PhD, The Ohio State University, 1994.  Professor of Psychological Sciences Send e-mail to wegener@psych.purdue.edu Mailing Address: Purdue University Department of Psychological Sciences 703 Third Street West Lafayette, IN 47907-2081 Phone: (765) 494-9554  Fax: (765) 496-1264 Link to vita and complete list of publications

Research interests generally include the areas of attitude change and social cognition, especially factors that influence the amount and nature of information processing activity (e.g., mood states of recipients of persuasive communications--especially the role of mood-management in these settings). Much of this work focuses on the biases that can be created in peoples' thoughts and perceptions and on the steps that people sometimes make in attempts to rid their thoughts and perceptions of perceived biases. Interests also include the persistence of processing outcomes over time and resistance to these outcomes to attempts at further change.

Recent Publications

Wegener, D. T., Petty, R. E., Bedell, B., & Jarvis, W. B. G. (2001). Implications of attitude change theories for numerical anchoring: Anchor plausibility and the limits of anchor effectiveness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 62-69.     Wegener, D. T., & Fabrigar, L. R. (2000). Analysis and design for nonexperimental data: Addressing causal and noncausal hypotheses. In H. T.Reis & C. M. Judd (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 412-450). New York: Cambridge University Press.     Petty, R. E., & Wegener, D. T. (1998).  Attitude change: Multiple roles for persuasion variables. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 323-390).  New York: McGraw-Hill.     Shestowsky, D., Wegener, D. T., & Fabrigar, L. R. (1998). Need for cognition and interpersonal influence: Individual differences in impact on dyadic decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1317-1328.      Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1997).  The flexible correction model: The role of naive theories of bias in bias correction. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 29, pp. 141-208). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.     Wegener, D. T., Petty, R. E., & Smith, S. M. (1995).  Positive mood can increase or decrease message scrutiny: The hedonic contingency view of mood and message processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 5-15.