Brian Collisson, Ph.D.
“Hi all. If you're interested in my research, let me know! I'm happy to chat about current projects and the many career opportunities available in psychology."
- Dr. Collisson
Recent Media Attention
Foodie Calls
The Atlantic: “When one person on a date is just there for the free food”
Good Morning America: “Women who make ‘foodie calls’ more likely to have psychopathic behavior”
New York Post: “A third of women only date men because of the free food”
Yahoo Finance: “A third of daters on only there for the free food”
CBS: “Foodie call”
ABC Eyewitness News: “Some women agree to date men for free food”
New Food Economy: “The fraught sexual politics of the ‘foodie call’”
Relational Prejudice
Psychology Today: “Date Someone Your Own Size”
Brit + Co: “The Unfair Thing that Happens to Mixed-Weight Couples”
Psychology Today Magazine: “Just Because We’re Different”
Rewire: “Why Do ‘Mixed’ Couples Face Discrimination”
Psychology Today: "Why people look down on age-gap relationships"
Relationship Interferences
Psychology Today: "Why Friends and Family Cannot Stop Meddling"
PsyPost: "Dark Personality Traits More Likely to Meddle"
Newsbreak: "Personalities of Meddling Friends"
Interested in Research?
Brian Collisson, Ph.D., conducts research at the interface of relationships, prejudice, and personality.
Projects in his lab typically focus on how people's dark personality traits affect their relationships and why people express prejudice towards dissimilar romantic couples.
Current Projects
Consumers' Dark Traits Predict Abuse of Food Refund Policies
Who said there's no such thing as a free lunch? We found 46% of consumers report abusing the refund policies of online food delivery services by falsely claiming an order was missing, damaged, or incorrect to receive both their original food order and a full refund. Consumers' Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) predicted food refund fraud and its perceived acceptability.
Spiteful Lovers
Spiteful people may purposefully try to punish a romantic partner by withholding love and affection - even though doing so threatens their relationship. We're exploring whether (1) individual differences in spitefulness predicts withholding within a relationship, (2) whether men and women differ in the degree to which they withhold displays of emotional intimacy (e.g., not saying "I love you") or physical affection (e.g., hugs, kisses), and (3) whether spiteful traits and behaviors relate to relationship satisfaction, investment, perceived attractiveness of alternatives to the relationship (e.g., being single, dating someone else), and commitment.
Eating Away Prejudice
People often associate ethnic groups with particular foods (e.g., French crepes, Japanese sushi). We tested whether people’s ethnic prejudices vary as a function of their (dis)liking of ethnic food. Specifically, we explored whether perceived similarity mediates this relation.
Other Areas of Recent Interest
Being the Willing Bearer of Bad News - Link between saidism and sharing unwanted information with others
Perceptions of Racial Discrimination - Do suspicions of racism color people's perceptions of others' ambiguous behavior?
Social Network Analysis of Faith Integration - Does the number and diversity of conversation partners impact people's psychology and faith worldviews?
For a full list of published research projects, click here
Undergraduate Research Team
Graduate Students
Colleagues & Collaborators