July 31, 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Niparko!
Dr. Łukasz Niparko successfully defended his dissertation titled “Digital Kallipolis: Being Homo Sentients in a Post-Digital World” under the supervision of Drs. Ari Kohen and Adrian Wisnicki.
April 20, 2024
Lab Presentation at Midwestern Psychological Association Meeting in Chicago
Undergraduate student Zein Saleh presented research focused on racial threat and conspiracy endorsement
April 17, 2024
PAC Lab student Zein Saleh named Goldwater Scholar
See article here: https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/lincoln-s-zein-saleh-named-goldwater-scholar/
March 27, 2024
Lab Presentation at UNL Student Research Days
Undergraduate student Zein Saleh presented research focused on racial threat and conspiracy endorsement
December 11, 2023
Dr. Haas receives grant from Carnegie Corporation to study nuclear weapons policy
The grant work will focus on Congress and be done in collaboration with Drs. Lorenz and Mehta in Political Science. Read more here.
September 2, 2023
Lab presentation on neuroscience and international security at the American Political Science Association meeting in Los Angeles
Affiliated graduate student Noelle Troutman presented work with Drs. Mehta and Haas on "Ideology and Risk: The neuroscience of nuclear reversal."
July 12, 2023
Graduate student Noelle Troutman successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Noelle Troutman defended her dissertation focused on "The Power of Weakness: Coercion in the American alliance network in Asia." (Photo below from December 2023 graduation.)
April 20, 2023
Graduate student Kyle Hull successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Kyle Hull defended his dissertation focused on "Democratic Dehumanization: The Consequences of Dehumanizing Political Candidates with Physical Disabilities"
April 18, 2023
Undergraduate student Zein Saleh receives UCARE funding for 2023-2024 academic year
Zein will be working on a project focused on race and the endorsement of conspiracy theories.
March 31, 2023
Graduate student Lukasz Niparko receives Seed Grant from the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center
The grant will support work on a project titled "The Legal Aspects of Digital Civil Society" during the 2023-2024 academic year.
March 15, 2023
Lab presentation on neuroscience and international security at the International Studies Association Meeting in Montreal
Affiliated graduate student Noelle Troutman presented work with Drs. Mehta and Haas on "Ideology and Risk: The neuroscience of nuclear reversal."
November 2022
Paper focused on political identity and perception of outgroup emotion published in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Paper is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104392
September 14, 2022
Graduate student Lukasz Niparko awarded 2022 ASEEES Diversity & Inclusion Travel Award
The award supports travel to the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) Conference in Chicago in November 2022.
August 15, 2022
Dr. Haas appointed Faculty Fellow with the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center for 2022-2023
See the announcement here: https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/nebraska-governance-and-technology-center-names-third-class-of-faculty/
August 9, 2022
Graduate student Lukasz Niparko is a Student Fellow with the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center for 2022-2023
See the announcement here: https://ngtc.unl.edu/news/third-class-nebraska-governance-and-technology-center-student-fellows-announced
May 4, 2022
Dr. Haas appointed as a Faculty Fellow with the UNL National Strategic Research Institute (NSRI)
See the announcement here: https://nsri.nebraska.edu/news/news-releases/2022/05/49-nu-researchers-newly-appointed-as-nsri-fellows
May 3, 2022
Jessica Stump wins Undergraduate Poster Award for Student Research Days Presentation
See full list of winners here: https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/student-research-days-competition-winners-announced/
April 12, 2022
Lab Presentation by Jessica Stump at the UNL Student Research Days 2022
Undergraduate student Jessica Stump presented results from her UCARE project and undergraduate honors thesis work focused on "Examining the Impact of Political Identification and Morality on Compliance with COVID-19 Public Health Measures."
April 7, 2022
Affiliated Graduate Student Noelle Troutman receives predoctoral fellowhip from the USC Korean Studies Institute
Noelle Troutman will be at the University of Southern California Korean Studies Institute for the 2022-2023 academic year on a US-Asia Grand Strategy Predoctoral Fellowship. This will be her second year on predoctoral fellowship at USC.
March 25, 2022
Affiliated Graduate Student Clarisse Warren successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Clarisse Warren successfully defended her dissertation focused on "Political Stress and its Impact on the Physical and Mental Health of Citizens." Dr. Warren will graduate with her Ph.D. in May 2022 and has accepted a position in market research.
November 19, 2021
Dr. Haas receives CAS Spark Grant with Dr. Rupal Mehta and graduate student Noelle Troutman to study neuroscience of nuclear decision making
Noelle Troutman, Dr. Haas, and Dr. Mehta received additional funding from the UNL College of Arts & Sciences to support the project "Ideology and Risk: How Neuroscience can Inform Nuclear Security."
September 29, 2021
Lab Presentation by Jessica Stump at the International Conference of Undergraduate Research
Undergraduate student Jessica Stump presented results from her UCARE project on "Viral divide: Examining the impact of political identification and morality on compliance with U.S. COVID-19 Public Health Recommendations" at the 2021 International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR), which was held in virtual format.
August 12, 2021
Dr. Haas receives NSRI grant with Dr. Rupal Mehta and graduate student Noelle Troutman to study neuroscience of nuclear decision making
The grant proposal titled "Ideology and Risk: How Neuroscience can Inform Nuclear Security" will support interdisciplinary fMRI research combining international security, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroeconomics. See the announcement here: https://nsri.nebraska.edu/news/news-releases/2021/08/nsri-awards-165000-to-nu-researchers-for-independent-research-development and more detail here: https://polisci.unl.edu/troutman-earns-nsri-funding
February 22, 2021
Paper examining the neural underpinnings of political uncertainty published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
This work uses fMRI to investigate how people respond to uncertainty and incongruence when evaluating policy positions of political candidates, available here: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0138
June 14, 2020
"Ideology and Predictive Processing" published in Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
The new paper looks at political ideology through the lens of cognitive science, available here.
June 1, 2020
New chapter on Political Neuroscience published online
A new chapter focused on political neuroscience is available online ahead of print publication in The Oxford Handbook of Political Decision Making later this year.
March 9, 2020
New commentary on ideological bias in the social sciences published in Psychological Inquiry
The article written by Dr. Haas is available here, and provides commentary on the target article by Clark & Winegard.
November 2, 2019
Emotion in the Mind and Body published by Springer
Dr. Haas and Dr. Neta co-edited this volume from the 2018 Nebraska Symposium on Motivation
April 12, 2019
New paper on social identity and the expression of policy attitudes published in the Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Read the article here.
February 18, 2019
Undergraduate Student Justice Forte Successfully Defended Honors Thesis
Justice's thesis project focused on "'That's why I deleted you, Aunt Kathy': Political Tolerance, Online Selective Exposure, and Relational Closeness." She will be graduating in May 2019 and plans to attend law school at Yale University.
February 14, 2019
Undergraduate Student Marley Sandberg Successfully Defended Honors Thesis
Marley's thesis project focused on "The Effect of Threat on Preferences for Male versus Female Candidates." She will be graduating in May 2019 and plans to attend law school at UNL.
October 8, 2018
Undergraduate Student Jacob Berggren Successfully Defended Honors Thesis
Jacob's thesis project focused on "Superheros, Safety, and Social Policy: Induced Levels of Physical Security may Produce Greater Liberal Policy Preferences." He will be graduating in December 2018 and plans to attend medical school.
August 2018
Lab Presentations at UNL Summer Research Fair
Undergraduate student Jacob Berggren presented results from his UCARE project on "Superheros, Safety, and Social Policy: Induced Levels of Physical Security may Produce Greater Liberal Policy Preferences" at the UNL Summer Research Fair.
June 2018
Lab Presentations at SPSSI Conference
Graduate student Samantha Wiener presented research focused on "Does fair chance hiring level the playing field for ex-offenders?" at the 2018 SPSSI Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
April 24, 2018
Dr. Haas Earns Promotion and Tenure
Dr. Haas earned promotion to Associate Professor and tenure, effective August 2018. Link: https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/89-nebraska-faculty-receive-promotion-tenure/
April 18, 2018
2018 Nebraska Symposium on Motivation
Dr. Haas and Dr. Neta organized the 66th Annual Nebraska Symposium on Motivation Symposium focused on "Emotion in the Mind and Body" from 4/16-4/17 at UNL. The associated edited volume will be published in Spring 2019. More details available here.
April 12, 2018
Lab Presentations at UNL Spring Research Fair
Undergraduate research assistant Justice Forte presented the results of her UCARE project at the UNL Spring Research Fair on Wednesday, April 11.
April 3, 2018
Lab Presentations at 2018 MPSA Conference
Graduate student Stephen Schneider and lab alum Melissa Baker will be presenting two papers at the 2018 Midwest Political Science Association Conference in Chicago. Research on the link between unstable self-esteem and political violence will be part of a Thursday panel on Political Tolerance, and our work on threat and conspiracy theory endorsement is part of a Thursday panel focused on Conspiratorial Thinking.
February 21, 2018
UCARE Funding Awarded for Summer 2018
Undergraduate student Jacob Berggren was awarded UCARE funding to work in the lab during summer 2018.
February 12, 2018
Invited Talk at 2018 INS Conference
Dr. Haas will be giving an invited talk as part of a Neuropolitics panel at the 2018 International Neuropsychological Society Meeting in Washington, D.C.
December 4, 2017
Small Grant Awarded for Conspiracy Research
Graduate student Stephen Schneider received an internal grant to support research on threat and conspiracy endorsement.
November 17, 2017
Graduate student Samantha Wiener receives Othmer Fellowship honor
November 13, 2017
New fMRI paper published in Social Justice Research
We find that political ideology moderates responses to incongruent information in anterior cingulate cortex and insula. Read the news release here and check out the article.
October 7, 2017
Dr. Haas earns Distinguished Research Award from UNL Department of Political Science
April 19, 2017
Lab Presentations at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference in Chicago, Illinois
Dr. Haas gave a talk about political ideology and the brain on Saturday, April 22, and undergraduate student Grace Stallworth presented a poster related to social identity, well being, and tolerance on Friday, April 21, at the MPA meeting in Chicago. For more info and a complete schedule for the conference, see the MPA website.
April 18, 2017
UCARE Funding Awarded for 2017-2018
Undergraduate student Justice Forte was awarded UCARE funding to work in the lab during the 2017-2018 academic year.
April 14, 2017
Affiliated Graduate Student Frank Gonzalez Successfully Defended His Dissertation
Starting this fall, Dr. Gonzalez will be an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona.
April 5, 2017
Lab Presentations at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference in Chicago, Illinois
Graduate student Stephen Schneider and lab alum Melissa Baker are presenting a paper on self-esteem, attribution, and political tolerance on Friday, April 7, at the upcoming MPSA meeting in Chicago. For more info and a complete schedule for the conference, see the MPSA website.
April 4, 2017
Lab Presentations at the UNL Spring Research Fair
Undergraduate student Grace Stallworth presented findings from her UCARE project on social identity, well being, and tolerance at UNL's 2017 Spring Research Fair.
January 18, 2017
Lab Presentations at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference in San Antonio, Texas
Dr. Haas gave an invited talk at the 2017 SPSP Political Psychology Preconference, and graduate student Frank Gonzalez and lab alum Melissa Baker both presented in the data blitz.
January 11, 2017
Lab Presentations at the Southern Political Science Association Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana
Graduate students Stephen Schneider and John Peterson presented research on threat and endorsement of conspiracy theories during the 2016 Presidential election. See the conference website for more detail.
November 16, 2016
Trump Understands What Many Miss: People Don't Make Decisions Based on Facts
Dr. Haas talked to Vox about the election.
August 16, 2016
Lab Research on Race, Threat, and Policing Policy Featured on Nebraska Public Radio
Read (and listen) to the story here
August 5, 2016
Lab Research on Race, Threat, and Policing Policy Featured on Lincoln's Channel 8 News
Read the story here
July 26, 2016
New Paper on Race, Threat, and Policing Policy Published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology
Read the UNL press release or the open-access PDF available for download here
June 25, 2016
Lab Presentations at SPSSI 2016
Dr. Haas talked about uncertainty, threat, and support for political compromise at the 2016 Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues conference in Minneapolis
June 23, 2016
Interview with Dr. Haas about political neuroscience on ResearchGate blog
June 13, 2016
Lab research on uncertainty and threat discussed in Vox
Read the story here.
May 16, 2016
New paper on uncertainty, threat, and political compromise published in the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology
Read the UNL news release
April 4, 2016
Lab Presentations at the 2016 Midwest Political Science Association Meeting in Chicago, Illinois
Dr. Haas will be giving a talk and lab alum Melissa Baker will be presenting a poster on Thursday, April 7, at the upcoming MPSA meeting in Chicago. For more info and a complete schedule for the conference, see the MPSA website.
March 15, 2016
What psychology's crisis means for the future of science
Dr. Haas talked to Vox about the replication debate in psychology.
February 25, 2016
New Book Chapter on Political Neuroscience
Dr. Haas recently published a chapter on political neuroscience in an edited volume titled Neuroimaging Personality, Social Cognition, and Character. A pdf version of the chapter is available here.
February 1, 2016
Recruiting Participants for fMRI Studies
The lab is currently recruiting participants for fMRI studies this semester in the Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior. For more information or to volunteer for research, please email the lab at paclab1@gmail.com.
January 28, 2016
Lab Presentations at the 2016 Society for Personality and Social Psychology Meeting in San Diego, CA
Lab alum Melissa Baker presented a poster on how attribution influences attitudes about ideological outgroups. An electronic copy of the poster is available through OSF: https://osf.io/xntgc/
January 22, 2016
Dr. Haas talked to Vox about how the media presents social science research: "What journalists get wrong about social science"
November 18, 2015
Dr. Haas talked to Vox about Response to Terrorist Attacks in Paris: "The science behind why people fear refugees"
September 18, 2015
Looking for Undergraduate Research Assistants
The PAC Lab is currently recruiting undergraduate research assistants for academic year 2015-2016. If interested, please email the lab at paclab1@gmail.com. Applications are due Friday, October 2.
June 11, 2015
Recruiting Participants for fMRI Studies
The lab is currently recruiting participants for fMRI studies in the Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior. For more information, please email the lab at paclab1@gmail.com.
April 24, 2015
Lab Presentations at the 2015 Midwestern Psychological Association Meeting in Chicago, Illinois
Dr. Haas will be giving a talk on Saturday, May 2, and undergraduate student Melissa Baker will be presenting a poster on Thursday, April 30, at the upcoming MPA meeting in Chicago. For more info and a complete schedule for the conference, see the MPA website.
April 8, 2015
UNL Spring Research Fair
Undergraduate students Alyssa Meyer and Melissa Baker from the PAC Lab will be presenting their UCARE research projects at UNL's Spring Research Fair on Wednesday, April 15, from 3:30-5:00pm, in the City Campus Union. Stop by and say hi!
April 6, 2015
2015 Hendricks Symposium
The UNL Political Science Hendricks Symposium was held on April 3-4, 2015, on the topic of "Psychology, Biology, and Political Attitudes." For more information and a list of invited speakers, please check out the website.
March 30, 2015
Affiliated Graduate Student Allison Skinner Successfully Defended Her Dissertation
Dr. Skinner will be a postdoc next year in Dr. Kristina Olson's lab at the University of Washington.
March 2, 2015
Poster on Uncertainty, Threat, and Support for Political Compromise at SPSP 2015
Dr. Haas presented some work on this topic at the recent SPSP meeting in Long Beach. An electronic version of the poster is available through the Open Science Framework.
November 2014
Research Development Fellows Program
Dr. Haas was selected to participate in the 2014-2015 UNL Research Development Fellows Program. Read the announcement here.
October 1, 2014
Dr. Haas comments on the use of emotion in political fundraising in The Washington Post: "Why do negative fundraising appeals actually work?"
July 1, 2013
Research on Uncertainty and Threat covered by Omaha World-Herald: "Emotion affects political tolerance, UNL professor finds"
June 24, 2013
Research on Uncertainty and Threat covered by Lincoln Journal Star: "Study: Uncertainty not all bad when it comes to politics"
November 28, 2012
Research on morality covered by CBC News: "Moral judgements are often speedy and extreme"