Staff profile

Prior to Joining Durham University, I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at MIT and the University of Regina.

Ph.D. in Social-Personality Psychology, University of Rochester, 2019
M.A. in Social-Personality Psychology, University of Rochester, 2017
M.A. in Experimental Psychology, University of Texas (Permian Basin), 2014

Research Profile

I have interests in two main research areas: understanding science scepticism and using biological models to understand social behaviours and higher levels cognitions.

1. Understanding and overcoming science scepticism

In this area, I’m primarily interested in understanding who rejects science and why and trying to develop effective interventions to overcome that scepticism. I’ve studied things like genetically modified foods, the relation between science and religion, misinformation, and how the experience of awe can promote greater interest in science.

2. Connecting social and biological models

I’m also interested in understanding whether higher-order social and cognitive functions can be connected to basic biological processes. In this research, I study things like the emotional and physiological processes of goosebumps and the chemical processes involved in reasoning, decision-making, and information evaluation.

• Science communication
• Religion
• Emotion
• Psychophysiology
• Systems Biology
• Proteomics
• Pseudoscience and misinformation

• Quantitative Social Psychology

Journal Article

• Većkalov, Bojana, Zarzeczna, Natalia, Niehoff, Esther, McPhetres, Jonathon & Rutjens, Bastiaan T. (2021). A matter of time… consideration of future consequences and temporal distance contribute to the ideology gap in climate change scepticism. Journal of Environmental Psychology 78: 101703.
• Pennycook, Gordon, McPhetres, Jonathon, Bago, Bence & Rand, David G. (2022). Beliefs About COVID-19 in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States: A Novel Test of Political Polarization and Motivated Reasoning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 48(5): 750-765.
• McPhetres, Jonathon, Rand, David G. & Pennycook, Gordon (2021). Character deprecation in fake news: Is it in supply or demand? Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 24(4): 624.
• McPhetres, Jonathon, Albayrak-Aydemir, Nihan, Barbosa Mendes, Ana, Chow, Elvina C., Gonzalez-Marquez, Patricio, Loukras, Erin, Maus, Annika, O’Mahony, Aoife, Pomareda, Christina, Primbs, Maximilian A., Sackman, Shalaine L., Smithson, Conor J. R. & Volodko, Kirill (2021). A decade of theory as reflected in Psychological Science (2009–2019). PLOS ONE 16(3): e0247986.
• Tierney, Warren, Hardy, Jay, Ebersole, Charles R., Viganola, Domenico, Clemente, Elena Giulia, Gordon, Michael, Hoogeveen, Suzanne, Haaf, Julia, Dreber, Anna, Johannesson, Magnus, Pfeiffer, Thomas, Huang, Jason L., Vaughn, Leigh Ann, DeMarree, Kenneth, Igou, Eric R., Chapman, Hanah, Gantman, Ana, Vanaman, Matthew, Wylie, Jordan, Storbeck, Justin, Andreychik, Michael R., McPhetres, Jon & Uhlmann, Eric Luis (2021). A creative destruction approach to replication: Implicit work and sex morality across cultures. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 93: 104060.
• McPhetres, Jonathon & Shtulman, Andrew (2021). Piloerection is not a reliable physiological correlate of awe. International Journal of Psychophysiology 159: 88-93.
• McPhetres, J. (2019). Oh, the things you don’t know: Awe promotes awareness of knowledge gaps and science interest. Cognition & Emotion
• McPhetres, J., Rutjens, B.T. Weinstein & N. & Brisson, J.A. (2019). Modifying attitudes about modified foods: increased knowledge leads to more positive attitudes. Journal of Environmental Psychology
• McPhetres, J. & Zuckerman, M. (2018). Religiosity predicts negative attitudes towards science and lower levels of science literacy. PLOS One

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• McPhetres, J. (2019). Are you scared of GMOs? Scientific American