My research falls into a few key themes. The first acknowledges that some thoughts, attitudes, self-views and emotions have greater impact than others, and seeks to understand the predictors of this impact. This includes variables traditionally thought of as predictors of “attitude strength” (e.g., certainty, ambivalence) as well as traits like dispositional certainty and the mindfulness-related concept of decentering. Ongoing work is to refine our understanding of self-concept clarity to better predict when or for whom self-views will be impactful. A second theme is understanding attitudes in an interpersonal context, to better understand how attitudes guide behavior in interactions and how interactions shape attitudes. This includes research on attitudinal advocacy as well as on understanding how our interactions with others, and particularly how well they listen to us, shapes our attitudes. A final theme is understanding motivational processes in attitudes, with research explicitly examining people’s desire to change their own views. We find that people often desire different views, and these desires shape a variety of outcomes, including behavior and information processing.

Selected Publications

Itzchakov, G., Navon, N., Crawford, J. T., Weinstein, N., & DeMarree, K. G. (2025). Harmony in political discourse? The impact of high-quality listening on speakers' perceptions following political conversations. Media and Communication, 13, 9871.
Saluk, D., Janam, D., Itzchakov, G., DeMarree, K. G., & Venezia, A. (2025). Harmonizing hearts: High-quality listening and Kama Muta among listeners and speakers.Emotion, 25(8), 1879-1896.
Hossain, S., Kyron, M. J., DeMarree, K. G., & Naragon-Gainey, K. (2025). Emotion regulation in daily life: Testing bidirectional temporal associations with positive and negative affect. Emotion, 25(6), 1460-1472.
Itzchakov, G., DeMarree, K. G., & Reis, H. T. (2024). A preregistered study on Israelis' attitude structure following the October 7th massacre and during the war in Gaza.Social Cognition, 42(6), 500-521.
Vaughan-Johnston, T. I., Fabrigar, L. R., Xia, J., DeMarree, K. G., & Clark, J. K. (2023). Desired attitudes guide actual attitude change. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 105, 104437.
Naragon-Gainey, K., DeMarree, K. G., Kyron, M. J., McMahon, T. P., Park, J., & Biehler, K. M. (2023). Decentering from emotions in daily life: Dynamic associations with affect, symptoms, and well-being. Clinical Psychological Science, 11(5), 841-862.
DeMarree, K. G., Chang, Y.-H., Lee, T., & Venezia, A. (2023). Listening and attitude change. Current Opinion in Psychology, 53, 101641.
Itzchakov, G., & DeMarree, K. G. (2022). Attitudes in an interpersonal context: Psychological safety as a route to attitude change. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 932413.
DeMarree, K. G., Petty, R. E., Briñol, P., & Xia, J. (2020). Documenting individual differences in the propensity to hold attitudes with certainty. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(6), 1239–1265.
Light, A. E., Rios, K., & DeMarree, K. G. (2018). Self-uncertainty and the influence of alternative goals on self-regulation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,44(1), 24-36.
Itzchakov, G., DeMarree, K. G., Kluger, A. N., & Turjeman-Levi, Y. (2018). The listener sets the tone: High-quality listening increases attitude clarity and behavior-intention consequences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(5), 762-778.
DeMarree, K. G., Clark, C. J., Wheeler, S. C., Briñol, P., & Petty, R. E. (2017). On the pursuit of desired attitudes: Wanting a different attitude affects information processing and behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 70, 129-142.
DeMarree, K. G., & Bobrowski, M. E. (2017). Structure and validity of self-concept clarity measures. In J. Lodi-Smith & K. G. DeMarree (Eds.), Self-concept clarity: Perspectives on assessment, research, and applications (pp. 1-17). Springer.
Rios, K., DeMarree, K. G., & Statzer, J. (2014). Attitude certainty and conflict style: Divergent effects of correctness and clarity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,40(7), 819-830.
DeMarree, K. G., Wheeler, S. C., Briñol, P., & Petty, R. E. (2014). Wanting other attitudes: Actual–desired attitude discrepancies predict feelings of ambivalence and ambivalence consequences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 53(1), 5-18.