Social
- Self-control, choice, decision making. We have investigated how people regulate their emotions, resist temptation, break bad habits, and perform up to their potential -- and why they often fail to do so. Related work shows how stressful and draining it can be to make choices.
- The need to belong. We have worked on how people respond to being rejected or excluded from social groups, as well as romantic heartbreak. Also, many psychological processes are based on the desire to connect with other people.
- A series of studies of human sexuality has addressed questions such as how nature and culture influence people's sex drive, rape and sexual coercion, the cultural suppression of female sexuality, and how couples negotiate their sexual patterns.
- Consciousness, volition, emotion, and "free will." We are beginning to do studies on the role of conscious processes in how people decide their actions. Does emotion cause behavior? Is the conscious experience of free choice an illusion?
- Irrationality and self-destructive behavior. An enduring theme of my work is why people do stupid things. Self-defeating behavior is the essence of irrationality and thus shows the limits of human rationality.
Selected Publications
Books
Baumeister, R.F. (Ed.) (1999). The Self in Social Psychology. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press (Taylor & Francis).
Baumeister, R.F., & Tice, D.M. (2000). The Social Dimension of Sex. New York: Allyn & Bacon.
Baumeister, R.F. (Ed.) (2001). Social Psychology and Human Sexuality. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press (Taylor & Francis).
Miracle, A., Miracle, T., & Baumeister, R.F. (2002). Human Sexuality: Meeting Your Basic Needs. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall/Pearson.
Loewenstein, G., Read, D., & Baumeister, R.F. (Eds.) (2003). Time and Decision: Economic and Psychological Perspectives on Intertemporal Choice. New York: Russell Sage.
Baumeister, R.F., & Vohs, K.D. (Eds.) (2004). Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications. New York: Guilford.
Baumeister, R.F. (2005). The Cultural Animal: Human Nature, Meaning, and Social Life. New York: Oxford University Press.
Baumeister, R.F., & Vohs, K.D. (Eds.) (2007). Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Vohs, K.D., Baumeister, R.F., & Loewenstein, G.F. (Eds.) (2007). Do Emotions Help or Hurt Decision Making?: A Hedgefoxian Perspective New York: Russell Sage.
Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. J. (2008). Social Psychology and Human Nature. San Francisco, CA: Wadsworth.
Baer, J., Kaufmann, J., & Baumeister, R.F. (Eds.) (2008). Are We Free? Psychology and Free Will. New York: Oxford University Press.
Forgas, J.P., Baumeister, R.F., & Tice, D.M. (2009). Psychology of Self- Regulation: Cognitive, Affective, and Motivational Processes. New York: Psychology Press.
Baumeister, R.F., Mele, A.R., & Vohs, K.D. (Eds.) (2010). Free Will and Consciousness: How Might They Work? New York: Oxford University Press.
Baumeister, R.F., & Finkel, E.J. (Eds.) (2010). Advanced Social Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Baumeister, R.F. (2010). Is There Anything Good About Men? New York: Oxford University Press.
Vohs, K.D., & Baumeister, R.F. (Eds.) (2011). Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications (2nd Edn.). New York: Guilford.
Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. J. (2011). Social Psychology and Human Nature (2nd Edition). San Francisco, CA: Cengage.
Baumeister, R.F., & Tierney, J. (2011). Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. New York: Penguin Press.
Baumeister, R.F., & Vohs, K.D. (Eds.) (2012). New Directions in Social Psychology, Volumes I-V. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Vohs, K.D., & Baumeister, R.F. (Eds.) (2012). The Self and Identity, Volumes I-V. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Articles
Baumeister, R.F., & Leary, M.R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529.
Baumeister, R.F., Smart, L., & Boden, J.M. (1996). Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: The dark side of high self-esteem. Psychological Review, 103, 5-33.
Leith, K. P., & Baumeister, R.F. (1996). Why do bad moods increase self-defeating behavior? Emotion, risk taking, and self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1250-1267.
Baumeister, R.F., & Heatherton, T.F. (1996). Self-regulation failure: An overview. Psychological Inquiry, 7, 1-15.
Tice, D.M., & Baumeister, R.F. (1997). Longitudinal study of procrastination, performance, stress, and health: The costs and benefits of dawdling. Psychological Science, 8, 454-458.
Baumeister, R.F., & Sommer, K.L. (1997). What do men want? Gender differences and two spheres of belongingness: Comment on Cross and Madson (1997). Psychological Bulletin, 122, 38-44.
Baumeister, R.F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D.M. (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1252-1265.
Baumeister, R.F. (1998). The self. In D.T. Gilbert, S.T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th ed.; pp. 680-740). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Muraven, M., Tice, D.M., & Baumeister, R.F. (1998). Self-control as limited resource: Regulatory depletion patterns. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 774-789.
Bushman, B.J., & Baumeister, R.F. (1998). Threatened egotism, narcissism, self-esteem, and direct and displaced aggression: Does self-love or self-hate lead to violence? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 219-229.
Baumeister, R.F., Dale, K., & Sommer, K.L (1998). Freudian defense mechanisms and empirical findings in modern social psychology: Reaction formation, projection, displacement, undoing, isolation, sublimation, and denial. Journal of Personality, 66, 1081-1124.
Baumeister, R.F. (2000). Gender differences in erotic plasticity: The female sex drive as socially flexible and responsive. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 347-374.
Muraven, M.R., & Baumeister, R.F. (2000). Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: Does self-control resemble a muscle? Psychological Bulletin, 126, 247-259.
Leary, M.R., & Baumeister, R.F. (2000). The nature and function of self-esteem: Sociometer theory. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 32, pp. 1-62). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Twenge, J.M., Baumeister, R.F., Tice, D.M., & Stucke, T.S. (2001). If you can�t join them, beat them: Effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1058-1069.
Tice, D.M., Bratslavsky, E., & Baumeister, R.F. (2001). Emotional distress regulation takes precedence over impulse control: If you feel bad, do it! Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 53-67.
Bushman, B.J., Baumeister, R.F., & Phillips, C.M. (2001). Do people aggress to improve their mood? Catharsis beliefs, affect regulation opportunity, and aggressive responding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 17-32.
Baumeister, R.F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K.D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323-370.
Baumeister, R.F., Catanese, K.R., & Vohs, K.D. (2001). Is there a gender difference in strength of sex drive? Theoretical views, conceptual distinctions, and a review of relevant evidence. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 242-273.
Baumeister, R.F. (2001: April). Violent pride: Do people turn violent because of self-hate, or self-love? Scientific American, 284 (No. 4), 96-101.
Baumeister, R.F., Twenge, J.M., & Nuss, C. (2002). Effects of social exclusion on cognitive processes: Anticipated aloneness reduces intelligent thought. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 817-827.
Twenge, J. M., Catanese, K. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2002). Social exclusion causes self-defeating behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 606-615.
Wallace, H.M., & Baumeister, R.F. (2002). The performance of narcissists rises and falls with perceived opportunity for glory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 819-834.
Baumeister, R.F., Catanese, K.R., & Wallace, H.M. (2002). Conquest by force: A narcissistic reactance theory of rape and sexual coercion. Review of General Psychology, 6, 92-135.
Baumeister, R.F., & Twenge, J.M. (2002). Cultural suppression of female sexuality. Review of General Psychology, 6, 166-203.
Baumeister, R.F., Campbell, J.D., Krueger, J.I. & Vohs, K.D. (2003). Does high self-esteem cause better performance interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4, 1-44.
Schmeichel, B. J., Vohs, K. D., & Baumeister, R. F. (2003). Intellectual performance and ego depletion: Role of the self in logical reasoning and other information processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 33-46.
Baumeister, R.F., & Vohs, K.D. (2004). Sexual economics: Sex as female resource for social exchange in heterosexual interactions. Personality and Social Psychology Review. 8, 339-363.
Tangney, J. P., Baumeister, R. F., & Boone, A. L. (2004). High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success. Journal of Personality, 72, 271-322.
Baumeister, R.F., DeWall, C.N., Ciarocco, N.J., & Twenge, J.M. (2005). Social exclusion impairs self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 589-604.
Vohs, K.D., Baumeister, R.F., & Ciarocco, N. (2005). Self-regulation and self-presentation: Regulatory resource depletion impairs impression management and effortful self-presentation depletes regulatory resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 632-657.
Baumeister, R.F., Campbell, J.D., Krueger, J.I. & Vohs, K.D. (2005: January). Exploding the self-esteem myth. Scientific American, 292 (No. 1), 84-91. Reprinted in Scientific American Mind: Thought, ideas, brain science (2005), Vol 16, No. 4, pp. 50-57.
DeWall, C. N., & Baumeister, R. F. (2006). Alone but feeling no pain: Effects of social exclusion on physical pain tolerance and pain threshold, affective forecasting, and interpersonal empathy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 1-15.
Gailliot, M.T., Schmeichel, B.J., & Baumeister, R.F. (2006). Self-regulatory processes defend against the threat of death: Effects of mortality salience, self-control depletion, and trait self-control on thoughts and fears of dying. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 49-62.
Baumeister, R.F., Gailliot, M., DeWall, C.N., & Oaten, M. (2006). Self-regulation and personality: How interventions increase regulatory success, and how depletion moderates the effects of traits on behavior. Journal of Personality, 74, 1773-1801.
Gailliot, M.T., Baumeister, R.F., DeWall, C.N., Maner, J.K., Plant, E.A., Tice, D.M., Brewer, L.E., & Schmeichel, B.J. (2007). Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 325-336.
Maner, J.K., DeWall, C.N., Baumeister, R.F., & Schaller, M. (2007). Does social exclusion motivate interpersonal reconnection? Resolving the "porcupine problem." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 42-55.
Twenge, J.M., Baumeister, R.F., DeWall, C.N., Ciarocco, N.J., & Bartels, J.M. (2007). Social exclusion decreases prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 56-66.
DeWall, C.N., & Baumeister, R.F. (2007). From terror to joy: Automatic tuning to positive affective information following mortality salience. Psychological Science, 18, 984-990.
Baumeister, R.F., Vohs, K.D., DeWall, C.N., & Zhang, L. (2007). How emotion shapes behavior: Feedback, anticipation, and reflection, rather than direct causation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 167-203.
Gailliot, M. T., & Baumeister, R.F. (2007). Self-regulation and sexual restraint: Dispositionally and temporarily poor self-regulatory abilities contribute to failure at restraining sexual behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 173-186.
DeWall, C.N., Baumeister, R.F., Stillman, T., & Gailliot, M.T. (2007). Violence restrained: Effects of self-regulation and its depletion on aggression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 62-76.
Gailliot, M.T., & Baumeister, R.F. (2007). The physiology of willpower: Linking blood glucose to self-control. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 303-327.
Vohs, K.D., Baumeister, R.F., Schmeichel, B.J., Twenge, J.M., Nelson, N.M., & Tice, D.M. (2008). Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: A limited resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 883-898.
Exline, J.J., Baumeister, R.F., Zell, A.L., Kraft, A.J., & Witvliet, C.V.O. (2008). Not so innocent: Does seeing one's own capability for wrongdoing predict forgiveness? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 495-515.
DeWall, C.N., Baumeister, R.F., & Vohs, K.D. (2008). Satiated with belongingness? Effects of acceptance, rejection, and task framing on self-regulatory performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1367-1382.
Masicampo, E.J., & Baumeister, R.F. (2008). Toward a physiology of dual-process reasoning and judgment: Lemonade, willpower, and expensive rule-based analysis. Psychological Science, 19, 255-260.
Baumeister, R.F., Sparks, E. A., Stillman, T. F., & Vohs, K.D. (2008). Free will in consumer behavior: Self-control, ego depletion, and choice. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 18, 4-13.
Baumeister, R.F. (2008). Free will in scientific psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 14-19.
DeWall, C.N., Baumeister, R.F., & Masicampo, E.J. (2008). Evidence that logical reasoning depends on conscious processing. Consciousness and Cognition. 17, 628-645.
DeWall, C.N., Twenge, J.M., Gitter, S.A., & Baumeister, R.F. (2009). It�s the thought that counts: The role of hostile cognition in shaping aggressive responses to social exclusion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 45-59.
Schmeichel, B.J., Gailliot, M.T., MacGregor, I., Filardo, E.-A., Gitter, S., & Baumeister, R.F. (2009). Terror management theory and self-esteem revisited: The roles of implicit and explicit self-esteem in mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1077-1087.
Zhou, X., & Vohs, K.D., & Baumeister, R.F. (2009). The symbolic power of money: Reminders of money alter social distress and physical pain. Psychological Science, 20, 700-706.
Blackhart, G.C., Nelson, B.C., Knowles, M.L., & Baumeister, R.F. (2009). Rejection elicits emotional reactions but neither causes immediate distress nor lowers self-esteem: A meta-analytic review of 192 studies on social exclusion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13, 269-309.
Baumeister, R.F., Masicampo, E.J., & DeWall, C.N. (2009). Prosocial benefits of feeling free: Disbelief in free will increases aggression and reduces helpfulness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 260-268.
Pocheptsova, A., Amir, O., Dhar, R., & Baumeister, R.F. (2009). Deciding without resources: Resource depletion and choice in context. Journal of Marketing Research, 46, 344-355.
Bushman, B.J., Baumeister, R.F., Thomaes, S., Ryu, E., Begeer, S., & West, S.G. (2009). Looking again, and harder, for a link between low self-esteem and aggression. Journal of Personality, 77, 427-446.
Mead, N.L., Baumeister, R.F., Gino, F., Schweitzer, M.E., & Ariely, D. (2009). Too tired to tell the truth: Self-control resource depletion and dishonesty. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45. 594-597.
Baumeister, R.F., & Masicampo, E.J. (2010). Conscious thought is for facilitating social and cultural interactions: How mental simulations serve the animal-culture interface. Psychological Review, 117, 945-971.
DeWall, C.N., MacDonald, G., Webster, G.D., Masten, C., Baumeister, R.F., Powell, C., Combs, D., Schurtz, D.R., Stillman, T.F., Tice, D.M., & Eisenberger, N.I. (2010). Tylenol reduces social pain: Behavioral and neural evidence. Psychological Science, 21, 931-937.
Gailliot, M. T., Hildebrandt, B., Eckel, L.A., & Baumeister, R.F. (2010). A theory of limited metabolic energy and premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms: Increased metabolic demands during the luteal phase divert metabolic resources from and impair self-control. Review of General Psychology, 14, 269-282.
Wang, J., Novemsky, N., Dhar, R., & Baumeister, R.F. (2010). Trade-offs and depletion in choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 47, 910-919.
Baumeister, R.F., Masicampo, E.J., & Vohs, K.D. (2011) Do conscious thoughts cause behavior? Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 331-361.
DeWall, C.N., Baumeister, R.F., Mead, N.L., & Vohs, K.D. (2011). How leaders self-regulate their task performance: Evidence that power promotes diligence, depletion, and disdain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 47-65.
Masicampo, E.J., & Baumeister, R.F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, . Online publication doi: 10.1037/a0024192.
Masicampo, E.J., & Baumeister, R.F. (2011). Unfulfilled goals interfere with tasks that require executive function. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 47, 300-311.
DeWall, C.N., Twenge, J.M., Koole, S.L., Baumeister, R.F., Marquez, A., & Reid, M.W. (2011). Automatic emotion regulation after social exclusion: Tuning to positivity. Emotion, 11, 623-626.
Mead, N.L., Baumeister, R.F., Stillman, T.F., Rawn, C.D., & Vohs, K.D. (2011). Social exclusion causes people to spend and consume strategically in the service of affiliation. Journal of Consumer Research, 37, 902-919.
Baumeister, R.F. (2011). Self-and identity: A brief overview of what they are, what they do, and how they work. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1234, 48-55.
Stillman, T.F., Baumeister, R.F., & Mele, A.R. (2011). Free will in everyday life: Autobiographical accounts of free and unfree actions. Philosophical Psychology, 24, 381-394.
Baumeister, R.F., Crescioni, A.W., & Alquist, J.L. (2011). Free will as advanced action control for human social life and culture. Neuroethics, 4, 1-11.
Zhou, L., & Le, H., Lao, J., & Baumeister, R.F. (2012). Control deprivation and styles of thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 450-478.
De Ridder, D., Lensvelt-Mulders, G., Finkenauer, C., Stok, F.M., & Baumeister, R.F. (2012). A meta-analysis of how trait self-control relates to a wide range of behaviors. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 16, 76-99.