Nicholas Kerry
Biographic Data
| ID | 3826753 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nicholas Kerry |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nicholas |
| FAMILY NAME | Kerry |
| SIGNATURE | KERRY N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tulane University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7413-4691 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
World Beliefs Moderate the Effects of Trauma and Severe Illness on Emotional Distress
OBJECTIVE: Severe illness and trauma can cause significant psychological distress, but individuals differ in their responses. This research tested whether world beliefs-fundamental assumptions about the nature of the world-moderate the relationship between negative life experiences and emotional distress. METHOD: Study 1 compared individuals with chronic illnesses (cystic fibrosis or cancer) to healthy controls on measures of anxiety, depression,…
Primal World Belief Research, for Skeptics
Sometimes skeptics are tempted to dismiss world beliefs as meaningful phenomena. Such dismissal, we argue, is a mistake. How beliefs about many broad topics impact behavior is well-established. Psychologically rich world beliefs have also peppered the cultural milieu for centuries. Multiple, decades-old literatures have already established psychometrically the existence of world beliefs, proposed effects, and developed sufficient theory to define…
Despite popular intuition, positive world beliefs poorly reflect several objective indicators of privilege, including wealth, health, sex, and neighborhood safety
OBJECTIVES: We tested whether generalized beliefs that the world is safe, abundant, pleasurable, and progressing (termed "primal world beliefs") are associated with several objective measures of privilege. METHODS: Three studies (N = 16,547) tested multiple relationships between indicators of privilege-including socioeconomic status, health, sex, and neighborhood safety-and relevant world beliefs, as well as researchers and laypeople's expectatio…
The Holy Father (and Mother)? Multiple Tests of the Hypothesis That Parenthood and Parental Care Motivation Lead to Greater Religiosity
Parenting is a universal element of human life. However, the motivational and attitudinal implications of parenthood remain poorly understood. Given that many major religions prescribe parent-benefiting norms restricting sexual promiscuity and socially disruptive behavior, we hypothesized that both parenthood and parental care motivation would predict higher levels of religiosity. Studies 1 to 3 ( N >2,100 U.S. MTurkers; two preregistered) reveal…
Belief in a Dangerous World Does Not Explain Substantial Variance in Political Attitudes, But Other World Beliefs Do
Decades of research suggest a correlation between belief in a dangerous world and political conservatism. However, research relied on a scale that may overemphasize certain types of dangers. Furthermore, few other world beliefs have been investigated, such that fundamental worldview differences between liberals and conservatives remain largely unknown. A preregistered study of nine samples ( N = 5,461; mostly US Americans) found a negligible asso…
Development of Primal World Beliefs
Primal world beliefs (“primals”) capture individuals’ basic understanding of what sort of world this is. How do children develop beliefs about the nature of the world? Is the world a good place? Safe or dangerous? Enticing or dull? Primals were initially introduced in social and personality psychology to understand beliefs about the world as a whole that may influence well-being and personality. This article introduces the concept of primals to d…
Too strong to care? Investigating the links between formidability, worldviews, and views on climate and disaster
People vary in climate change skepticism and in their views on disaster cause and prevention. For example, the United States boasts higher rates of climate skepticism than other countries, especially among Republicans. Research into the individual differences that shape variation in climate-related beliefs represents an important opportunity for those seeking ways to mitigate climate change and climate-related disasters (e.g., floods). In this re…
Male descendant kin promote conservative views on gender issues and conformity to traditional norms
Parasites and promiscuity
How does disease threat influence sexual attitudes and behaviors? Although research on the influence of disease threat on social behavior has grown considerably, the relationship between perceived disease threat and sexual attitudes remains unclear. The current preregistered study (analyzed N = 510), investigated how experimental reminders of disease threat influence attitudes and anticipated future behaviors pertaining to short-term sexual relat…
Politics and Parental Care
People vary greatly in their desire for, willingness to care for, and emotions toward children. This variation in “parenting motivation” predicts a range of cognition and behavior. Strategic perspectives on political attitudes suggest that parenting motivation should be associated with more socially conservative attitudes, since these attitudes prioritize self-protection norms. Across three studies, we found that parenthood mediated age-related i…
Political results
Vicariously experiencing sporting events is a worldwide phenomenon, and sports results affect fans’ emotional states. The current studies examined how sports results affect spectators’ political and intergroup attitudes. “Strategic” perspectives on social attitudes suggest that spectators may have higher ingroup preference and less egalitarian attitudes after seeing their team win than after seeing them lose. Two quasi-experimental studies examin…
On Disease and Deontology
Threat has been linked to certain facets of moral cognition, but the specific implications of disease threat for moral judgment remain poorly understood. Across three studies, we investigated the role of perceived disease threat in shaping moral judgment and hypothesized that perceived disease threat would cause people to be more sensitive to moral violations (or more “morally vigilant”). All three studies found a positive relationship between di…
The kiss of death
Ecology
Parasites and promiscuity
How does disease threat influence sexual attitudes and behaviors? Although research on the influence of disease threat on social behavior has grown considerably, the relationship between perceived disease threat and sexual attitudes remains unclear. The current preregistered study (analyzed N = 510), investigated how experimental reminders of disease threat influence attitudes and anticipated future behaviors pertaining to short-term sexual relat…
Too strong to care? Investigating the links between formidability, worldviews, and views on climate and disaster
People vary in climate change skepticism and in their views on disaster cause and prevention. For example, the United States boasts higher rates of climate skepticism than other countries, especially among Republicans. Research into the individual differences that shape variation in climate-related beliefs represents an important opportunity for those seeking ways to mitigate climate change and climate-related disasters (e.g., floods). In this re…
Ecology
The kiss of death
On Disease and Deontology
Threat has been linked to certain facets of moral cognition, but the specific implications of disease threat for moral judgment remain poorly understood. Across three studies, we investigated the role of perceived disease threat in shaping moral judgment and hypothesized that perceived disease threat would cause people to be more sensitive to moral violations (or more “morally vigilant”). All three studies found a positive relationship between di…
Politics and Parental Care
People vary greatly in their desire for, willingness to care for, and emotions toward children. This variation in “parenting motivation” predicts a range of cognition and behavior. Strategic perspectives on political attitudes suggest that parenting motivation should be associated with more socially conservative attitudes, since these attitudes prioritize self-protection norms. Across three studies, we found that parenthood mediated age-related i…
Political results
Vicariously experiencing sporting events is a worldwide phenomenon, and sports results affect fans’ emotional states. The current studies examined how sports results affect spectators’ political and intergroup attitudes. “Strategic” perspectives on social attitudes suggest that spectators may have higher ingroup preference and less egalitarian attitudes after seeing their team win than after seeing them lose. Two quasi-experimental studies examin…
Male descendant kin promote conservative views on gender issues and conformity to traditional norms
Parasites and promiscuity
How does disease threat influence sexual attitudes and behaviors? Although research on the influence of disease threat on social behavior has grown considerably, the relationship between perceived disease threat and sexual attitudes remains unclear. The current preregistered study (analyzed N = 510), investigated how experimental reminders of disease threat influence attitudes and anticipated future behaviors pertaining to short-term sexual relat…
Too strong to care? Investigating the links between formidability, worldviews, and views on climate and disaster
People vary in climate change skepticism and in their views on disaster cause and prevention. For example, the United States boasts higher rates of climate skepticism than other countries, especially among Republicans. Research into the individual differences that shape variation in climate-related beliefs represents an important opportunity for those seeking ways to mitigate climate change and climate-related disasters (e.g., floods). In this re…
The Holy Father (and Mother)? Multiple Tests of the Hypothesis That Parenthood and Parental Care Motivation Lead to Greater Religiosity
Parenting is a universal element of human life. However, the motivational and attitudinal implications of parenthood remain poorly understood. Given that many major religions prescribe parent-benefiting norms restricting sexual promiscuity and socially disruptive behavior, we hypothesized that both parenthood and parental care motivation would predict higher levels of religiosity. Studies 1 to 3 ( N >2,100 U.S. MTurkers; two preregistered) reveal…
Belief in a Dangerous World Does Not Explain Substantial Variance in Political Attitudes, But Other World Beliefs Do
Decades of research suggest a correlation between belief in a dangerous world and political conservatism. However, research relied on a scale that may overemphasize certain types of dangers. Furthermore, few other world beliefs have been investigated, such that fundamental worldview differences between liberals and conservatives remain largely unknown. A preregistered study of nine samples ( N = 5,461; mostly US Americans) found a negligible asso…
Development of Primal World Beliefs
Primal world beliefs (“primals”) capture individuals’ basic understanding of what sort of world this is. How do children develop beliefs about the nature of the world? Is the world a good place? Safe or dangerous? Enticing or dull? Primals were initially introduced in social and personality psychology to understand beliefs about the world as a whole that may influence well-being and personality. This article introduces the concept of primals to d…
Primal World Belief Research, for Skeptics
Sometimes skeptics are tempted to dismiss world beliefs as meaningful phenomena. Such dismissal, we argue, is a mistake. How beliefs about many broad topics impact behavior is well-established. Psychologically rich world beliefs have also peppered the cultural milieu for centuries. Multiple, decades-old literatures have already established psychometrically the existence of world beliefs, proposed effects, and developed sufficient theory to define…
Despite popular intuition, positive world beliefs poorly reflect several objective indicators of privilege, including wealth, health, sex, and neighborhood safety
OBJECTIVES: We tested whether generalized beliefs that the world is safe, abundant, pleasurable, and progressing (termed "primal world beliefs") are associated with several objective measures of privilege. METHODS: Three studies (N = 16,547) tested multiple relationships between indicators of privilege-including socioeconomic status, health, sex, and neighborhood safety-and relevant world beliefs, as well as researchers and laypeople's expectatio…
World Beliefs Moderate the Effects of Trauma and Severe Illness on Emotional Distress
OBJECTIVE: Severe illness and trauma can cause significant psychological distress, but individuals differ in their responses. This research tested whether world beliefs-fundamental assumptions about the nature of the world-moderate the relationship between negative life experiences and emotional distress. METHOD: Study 1 compared individuals with chronic illnesses (cystic fibrosis or cancer) to healthy controls on measures of anxiety, depression,…
Psychology (12 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (8 works) · Developmental psychology (6 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (6 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (5 works) · Political science (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Disease (3 works)