principles and Implications, 6, 81. doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00343-9.
March, D. S., Gaertner, L., & Olson, M. A. (2021). Danger or dislike: Distinguishing threat from valence as sources of automatic anti-Black bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121, 984-1004. doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000288.
March, D. S., & Gaertner, L. (2021). A Method for estimating the Time of Initiating Correct Categorization in mouse-tracking. Behavior Research Methods, 53, 2439-2449. doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01575-9.
March, D., S., Olson, M., A., & Gaertner, L. (2020). Lions, and tigers, and implicit Measures, oh my! Implicit assessment and the valence vs. threat distinction. Social Cognition, 38, 154-164. doi.org/10.1521/soco.2020.38.supp.s154.
Fritzlen, K., Phillips, J., March, D. S, & Olson, M. (2020). I know (what) you are, but what am I? The effect of recategorization threat and perceived immutability on prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46, 94-108. doi.org/10.1177/0146167219843932.
March, D. S., Olson, M. A, & Fazio, R. H. (2018). The Implicit Misattribution Model of evaluative conditioning. Social Psychological Bulletin, 13, 1-25. doi.org/10.5964/spb.v13i3.27574
March, D. S., Gaertner, L., & Olson, M. A. (2018). On the prioritized processing of threat in a Dual Implicit Process model of evaluation. Psychological Inquiry, 29, 1-13. doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2018.1435680. (Target Article)
March, D. S., Gaertner, L., & Olson, M. A. (2017). In harm’s way: On preferential response to threatening stimuli. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43, 1519-1529. doi.org/10.1177/0146167217722558. (Awarded the Student Publication Prize by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology)
March, D. S. & Graham, R. (2015). Exploring implicit ingroup and outgroup bias toward Hispanics. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 18, 89-103. doi.org/10.1177/1368430214542256
Undergraduate Research
Explore the Directed Individual Study (DIS) opportunities below or learn more.