Psychologists try to discover why people and animals do what they do. One of the most important things that people and animals do is to evaluate. When they do it right, they act favorably toward things that are good for them and act unfavorably toward things that are bad for them. A species that could not evaluate adaptively would soon become extinct

ATTITUDES RESEARCH LAB
In the Attitudes Research Lab at TCU, a team of 10-15 graduate and undergraduate students work with me to conduct experimental research on how people evaluate, and how to help them evaluate more accurately. Our research has been used to improve evaluations of stigmatized groups, increase self-beneficial behaviors like studying, taking math and science course, exercise, taking advantage of the university’s counseling center, and performing better under stereotype threat.

Primary Interests:

Attitudes and Beliefs
Intergroup Relations
Persuasion, Social Influence
Prejudice and Stereotyping

Attitudes and Beliefs
Intergroup Relations

Persuasion, Social Influence
Prejudice and Stereotyping

Research Group or Laboratory:

Attitudes Research Laboratory
Interactive Map

Journal Articles:

Brady, S. E., & Lord, C. G. (in press). When liars fool themselves: Motive to impress alters memory for one’s own evaluative actions. Social Cognition.
Frye, G. D. J., Brady, S. E., & Lord, C. G. (2012). Attitude change following imagined positive actions toward a social group: Do memories change attitudes or do attitudes change memories? Social Cogntion, 30, 307-322.
Frye, G. D. J., & Lord, C. G. (2009). Effects of time frame on the relationship between source monitoring errors and attitude change. Social Cognition, 27(6), 867-882.
Lord, C. G., Desforges, D. M., Fein, S., Pugh, M. A., & Lepper, M. R. (1994). Typicality effects in attitudes toward social policies: A concept-mapping approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 658-673.
Lord, C. G., Desforges, D. M., Ramsey, S. L.,Trezza, G. R., & Lepper, M. R. (1991). Typicality effects in attitude-behavior consistency: Effects of category discrimination and category knowledge. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 550-575.
Lord, C. G., Paulson, R. M., Sia, T. L., Thomas, J. C., & Lepper, M. R. (2004). Houses built on shifting sand: Effects of exemplar stability on resistance to attitude change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 733-749.
McIntyre, R. B., Lord, C. G., Frye, G. D. J., & Lewis, S. L. (2003). False memories of attitude-relevant actions. Social Cognition, 21, 395-420.
McIntyre, R. B., Paulson, R. M., Lord, C. G., & Lepper, M. R. (2004). Effects of attitude action identification on congruence between attitudes and behavioral intentions toward social groups. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1151-1164.
McIntyre, R. B., Paulson, R. M., Taylor, C. A., Morin, A. L., & Lord, C. G. (2010). Effects of role model deservingness on overcoming performance deficits induced by stereotype threat. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 303-311.
Paulson, R. M., Lord, C. G., Taylor, C. A., Brady, S. E., McIntyre, R. B., & Fuller, Eric W. (2012). A matching hypothesis for the activity level of actions involved in attitude-behavior consistency. Social Psychology and Personality Science, 3, 40-47.
Seitz, S. J., Lord, C. G., & Taylor, C. A. (2007). Beyond pleasure: Emotion activity affects the relationship between attitudes and behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 933-947.
Sia, T. L., Lord, C. G., Blessum, K. A., Ratcliff, C. D., & Lepper, M. R. (1997). Is a rose always a rose? The role of social category exemplar change in attitude stability and attitude-behavior consistency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 501-514.
Sia, T. L., Lord, C. G., Blessum, K. A., Thomas, J. C., & Lepper, M. R. (1999). Activation of exemplars in the process of assessing social category attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 517-532.
Taylor, C. A., Lord, C. G., & Bond, C. F., Jr. (2009). Embodiment, agency, and attitude change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 946-962.
Taylor, C. A., Lord, C. G., McIntyre, R. B., & Paulson, R. M. (2011). The Hillary Clinton effect: When the same role model inspires or fails to inspire improved performance under stereotype threat. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 14, 447-459.
Ten Eyck, L. L., Gresky, D. P., & Lord, C. G. (2008). Effects of directed thinking on exercise and cardiovascular fitness. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 12, 237-258.
Ten Eyck, L. L., Labansat, H. A., Lord, C. G., & Dansereau, D. F. (2006). Effects of directed thinking on intentions to engage in beneficial activities: Idea generation or mental simulation? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36, 1234-1262.
Wallace, D. S., Paulson, R. M., Lord, C. G., & Bond, C. F., Jr. (2005). Which behaviors do attitudes predict? Meta-analyzing the effects of social pressure and perceived difficulty. Review of General Psychology, 9, 214-227.

Other Publications:

Lord, C. G. (2004). Attitude variance: Its causes and consequences. In Haddock, G. & Maio, G. R. O. (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on the psychology of attitudes. (pp. 299-323). London: Psychology Press.
Lord, C. G., & Lepper, M. R. (1999). Attitude representation theory. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 31, pp. 265-343). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Charles Lord
Department of Psychology
Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, TX 76129
United States

Phone: (817) 257-6425
Fax: (817) 257-7681