Broadly speaking, I am working on affect and basic evaluative processes. More precisely, I am interested on the impact of unconscious evaluative information on social information processing. The aim of this line of research is to understand the processes by which evaluative stimuli that are presented below the threshold of awareness influence cognitive functioning and social behavior. More specifically, we try to determine whether these processes differ from the processes put in motion when a full-blown emotional reaction is induced.

A different but related area of research is about evaluative priming. Our current research deals with the strategic flexibility of evaluative priming effects. Our aim is to better understand how and when priming effects can be enhanced, reversed, or eliminated.

More recently, I have been interested in the impact of affective and embodied cues on social comparison. The aim of this research is to shed light on how the presence of affective stimuli in the environment influences the processing of comparison information and affects self-evaluation.

Primary Interests:

Attitudes and Beliefs
Emotion, Mood, Affect
Neuroscience, Psychophysiology
Social Cognition

Attitudes and Beliefs
Emotion, Mood, Affect

Neuroscience, Psychophysiology
Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

Laboratoire de Psychologie des Menaces Sociales et Environnementales
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Journal Articles:

Alexopoulos, T., Fiedler, K., & Freytag, P. (2012). The impact of open and closed mindsets on evaluative priming. Cognition and Emotion, 26, 978-994.
Alexopoulos, T., Muller, D., Ric, F., & Marendaz, C. (2012). I, Me, Mine: Automatic attentional capture by self-related stimuli. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 770-779.
Alexopoulos T., & Ric, F. (2009). Consequences of bodily feedback on stereotype use: I approach therefore it is fine vs. I approach therefore I like. International Review of Social Psychology, 22, 5-38.
Alexopoulos, T., & Ric, F. (2007). The evaluation-behavior link: Direct and beyond valence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 1010-1016.
Coudin, G., & Alexopoulos, T. (2010). Help me! I’m old: How negative aging stereotypes create dependency among older adults. Aging and Mental Health, 14, 516-523.
Fayant, M.-P., Muller, D., Nurra, C., Alexopoulos, T., & Palluel-Germain, R. (2011). Moving forward is not only a metaphor: Approach and avoidance lead to self-evaluative assimilation and contrast. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 241-245.
Fiedler, K., Jung, J., Wänke, M. & Alexopoulos, T. (2012). On the relations between distinct aspects of psychological distance: An ecological basis of Construal-Level Theory. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 1014-1021.
Oulmokhtar, D., Krauth-Gruber, S., Alexopoulos, T., & Drozda-Senkowska, E. (2011). Police officers’ stereotype content and its evolution over two decades: From "neither nice nor able" to "still not nice but able." International Review of Social Psychology, 24, 87-100.
Ric, F., Alexopoulos, T., Muller, D., & Aubé, B. (in press). Emotional norms for 524 French personality-trait words. Behavior Research Methods.

Courses Taught:

Data Analysis (Analysis of Variance)
Research Methods
Social Cognition
Social Psychology

Data Analysis (Analysis of Variance)
Research Methods

Social Cognition
Social Psychology

Theodore Alexopoulos
LPM - Institut de Psychologie
Université Paris Descartes
71, Avenue Edouard Vaillant
92100 Boulogne-Billancourt
France

Phone: +33 (1) 55 20 58 74
Fax: +33 (1) 55 20 54 19