I am a Junior Professor of Social and Economic Cognition, at the University of Cologne, where I am a member of the Social Cognition Center Cologne as well as the Center for Social and Economic Behavior (C-SEB). I am also a Research Fellow of the Mind and Society Center, at the University of Southern California. My work is in part funded through the German Research Foundation (DFG), and in the past through a Rubicon grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
My research focusses on mixed feelings, or, ambivalence. Ambivalence is related to the most important topics in peoples life, such as interpersonal relationships, study, health behavior, morality, and politics. The ambivalence people experience in relation to these topics has important consequences for affect, cognition, and behavior. I examine these consequences, both on the intrapersonal and interpersonal level, with an emphasis on contextual effects.
I also investigate spatial distance effects on choice and evaluation. Assuming that perception is for thinking, spatial distance information can inform people on how to think about objects in the world. For instance, when two pieces of fruits are close, people are more likely to see them as fruit or snack, but when they are far, they are just an apple and an orange. Such differences have important consequences for representations and choice, and relevant both for psychological theorizing as well as applied work.
Building on a strong background in social cognition, I examine these research questions by using innovative experimental methods, while at the same time situating these experiments in ecologically valid contexts, such as real-life choices and evaluations.
My work has been published in Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Frontiers in Psychology: Cognition, among others. It has also has been featured in popular media outlets, including Slate Magazine, Mind Magazine (Dutch), and NRC Handelsblad (Dutch).
You can find out more about my work on this website, or via my Google Scholar profile here.
Contact e-mail: i.k.schneider@uni-koeln.de