College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Paul Windschitl

Lab Website
Research Interests
Optimism / Likelihood judgment
Perceived vulnerability / risk
Decision making under uncertainty
Decision making in health contexts
Social comparison
Comparative judgment processes
Egocentrism
Primary Research Area
Training Areas
Research Group
Representative Publications
(More publications can be viewed on Google Scholar)
Gold, J. M., Stuart, J. O., Thiem, K. C., Field, R. W., Fernandez-Baca, J., and Windschitl, P. D. (in press). The unintended impact of smoking-risk information on concerns about radon: A randomized controlled trial. Health Psychology.
O' Rourke Stuart, J., Windschitl, P. D., Smith, A. R., & Scherer, A. M. (2017). Behaving optimistically: How the (un)desirability of an outcome can bias people's preparations for it. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 30, 54-69.
Windschitl, P. D., & O’Rourke, J. L. (2015). Optimism Biases: Type and Causes. In Gideon Keren & George Wu (Eds.) Handbook of Judgment and Decision Making. Blackwell Publishing.
Scherer, A. M., Windschitl, P. D., & Smith A., R. (2013). Hope to be right: Biased information seeking following arbitrary and informed predictions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 106–112.
Windschitl, P. D., Conybeare, D., & Krizan, Z. (2008). Direct-comparison judgments: When and why above- and below-average effects reverse. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137, 182-200.
Windschitl, P. D., Smith, A. R., Rose, J. P., & Krizan, Z. (2010). The desirability bias in predictions: Going optimistic without leaving realism. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Making, 111, 33-47.
More publications can be viewed on GoogleScholar.