Michael Morris
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1993
General Area of Research
Judgment and decision-making, culture and identity; psychological dynamics in conflict resolution.
Current Research
Are people's ways of handling conflicts shaped by their culture? Our laboratory studies such cultural influences from a dynamic constructivist approach, using the tools of social and cognitive psychology as well as network analysis. Our methods include laboratory experiments, surveys of various types, and content analysis of archival data.
An axiom of this approach is that cultural patterns are dynamic rather than constant. We investigate conditions, such as stress or time pressure, that amplify people's reliance on cultural habits. Likewise, we study personality or motivational orientation that foster adherence to cultural norms.
This approach has also enabled us to model the behavior of bicultural individuals who have internalized more than one set of cultural norms.
Relevant Publications
Cultural Chameleons: Biculturals, Conformity Motives, and Decision Making. Journal of Consumer Psychology; 15 (4), 2005, 351-362. Coauthor(s): Donnel A. Briley, Michael W. Morris, Itamar Simonson.
Boundaries of Cultural Influence: Construct Activation as a Mechanism for Cultural Differences in Social Perception. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology; 34 (4), 1 7 2003, 453–64. Coauthor(s): Ying-Yi Hong, Veronica Benet-Martinez, Chi-Yue Chiu.