Profile

Prof Simone SCHNALL

Co-Principal Investigator

Prof 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, Prof 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 Prof 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. Prof 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 capitalise on insights from behavioural science to encourage adaptive choices in everyday life.

Cambridge

Researchers

CLIC

Research Interest

ResearchGate profile

Schnall, S. (2017). Disgust as embodied loss aversion. European Review of Social Psychology, 28, 50-94. DOI:10.1080/10463283.2016.1259844

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. DOI:10.1016/j.jesp.2014.06.005

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. DOI:10.1068/p6445

Schnall, S., Roper, J., & Fessler, D. M. T. (2010). Elevation leads to altruistic behavior. Psychological Science, 21, 315-320. DOI:10.1177/0956797609359882

Key Publications

Achievements