Jonathan A Fugelsang
Biographic Data
| ID | 5448336 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jonathan A Fugelsang |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jonathan A |
| FAMILY NAME | Fugelsang |
| SIGNATURE | FUGELSANG J A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Waterloo |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6342-7023 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Between law and conscience: Act legality shapes moral evaluation
Can legality shape moral judgment? Across four experiments (N = 1,559), participants judged identical actions as more morally wrong when they were described as illegal rather than “not illegal.” This effect extended to judgments of moral character: individuals who performed illegal actions were evaluated more negatively than those who performed otherwise identical legal actions. The influence of legality was robust across several contexts, emergi…
Everyone I Don’t Like Is Biased: Affective Evaluations and the Bias Blind Spot
People commonly exhibit a bias blind spot (BBS), judging themselves as less susceptible to bias than the “average other.” However, less is known about how people attribute bias to familiar others who evoke strong affect. We examined whether attributions of bias are sensitive to affective impressions of others. In Experiment 1, participants viewed themselves as considerably less biased than the average survey respondent and a personally-known disl…
Disclosing sample bias fails to fully correct judgments of partisan extremity
How do we infer the beliefs of an entire group (e.g., Democrats) after being exposed to the beliefs of only a handful of group members? What if we know that the beliefs we encountered were selected in a biased manner? Across two experiments, we recruited 640 U.S. residents and assessed whether they could recognize and correct for such sample bias. Some participants viewed biased samples that exclusively featured the political opinions of extreme …
Partisan language in a polarized world: In-group language provides reputational benefits to speakers while polarizing audiences
Bullshit blind spots: The roles of miscalibration and information processing in bullshit detection
The growing prevalence of misleading information (i.e., bullshit) in society carries with it an increased need to understand the processes underlying many people’s susceptibility to falling for it. Here we report two studies (N = 412) examining the associations between one’s ability to detect pseudo-profound bullshit, confidence in one’s bullshit detection abilities, and the metacognitive experience of evaluating potentially misleading informatio…
National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic
Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during …
Controlling the narrative: Euphemistic language affects judgments of actions while avoiding perceptions of dishonesty
The present work (N = 1906 U.S. residents) investigates the extent to which peoples' evaluations of actions can be biased by the strategic use of euphemistic (agreeable) and dysphemistic (disagreeable) terms. We find that participants' evaluations of actions are made more favorable by replacing a disagreeable term (e.g., torture) with a semantically related agreeable term (e.g., enhanced interrogation) in an act's description. Notably, the influe…
Disgust and Moral Judgment: Distinguishing Between Elicitors and Feelings Matters
We investigated the scope of the effect of disgust on moral judgments. In two field experiments (Experiment 1, N = 142, Experiment 2, N = 248), we manipulated whether participants were exposed to a disgusting odor. Participants then rated the permissibility of actions in two kinds of moral problems: dilemmas and transgressions. In both experiments, disgust did not affect moral judgments when we compared across exposure levels. However, self-repor…
Butt-dialing the devil: Evil agents are expected to disregard intentions behind requests
The search for predictable moral partners: Predictability and moral (character) preferences
Better the two devils you know, than the one you don't: Predictability influences moral judgments of immoral actors
The environmental malleability of base-rate neglect
No evidence for decreased foreign language effect in highly proficient and acculturated bilinguals: A commentary on Čavar and Tytus (2018)
Bilinguals who consider moral problems in their foreign language tend to endorse causing harm to others if that leads to good outcomes more than they do in their native language. Čavar and Tytus [2018. “Moral Judgement and Foreign Language Effect: When the Foreign Language Becomes the Second Language.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 39 (1): 17–28] reported that this effect disappears when the decision maker is highly accult…
Is the cognitive reflection test a measure of both reflection and intuition?
Atheists and Agnostics Are More Reflective than Religious Believers: Four Empirical Studies and a Meta-Analysis
Everyday Consequences of Analytic Thinking
We review recent evidence revealing that the mere willingness to engage analytic reasoning as a means to override intuitive gut feelings is a meaningful predictor of key psychological outcomes in diverse areas of everyday life. For example, those with a more analytic thinking style are more skeptical about religious, paranormal, and conspiratorial concepts. In addition, analytic thinking relates to having less traditional moral values, making les…
The brain in your pocket: Evidence that Smartphones are used to supplant thinking
On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit
Although bullshit is common in everyday life and has attracted attention from philosophers, its reception (critical or ingenuous) has not, to our knowledge, been subject to empirical investigation. Here we focus on pseudo-profound bullshit, which consists of seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous. We presented participants with bullshit statements consisting of buzzwords randomly organiz…
What makes us think? A three-stage dual-process model of analytic engagement
Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief
The search for predictable moral partners: Predictability and moral (character) preferences
Better the two devils you know, than the one you don't: Predictability influences moral judgments of immoral actors
No evidence for decreased foreign language effect in highly proficient and acculturated bilinguals: A commentary on Čavar and Tytus (2018)
Bilinguals who consider moral problems in their foreign language tend to endorse causing harm to others if that leads to good outcomes more than they do in their native language. Čavar and Tytus [2018. “Moral Judgement and Foreign Language Effect: When the Foreign Language Becomes the Second Language.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 39 (1): 17–28] reported that this effect disappears when the decision maker is highly accult…
Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief
Everyday Consequences of Analytic Thinking
We review recent evidence revealing that the mere willingness to engage analytic reasoning as a means to override intuitive gut feelings is a meaningful predictor of key psychological outcomes in diverse areas of everyday life. For example, those with a more analytic thinking style are more skeptical about religious, paranormal, and conspiratorial concepts. In addition, analytic thinking relates to having less traditional moral values, making les…
The brain in your pocket: Evidence that Smartphones are used to supplant thinking
On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit
Although bullshit is common in everyday life and has attracted attention from philosophers, its reception (critical or ingenuous) has not, to our knowledge, been subject to empirical investigation. Here we focus on pseudo-profound bullshit, which consists of seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous. We presented participants with bullshit statements consisting of buzzwords randomly organiz…
What makes us think? A three-stage dual-process model of analytic engagement
Is the cognitive reflection test a measure of both reflection and intuition?
Atheists and Agnostics Are More Reflective than Religious Believers: Four Empirical Studies and a Meta-Analysis
No evidence for decreased foreign language effect in highly proficient and acculturated bilinguals: A commentary on Čavar and Tytus (2018)
Bilinguals who consider moral problems in their foreign language tend to endorse causing harm to others if that leads to good outcomes more than they do in their native language. Čavar and Tytus [2018. “Moral Judgement and Foreign Language Effect: When the Foreign Language Becomes the Second Language.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 39 (1): 17–28] reported that this effect disappears when the decision maker is highly accult…
The environmental malleability of base-rate neglect
Controlling the narrative: Euphemistic language affects judgments of actions while avoiding perceptions of dishonesty
The present work (N = 1906 U.S. residents) investigates the extent to which peoples' evaluations of actions can be biased by the strategic use of euphemistic (agreeable) and dysphemistic (disagreeable) terms. We find that participants' evaluations of actions are made more favorable by replacing a disagreeable term (e.g., torture) with a semantically related agreeable term (e.g., enhanced interrogation) in an act's description. Notably, the influe…
Disgust and Moral Judgment: Distinguishing Between Elicitors and Feelings Matters
We investigated the scope of the effect of disgust on moral judgments. In two field experiments (Experiment 1, N = 142, Experiment 2, N = 248), we manipulated whether participants were exposed to a disgusting odor. Participants then rated the permissibility of actions in two kinds of moral problems: dilemmas and transgressions. In both experiments, disgust did not affect moral judgments when we compared across exposure levels. However, self-repor…
Butt-dialing the devil: Evil agents are expected to disregard intentions behind requests
The search for predictable moral partners: Predictability and moral (character) preferences
Better the two devils you know, than the one you don't: Predictability influences moral judgments of immoral actors
National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic
Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during …
Bullshit blind spots: The roles of miscalibration and information processing in bullshit detection
The growing prevalence of misleading information (i.e., bullshit) in society carries with it an increased need to understand the processes underlying many people’s susceptibility to falling for it. Here we report two studies (N = 412) examining the associations between one’s ability to detect pseudo-profound bullshit, confidence in one’s bullshit detection abilities, and the metacognitive experience of evaluating potentially misleading informatio…
Disclosing sample bias fails to fully correct judgments of partisan extremity
How do we infer the beliefs of an entire group (e.g., Democrats) after being exposed to the beliefs of only a handful of group members? What if we know that the beliefs we encountered were selected in a biased manner? Across two experiments, we recruited 640 U.S. residents and assessed whether they could recognize and correct for such sample bias. Some participants viewed biased samples that exclusively featured the political opinions of extreme …
Partisan language in a polarized world: In-group language provides reputational benefits to speakers while polarizing audiences
Between law and conscience: Act legality shapes moral evaluation
Can legality shape moral judgment? Across four experiments (N = 1,559), participants judged identical actions as more morally wrong when they were described as illegal rather than “not illegal.” This effect extended to judgments of moral character: individuals who performed illegal actions were evaluated more negatively than those who performed otherwise identical legal actions. The influence of legality was robust across several contexts, emergi…
Everyone I Don’t Like Is Biased: Affective Evaluations and the Bias Blind Spot
People commonly exhibit a bias blind spot (BBS), judging themselves as less susceptible to bias than the “average other.” However, less is known about how people attribute bias to familiar others who evoke strong affect. We examined whether attributions of bias are sensitive to affective impressions of others. In Experiment 1, participants viewed themselves as considerably less biased than the average survey respondent and a personally-known disl…
Psychology (17 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (11 works) · Cognitive psychology (10 works) · Epistemology (9 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (5 works) · Cognition (4 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (4 works) · Linguistics (4 works)