allen r mcconnell lab -- allenmcconnell.net

PASS Lab news

Allen McConnell was recognized with Miami's Benjamin Harrison Medallion for career achievement in research, teaching, service, and education of the nation (March 2025)
Lab Alum JJ Togans publishes findings (along with co-author Allen McConnell) in a Cognition and Emotion paper showing how experiencing nostalgia produces stronger attitudes (November 2024)
JJ Togans begins as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Lafayette College (August 2024)
Lab alum Paige Lloyd is promoted to Associate Professor and conferred with tenure at the Univ. of Denver (August 2024)
Lab alum Tyler Jacobs publishes findings from his dissertation (along with co-author Allen McConnell) in a Journal of Environmental Psychology paper showing how expressing gratitude to nature strengthens self-nature representations and promote pro-environmental behavior (May 2024)
JJ Togans successfully defends his dissertation (May 2024)
Lab alum Antonio Lim receives an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (April 2024)
JJ Togans receives Miami's College of Arts and Science Graduate Teaching Award (April 2024)
Kathryn Aldstadt successfully defends her master's thesis (April 2024)
Kathryn Aldstadt wins First Place at the 2024 Miami Univ. three-minute thesis competition (February 2024)
Lab alums Tyler Jacobs and Brandon Humphrey and Allen McConnell publish a paper in Anthrozoos showing that people who perceive greater warmth in their pets are more committed to pro-environmental action (July 2023)
Allen McConnell becomes a Social Psychology Program Director for the National Science Foundation (August 2022)
Tyler Jacobs begins as a Visiting Assistant Professor position at Swarthmore College (August 2022)
Lab alum Paige Lloyd receives an NIH Career Development K-award to support five years of her early-career research... congrats Paige! (July 2022)
Tyler Jacobs successfully defends his dissertation (June 2022)
Lab alum Paige Lloyd publishes findings from her dissertation (along with co-authors Kurt Hugenberg, Allen McConnell, and sister Dr. Audrey Lloyd) in a Social Psychological and Personality Science paper documenting how people (Black and White, laypeople and medical providers) are poorer at detecting pain among Black individuals compared to White individuals (June 2022)
Makenna Linkey completes her honors senior thesis examining how social rejection by different social groups affects social needs fulfillment (May 2022)
Tyler Jacobs and Allen McConnell's paper in Journal of Environmental Psychology examines the role of self-transcendent emotions on pro-environmental beliefs and behaviors (May 2022)
Allen McConnell is named a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (January 2022)
Tyler Jacobs, lab alum Lauren Gottschalk, and Allen McConnell's paper in Sustainability explores how different types of recycling pledges can improve conservation outcomes (September 2021)
Allen McConnell and his colleagues at Cincinnati Children's Hospital receive a $1.68M NICHD grant for a five-year project studying the benefits of therapy animals for children recovering from traumatic brain injuries (August 2021)

Lab members with active research projects

Allen R. McConnell, Ph.D., Lab Director
I have been at Miami University since 2000, after previously being a professor at Michigan State and at Penn State. My research examines how self-nature representations can promote pro-environmental behavior, how relationships with entities such as family and pets affect health and well-being, how people decode others’ nonverbal displays, the interplay of implicit and explicit evaluations, and how self-knowledge influences emotions, goals, and actions. My service includes being Editor in Chief of Social Psychological and Personality Science, Associate Editor of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, President of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and President of the Midwestern Psychological Association.

Kathryn Aldstadt, M.A., Graduate Researcher
Kathryn studies how discrete emotional experiences can encourage sustainable behaviors among individuals who typically do not support pro-environmentalism, how people's self-nature representations relate to conservation practices , and how anthropomorphizing nature can encourage pro-environmental beliefs and behaviors.

Jason Folmsbee, M.A., Graduate Researcher
Jason studies how self-concept organization and content moderates the experience of social rejection and how the nature of the self influences people's responses to social ostracism.

PASS Lab alums and most-recent positions

LaCount JJ Togans, Asst Prof of Psychology, Lafayette College
Tyler P. Jacobs, Visiting Asst Prof of Psychology, Swarthmore College
Brandon T. Humphrey, Visiting Asst Prof of Psychology, Miami Univ.
E. Paige Lloyd, Assoc Prof of Psychology, Univ. of Denver
Hayley M. Skulborstad, Director of People Analytics, CVS
Tonya M. Buchanan, Assoc Prof of Psychology, Central Washington Univ.
Christina M. Brown, Research Manager, Meta, Seattle
Robert J. Rydell, Assoc Prof of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana Univ. Bloomington
Jeanette M. Renaud, Senior Research Analyst, RTI, Ann Arbor
William A. Jellision, Prof of Psychology, Quinnipiac Univ.
Peggy P. K. Evans, CEO, One Health Port, Seattle
Jill M. Leibold, Director Jury Research, Litigation Insights, Los Angeles
Keith E. Neidermeier, Clinical Professor of Marketing, Kelley School, Indiana Univ. Bloomington
Deidra J. Schleicher, Prof and Chair of Management, Iowa State Univ.
Melissa J. Ferguson, Prof of Psychology, Yale Univ.
Kristy K. Dean, Prof of Psychology, Grand Valley State Univ.
Vicky L. DeSensi, Assoc Prof of Psychology, Wilmington College

Hooding photos

JJ Togans's doctoral graduation, Miami Univ., August 2024

Tyler Jacobs's doctoral graduation, Miami Univ., August 2022

Brandon Humphrey's doctoral graduation, Miami Univ., August 2021

Paige Lloyd's doctoral graduation, Miami Univ., August 2018

Hayley Skulborstad's doctoral graduation, Miami Univ., August 2016

Tonya (Shoda) Buchanan's doctoral graduation, Miami Univ., August 2014

Christina Brown's doctoral graduation, Miami Univ., May 2009

BJ Rydell's doctoral graduation, Miami Univ., May 2005

Jeanette Renaud's doctoral graduation, Michigan State Univ., May 2003

Jill Leibold's doctoral graduation, Michigan State Univ., May 2000

My doctoral graduation (with Jim Sherman), Indiana Univ., June 1995

Group and lab photos

PASS Lab Lunch at SPSP in Denver 2025
Jason Folmsbee, me, JJ Togans, Paige Lloyd, Debbie Ma, and Tyler Jacobs
February 2025

PASS Lab at MPA Social Hour in Chicago 2023
Paige Lloyd, BJ Rydell, Tyler Jacobs, Me, JJ Togans, Kristy Dean, and Tonya Buchanan
April 2023

PASS Lab Dinner at SPSP in Portland 2019
Me, Brandon Humphrey, Paige Lloyd, JJ Togans, and Tyler Jacobs, February 2019

PASS Lab Graduate Students
Me, Paige Lloyd, Brandon Humphrey, Ryan Walker, Hayley Skulborstad, Jason Deska, and Tonya Buchanan, May 2015

Three Generations of Academic Family
BJ Rydell, Melissa Ferguson, Jim Sherman, and me, Duck, NC, June 2007

Michigan State Grad Students, Conference on the Self
Amani El-Alayli, Jeanette Renaud, Ernest Park, Peggy Chin Evans, Bill Jellison, me, and Jill Leibold, April 1999

Penn State Grad Students, Keystone Social Psych Conference
Me, John George, Kris Eyssell, Melissa Ferguson, Deidra Schleicher, John Wall, and Jill Leibold, April 1997