Alison Ledgerwood

Assistant Professor
University of California, Davis
Department of Psychology
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
aledgerwood
(at ucdavis dot edu)

Education

New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Doctoral Program in Social Psychology (Minor: Quantitative Psychology)
Degree: Ph.D., Social Psychology (2008)

New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Degree: M.A., Psychology (2006)

Amherst College, Amherst, MA
Degree: B.A., Psychology; Magna Cum Laude (2003)

Honors and Awards

Stuart Cook Award in Social Psychology, NYU (2008)
Katzell Summer Fellowship, NYU (2007)
National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship (2003-2008)
MacCracken Award for Graduate Study, NYU (2003-2008)
Enberg Fellowship, NYU (2003)
Honorable Mentions, SPSP Student Poster Awards (2004, 2005)
NYU Graduate Student Travel Grants (2003-2007)
Phi Beta Kappa, Amherst College (2003)
Sigma Xi, Amherst College (2003)
Student Travel Grant, Amherst College (2002)

Research

We often intuitively feel that we possess stable attitudes and beliefs about the world, yet we also find that they fail to guide us in many everyday social situations. Why, when, and how do our attitudes shift in response to the immediate social context? My research seeks to address this issue at multiple levels of analysis, examining sources of social influence that derive from the individual, the group, and the social system.

Publications

Ledgerwood, A., & Chaiken, S. (2007). Priming us and them: Automatic assimilation and contrast in group attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 940-956.

Ledgerwood, A., Liviatan, I., & Carnevale, P. J. (2007). Group identity completion and the symbolic value of property. Psychological Science, 18, 873-878.

Jost, J. T., Ledgerwood, A., & Hardin, C. D. (2008). Shared reality, system justification, and the relational basis of ideological beliefs. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 171-186.

Chaiken, S., & Ledgerwood, A. (2007). Dual process theories. In R. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Chaiken, S., & Ledgerwood, A. (2007). Heuristic processing. In R. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Ledgerwood, A., Chaiken, S., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Judd, C. M. (2006). Changing minds: Persuasion in negotiation and conflict resolution. In M. Deutsch, P. T. Coleman, & E. C. Marcus (Eds.), The handbook of conflict resolution, Second Edition (pp. 455-485). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Ledgerwood, A., & Trope, Y. (submitted). Attitudes as global and local action guides. Chapter to appear in J. Forgas et al.,The 12th Annual Sydney Symposium on Social Psychology.

Ledgerwood, A., & Liviatan, I. (submitted). The price of a shared vision: Group identity goals and the social creation of value. Invited submission for Social Cognition: Special Issue on Shared Reality.

Jost, J.T., Liviatan, I., van der Toorn, J., Ledgerwood, A., Mandisodza, A., & Nosek, B. A. (submitted). System justification: How do we know it's motivated? Chapter to appear in A. C. Kay et al. (Eds.), The Psychology of Justice and Legitimacy: The Ontario Symposium, Vol. 11. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Ledgerwood, A., Trope, Y., & Chaiken, S. (under review). Attitudes in their social context: Malleability, stability, and the role of construal.

Ledgerwood, A., Jost, J. T., Mandisodza, A. N., & Pohl, M. (in preparation). Working for the system: Motivated defense of the American Dream.

Ledgerwood, A., & Shrout, P. E. (in preparation). Tentatively right or confidently wrong? The tradeoff between accuracy and precision in latent variable models.

Work in Progress

Construal and susceptibility to social influences. (Research in progress, with Y. Trope).

Psychological distance and medical decision-making. (Research in progress, with C. J. Wakslak).

The social side of simplicity: Motivated preferences for easily shared beliefs. (Research in progress).

Group salience effects on processing style and attitude structure. (Research in progress).

Chaired Symposia

Ledgerwood, A. (2008, October). Flexibility in Attitudes and Action. Symposium to be conducted at the annual conference of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Sacramento, CA.

Ledgerwood, A. (2007, July). The Social Psychology of System Support. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the International Society for Political Psychology, Portland, OR.

Paper Presentations

Ledgerwood, A. (2008, October). Reconciling attitude stability and malleability: A global-local model of evaluative responding. Talk to be presented at the annual conference of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Sacramento, CA.

Shrout, P. E., & Ledgerwood, A. (2008, July). Bias Reduction vs. Precision of Estimates in Mediation Analysis. Talk presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Psychometric Society, Durham, NH.

Ledgerwood, A. (2008, February). This land is our land: Property as a symbol of group identity. Invited presentation for the 2008 Interdisciplinary Conference on Memory Studies, New School of Social Research, New York.

Ledgerwood, A. (2007, September). More than a resource: Property as a socially recognized symbol of group identity. Talk presented at the 25th CICA and 1st STR 2007 Conference on Interdisciplinary Analyses of Aggression & Terrorism, Miraflores de la Sierra, Spain.

Ledgerwood, A., & Trope, Y. (2007, September). Attitude alignment as a function of construal. Talk presented at the European Association for Experimental Social Psychology Small Group Meeting on Shared Memories, Shared Beliefs. Rapallo, Italy.

Ledgerwood, A., Jost, J. T., Mandisodza, A. N., & Pohl, M. (2007, July). Working for the system: Cognitive and behavioral defense of the American Dream. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Political Psychology, Portland, OR.

Ledgerwood, A., & Chaiken, S. (2007, February). Priming us and them: Automatic assimilation and contrast in group attitudes. Talk presented at the annual Four-College Graduate Student Conference, Columbia University, NY.

Carnevale, P. J., & Ledgerwood, A. (2005, June). Identity rivalry and the group endowment effect. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Association of Conflict Management, Seville, Spain.

Carnevale, P. J., & Ledgerwood, A. (2004, October). Conflict over property: Group endowment and identity. Paper presented at the Groups Preconference of the Society for Experimental and Social Psychology annual meeting, Fort Worth, TX.

Poster Presentations

Ledgerwood, A., Jost, J. T., & Mandisodza, A. (2007, January). Why dream the American Dream? System justification and selective information processing. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Memphis, TN.

Ledgerwood, A. & Chaiken, S. (2006, January). Priming us and them: Automatic assimilation and contrast in group attitudes. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Palm Springs, CA.

Ledgerwood, A., & Chaiken, S. (2005, July). Ingroups, outgroups, and political attitude polarization. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Political Psychology, Toronto, Canada.

Ledgerwood, A., Liviatan, I., & Carnevale, P. J. (2005, January). This land is our land: The impact of group identity associations on the endowment effect. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, LA.

Ledgerwood, A., & Frantz, C. M.  (2004, January). Reading the enemy's history: Levels of perspective taking in intergroup conflict. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Austin, TX.

Ledgerwood, A., & Frantz, C. M. (2003, February). Measuring quality of perspective-taking:  It’s not just standing in their shoes but how you stand. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Los Angeles, CA.

Invited Colloquia

December, 2007 University of Maryland

December, 2007 University of Iowa

November, 2007 Indiana University

November, 2007 University of Kentucky

November, 2007 Miami University

November, 2007 University of California, Davis

...

Updated 8/18/08