James Shepperd
Department of Psychology
University of Florida
P.O. Box 112250
Gainesville, Florida 32611-2250
U.S.A.
Home Page
Phone: (352) 273-2165
Fax: (352) 392-7985
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My research examines broadly self-esteem and identity regulation and the applications to risk perceptions, risk behavior and health. I am interested in how people sustain desired self-views and cognitions, particularly in the face of inconsistent and threatening information. In the past I have explored this issue through research on self-handicapping, excuse making and the self-serving bias. Currently I am pursuing to two overlapping lines of research, both dealing with predictions about the future. The first line explores how people evaluate risk. In this regard I am interested in the tendency for people to be optimistic about the future - to believe that bad things are unlikely to happen to them (or, are less likely to happen to them than to other people). I am investigating how people arrive at and sustain such beliefs and the consequences of these beliefs for behavior. The second line explores the predictions people make in anticipation of information that might challenge an optimistic outlook. In several studies I find that people will brace for bad news at the moment of truth. This second line has led me to investigate issues such as the motivation underlying bracing for bad news and how people help others brace for bad news.
 Journal Articles:
 Carroll, P. J., Shepperd, J. A., Sweeny, K., Carlson, E., & Benigno, J. P. (2007). Disappointment for others. Cognition & Emotion, 21, 1565-1576.
- Carroll, P. J., Sweeny, K., & Shepperd, J. A. (2006). Forsaking optimism. Review of General Psychology, 10, 56-73.
- Helweg-Larsen, M., & Shepperd, J. A. (2001). Do moderators of the optimistic bias affect personal or target risk estimates? A review of the literature. Personality & Social Psychology Review, 5, 74-95.
- Shepperd, J. A., Findley-Klein, C., Kwavnick, K. D., Walker, D., & Perez, S. (2000). Bracing for loss. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 620-634.
- Shepperd, J. A., Grace, J., Cole, L., & Klein, C. T. F. (2005). Anxiety and outcome predictions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 267-275.
- Shepperd, J. A., Helweg-Larsen, M., & Ortega, L. (2003). Are comparative risk judgments consistent across time and events? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1169-1180.
- Shepperd, J. A., Malone, W., & Sweeny, K. (2008). Exploring causes of the self-serving bias. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 895-908.
- Shepperd, J. A., & McNulty, J. (2002). The affective consequences of expected and unexpected outcomes. Psychological Sciences, 13, 84-87.
- Shepperd, J. A., Ouellette, J. A., & Fernandez, J. K. (1996). Abandoning unrealistic optimism: Performance estimates and the temporal proximity of self-relevant feedback. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 844-855.
- Shepperd, J. A., & Soucherman, R. (1997). On the manipulative behavior of low Machiavellians: Feigning incompetence to "sandbag" an opponent. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1448-1459.
- Shepperd, J. A., & Taylor, K. M. (1999). Social loafing and expectancy-value theory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 215, 1147-1158.
- Sweeny, K., Carroll, P. J., & Shepperd, J. A. (2006). Thinking about the future: Is optimism always best? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 302-306.
- Sweeny, K., & Shepperd, J. A. (2007). Being the best bearer of bad tidings. Review of General Psychology, 11, 235-257.
- Sweeny, K., & Shepperd, J. A. (2007). Do people brace sensibly? Risk judgments and event likelihood. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1064-1075.
- Taylor, K. M., & Shepperd, J. A. (1998). Bracing for the worst: Severity, testing, and feedback timing as moderators of the optimistic bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 915-926.
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