About

Dolores Albarracín, Ph.D., is a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, serving as the Director of the Social Action Lab and the Communication Science Division at the Annenberg Public Policy Center. She studies the impact of communication and persuasion on human behavior and the formation of beliefs, attitudes, and goals, with a focus on socially beneficial outcomes. Her research combines basic and applied psychology to find ways of intervening to promote positive social interactions and public policies. Born in Argentina, Albarracín received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 1997. She has previously held tenured positions at the University of Florida and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She has published nearly 200 journal articles and book chapters in leading scientific outlets across psychology, health, and science, and her work has significantly influenced national health communication policy. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Albarracín has received numerous awards, including the 2018 Award for Outstanding Scientific Contributions to Research on Attitudes and Social Influence, the 2020 Diener Award for Mid-Career Contributions in Social Psychology, and the 2019 Avant-Garde Award from the National Institute of Drug Abuse. She has served as President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and is a fellow of several professional societies. She is also the author of six books, including titles on conspiracy beliefs, attitudes, and social behavior.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Social Science
• Sociology
• Social psychology
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Law
• Statistics
• Media studies
• Virology

Selected publications

• A Multisite Preregistered Paradigmatic Test of the Ego-Depletion Effect

  Psychological Science · 2021 · 211 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Developmental psychology

  = 0.08); Bayesian analyses showed that the data were about equally likely under the null and informed-prior hypotheses. Exploratory moderator tests suggested that the depletion effect was larger for participants who reported more fatigue but was not moderated by trait self-control, willpower beliefs, or action orientation.

  DOI

• The Relation between Media Consumption and Misinformation at the Outset of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the US

  2020 · 252 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  A US national probability-based survey during the early days of the SARS-CoV-2 spread in the US showed that, above and beyond respondents' political party, mainstream broadcast media use (e.g., NBC News) correlated with accurate information about the disease's lethality, and mainstream print media use (e.g., the New York Times) correlated with accurate beliefs about protection from infection. In addition, conservative media use (e.g., Fox News) correlated with conspiracy theories including believing that some in the CDC were exaggerating the seriousness of the virus to undermine the presidency of Donald Trump. Five recommendations are made to improve public understanding of SARS-CoV-2.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Man‐pui Sally Chan

  University of Pennsylvania

  40 shared

• Marta R. Durantini

  University of Pennsylvania

  33 shared

• Kathleen Hall Jamieson

  University of Pennsylvania

  32 shared

• Allison Earl

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  20 shared

• G. Tarcan Kumkale

  Özyeğin University

  18 shared

• Justin Hepler

  Meta (Israel)

  17 shared

• Alain Ducousso‐Lacaze

  17 shared

• Jay Joseph Van Bavel

  Norwegian School of Economics

  16 shared

Awards & honors

• 2018 Award for Outstanding Scientific Contributions to Resea…
• 2020 Diener Award to Outstanding Mid-Career Contributions in…
• 2019 Avant-Garde Award, National Institute of Drug Abuse

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