Adam Johnson

~Adam's CV (pdf file)

~ Email: adamj@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Currently, I am a Visiting Assistant Professor at SUNY Purchase college as well as a Ph.D candidate in CUNY's Cognition, Brain, Behavior program at Brooklyn College. Broadly, I am interested in the evolutionary foundations of social cognition.  My research thus far has primarily focused on understanding: 1) Why people hold the political beliefs and attitudes that they do, and 2) Why people tend to experience political disagreements as being aversive events. Much of the research in our lab evidences the idea that sharing beliefs with others -- especially political and religious beliefs -- strengthens social and affiliative bonds, both between individuals and within social groups. My research, then, tests the idea that the adaptive value of having strong affiliations helps us to explain when and why people should be especially motivated to find themselves in agreement with others (and to experience opinion disagreements as aversive).  I hope to continue testing this line of reasoning in a programatic way and to apply it to domains outside of political attitudes as well.

I am also dedicated to the teaching of psychology and science more generally.  Through my own teaching as well as through more formal lines of research, I hope to develop curiousity and engagement in scientific thinking in my students at the college and high school level.  

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