The first line of research in my lab examines social exclusion and acceptance. The need for positive and lasting connections with others is among the most fundamental of all human motivations. What happens when people experience social exclusion? My research has explored how social exclusion influences aggression, pro-social behavior, self-regulation, emotional responses such as empathy, and physical sensitivity to pain. To explore these and other phenomena, I use measures such as eye-tracking, physical pain responses, reaction time, self-report, and behavioral responses.

The second line of research in my lab focuses on self-regulatory depletion. Most problems in society can be traced back to problems with self-regulation. My research in this area has examined how prior acts of self-regulation impair later attempts to self-regulate. For example, self-regulatory depletion increases the likelihood of behaving aggressively in response to provocation. In two recent lines of inquiry, my colleagues and I have examined the physiological basis of self-regulatory depletion and have applied the phenomenon of depletion to the domain of romantic relationships.

I also have interests in attitudes and persuasion, evolutionary psychology, interpersonal power, and the manner in which people cope with the prospect of their own mortality. I am becoming increasingly interested in how the questions in my research can be applied to clinical psychology.

• DeWall, C. N., Maner, J. K., & Rouby, D. A. (in press). Social exclusion and early-stage interpersonal perception: Selective attention to signs of acceptance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
• DeWall, C. N., Twenge, J. M., Gitter, S. A., & Baumeister, R. F. (in press). It's the thought that counts: The role of hostile cognition in shaping aggressive responses to social exclusion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
• DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (in press). Satiated with belongingness? Effects of acceptance, rejection, and task framing on self-regulatory performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
• DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F., Gailliot, M. T., & Maner, J. K. (in press). Depletion makes the heart grow less helpful: Helping as a function of self-regulatory energy and genetic relatedness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• DeWall, C. N., & Baumeister, R. F. (2007). From terror to joy: Automatic tuning to positive affective information following mortality salience. Psychological Science, 18, 984-990.
• DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F., Gailliot, M. T., & Stillman, T. (2007). Violence restrained: Effects of self-regulatory capacity and its depletion on aggressive behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 62-76.
• Maner, J. K., DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F., & Schaller, M. (2007). Does social exclusion motivate withdrawal or reconnection? Resolving the "porcupine problem." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 42-55.
• DeWall, C. N., & Baumeister, R. F. (2006). Alone but feeling no pain: Effects of social exclusion on physical pain tolerance and pain threshold, affective forecasting, and interpersonal empathy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 1-15.
  

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