Education

Ph.D., Cognition, Brain, & Behavior, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York 
M.Phil., Psychology, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York 
M.A., Experimental Psychology, Brooklyn College of CUNY, 
B.A., Acting, Central School of Speech and Drama, London, U.K.

Bio

Dr. Michael W. Magee is an experimental social psychologist whose research centers on the interpersonal foundations of social identification and intergroup prejudice. He is interested in how the important people in our lives affect the way we regulate our attitudes and beliefs, especially when we are presented with alternate, opposing, or otherwise contrasting ideas (e.g., science and religion). Largely animated by shared reality theory, so far, his research has pursued the study of religiosity with a particular emphasis on the impact parental relationships bestow on the modulation of religious experience. His prior research has shown that strong, healthy relationships with parents serve as a buffer to threats to beliefs shared among families. Aspects of this program and additional complementary lines expand the breadth of his research by engaging literatures related to stereotyping, existentialism, superstitious thinking, gender roles, embodied cognition, humor, judgment and decision making, political ideologies, attachment theory, and evolutionary theory.

Select Publications

Magee, M. W. & Hardin, C. D. (2010). In Defense of Religion: Shared Reality Moderates the Unconscious Threat of Evolution. Social Cognition, 28, 379.
Hardin, C. D., Cheung, M. H., Magee, M. W., Noel, S. & Yoshimura, K. (2012). The interpersonal functions of ideological thinking. In Jon Hanson (Ed) Ideology, Psychology, and Law. Oxford University Press; 2012: 132-159.
Ackroff, K., Bonacchi, K., Magee, M. W., Yiin, Y., Graves, J., & Sclafani, A., (2007). Obesity by choice revisited: Effects of food availability, flavor variety and nutrient composition on energy intake. Physiology & Behavior, 92, 468.

Dissertation

Magee, M. W. (2012). The interpersonal foundations of anti-atheist prejudice. Dissertation Abstracts International, 73, pp 1313.