Rachel Smallman
  • Associate Professor
Google Scholar Profile
Research Areas
  • Social & Personality Psychology

Biography

 

Office Hours: Thursdays 10:00-11:00AM in PSYC 243

Accepting Students for 2024-2025?: Yes

Professional Links: Lab Website

Research Interests

My research focuses on the conscious and non-conscious processes involved in everyday decision-making. One line of research focuses on counterfactual thinking, or thoughts of “what might have been”. Imagining how events might have turned out differently is a typical feature of the mental landscape; research shows that these counterfactual thoughts can be both dysfunctional and functional, depending on the situation. Although it can bias blame and responsibility judgments, it can also help us learn from past mistakes. My research examines both sides of this counterfactual coin. This research has broader interdisciplinary connections to both mental health and health behavior domains. A second line of research focuses on various factors (e.g., affect and mindset) that impact decision-making and categorization processes. Of particular interest is how affective information can influence our decision-making strategies. An applied line of this research focuses on decision-making in engineering. In general, my research integrates traditional social and cognitive methodology with decision-making research.

Selected Publications


    • Wu, S.*, Smith, P., & Smallman, R. (2024).Self-control signals and affords power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
    • Arthur, K. M.*, Fields, S., & Smallman, R. (2023). A mixed-method analysis of counterfactual thinking, negative event themes, and the transtheoretical model in a community sample of smokers. Journal of Health Psychology, 28(9), 846-860.
    • Fields, S., Arthur, K.*, Schueler, J.*, & Smallman, R. (2023). Using counterfactual-based intervention to change eating intentions: Results from Hispanic and non-Hispanic undergraduate and community samples. Appetite, 106460
    • Smallman, R., Summerville, A., & Lowe, J.C.* (2022). The spontaneous counterfactual inference task: Misremembering what might have been. ​Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 
    • Khoudary, M.*, O’Neill, K., Faul, L., Murray, S., Smallman, R., & De Brigard, F. (in press). Neural differences between dispositional and situational episodic counterfactual thoughts. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 
    • Grundmann, F.*, Smallman, R., & Epstude, K. (2022). Grandiose narcissism shapes counterfactual thinking (and regret): Direct and indirect evidence. Journal of Research in Personality, 99, 104235.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104235
    • Smallman, R., Arthur, K. M.*, Dvorak, R. D., & Fields, S. A (2022). From If-Then to Here and Now: Using Personalized Counterfactuals from Past Negative Experiences to Reduce Future Alcohol Consequences. Experimental & Clinical Psychopharmacology.                                   https://doi.org/10.1037/pha0000568
    • Maitner, A. T. DeCoster, J., Andersson, P. A., Eriksson, K., Sherbaji, S., Giner-Sorolla, R., Mackie, D. M., Aveyard, M., Claypool, H. M., Crisp, R. J., Gritskov, V., Habjan, K., Hartanto, A., Kiyonari, T., Kuzminska, A. O., Manesi, Z., Molho, C., Munasinghe, A., Peperkoorn, L.S., Shiramizu, V., Smallman, R., Soboleva, N., Stivers, A.W., Summerville, A., Wu, B., & Wu, K. (2022). Perceptions of emotional functionality: Similarities and differences among dignity, face, and honor cultures. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 53, ​263-288.https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221211065108
    • Aram, M., Smallman, R., Fields, S. A., Larez, A., Glantz, N., & Kerr, D. (2021). Ethnicity, age and education influence perceptions of vegetables healthiness and macronutrient content. Nutrition and Health. https://doi.org/10.1177/02601060211051195
    • De Leon, A. N.*, Dvorak, R. D., Smallman, R., Arthur, K.*, & Piercey, C. (2021). Using counterfactual thinking theory to change alcohol protective behavioral strategy use intentions. British Journal of Health Psychology, 27, 159-178. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12535
    • Stanley, M. L.*, Cabeza, R., Smallman, R., & De Brigard, F. (2021). Memory and counterfactual simulations for past wrongdoings foster moral learning and improvement. Cognitive Science 45, e13007.  10.1111/cogs.13007
    • Gamlin, J.*, Smallman, R., Epstude, K., & Roese, N. J. (2020). Dispositional optimism weakly predicts upward, rather than downward, counterfactual thinking: A prospective correlational study using episodic recall. Plos One, 15, e0237644.    https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237644
    • He, Y.*, Payne, S. C., Yao, X., & Smallman, R. (2020). Improving workplace safety by thinking about what might have been: A first look at the role of counterfactual thinking. ​Journal of Safety Research​, 72, 153-164. 10.1016/j.jsr.2019.12.010
    • Smallman, R., Summerville, A., Walker, R. J.*, & Becker, B.* (2020). Counterfactual thought. In K. Sweeny & M. L. Robbins (Eds.), ​The Wiley Encyclopedia of Health Psychology: Volume II, The Social Bases of Health Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119057840.ch52
    • ​Smallman, R., Ramos, A.*, Dickey, K.*, Dowd, S.*, & Fields, S. (2018). If only I wasn’t so impulsive: Counterfactual thinking and delay-discounting. ​Personality and Individual Differences​, 135, 212-215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.07.023
    • Smallman, R., & Summerville, A. (2018). Counterfactual thought in reasoning and performance. ​Social and Personality Psychology Compass​, 12(4), e12376. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12376
    • Fields, S. A., Smallman, R., Hicks, J., Lange, K.*, & Thamotharan, S.* (2017). Narrowing of attention following food cue exposure in emerging adults: Does impulsivity matter? ​Personality and Individual Differences​, 108, 144-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.12.012​
    • ​Roese, N. J., Smallman, R., & Epstude, K. (2017). Do episodic counterfactual thoughts focus on controllable action?: The role of self-initiation. ​Journal of Experimental Social Psychology​, 73, 14-23.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.05.006​
    • Smallman, R., & Becker, B.* (2017). Motivational differences in seeking out evaluative categorization information. ​Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin​, 43(7), 1020-1032. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217704191​
    • Vermillion, S. D.*, Malak, R. J., Smallman, R., Becker, B.*, Sferra, M.*, & Fields, S. (2017). An investigation on using serious gaming to study human decision-making in engineering contexts. ​Design Science​, 3, 1-27. Open Access.
    • Lench, H. C., Smallman, R., & Berg, L. A.* (2016). Moving toward a brighter future: The effects of desire on judgments about the likelihood of future events. ​Motivation Science​, 2(1), 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000029​
    • Ramos, A.*, Becker, B.*, Biemer, J.**, Clark, L.**, Fields, S., & Smallman, R. (2016). The role of counterfactual thinking on attitudes toward ADHD medication use. ​Substance Use & Misuse​, 51(4), 508-516. 10.3109/10826084.2015.1126739
    • Smith, P., Smallman, R., & Rucker, D. (2016). Power and categorization: Power increases the number and abstractness of categories. ​Social Psychological and Personality Science​, 7(3), 281-289. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550615619760​
    • ​Walker, R. J.*, Smallman, R., Summerville, A., & Deska, J. C.* (2016). Motivated by us but not by them: Group membership influences the impact of counterfactual thinking on behavioral intentions. ​Social Cognition​, 34(4), 386-305. Open Access.
    • ​Lench, H. C., Domsky, D., Smallman, R., & Darbor, K. E.* (2015). Beliefs in moral luck: When and why blame hinges on luck. ​British Journal of Psychology​, 106(2), 272-287. 10.1111/bjop.12072
    • Seto, E.*, Hicks, J. A., Davis, W. E.*, & Smallman, R. (2015). Free will, counterfactual reflection, and the meaningfulness of life events. ​Social Psychology and Personality Science​, 6(3), 243-250. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550614559603​
    • Vermillion, S. D.*, Malak, R. J., Smallman, R., & Linsey, J. (2015). A study on outcome framing and risk attitude in engineering decisions under uncertainty. ​Journal of Mechanical Design​, 137(8).
    • ​Lench, H. C., Smallman, R., Darbor, K. E.*, & Bench, S. W.* (2014). Motivated perception of probabilistic information. ​Cognition​, 133(2), 429-442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.08.001​
    • McCullock, K. C., & Smallman, R. (2014). The implications of counterfactual mind-sets for the functioning of implementation intentions. ​Motivation and Emotion​, 38(5), 635-644. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9408-3​
    • Smallman, R., Becker, B.*, & Roese, N. J. (2014). Preferences for expressing preferences: People prefer finer evaluative distinctions for liked than disliked objects. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 54, 217-217.​ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.12.004​
    • Vermillion, S.*, Malak, R. J., Smallman, R., & Fields, S. (2014). Serious gaming for design and systems engineering research. Proceedings of the ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE). DETC2014-35219.
    • Vermillion, S.*, Malak, R. J., Smallman, R.,​​ & Fields, S. (2014). Studying the sunk cost effect in engineering decision making with serious gaming.  Proceedings of the 6th International Design Computing and Cognition (DCC) conference. 
    • Vermillion, S.*, Malak, R. J., Smallman, R.,​ & Fields, S. (2014). Linking normative and descriptive research with serious gaming. Procedia Computer Science: 2014 Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER14).
    • ​Smallman, R. (2013). It’s what’s inside that counts: The role of counterfactual content in intention formation. ​Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,​ 49, 842-851. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.05.004
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