Russell Fazio

Russell Fazio is interested in the study of attitudes. The approach is heavily cognitive in nature. He has proposed a model of attitudes as associations in memory between the attitude object and one's evaluation of the object. His concern has been with the likelihood that such evaluations will be activated automatically from memory upon the individual's encountering the attitude object. The determinants and the consequences of such accessibility from memory are being investigated. In particular, the research has focused upon: (a)the influence that accessible attitudes have upon attention, categorization, judgment and, ultimately, behavior, and (b)the functional value of such attitudes.

The implications of this view of attitudes are currently being examined in the domain of prejudice. The role of both automatic and more motivated, controlled processes, on race-related judgments and behavior are under investigation. He also is conducting research on the implicit development of attitudes via classical conditioning, attitude formation via exploratory behavior, and implicit measures of attitude.

He was born in 1952 and received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Princeton University in 1978.

Current status

Dr. Fazio is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Ohio State University in Columbus OH, USA.

References

Journal Articles:

• Eiser, J. R., Fazio, R. H., Stafford, T., & Prescott, T. J. (2003). Connectionist simulation of attitude learning: Asymmetries in the acquisition of positive and negative evaluations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1221-1235.
• Fazio, R. H. (2001). On the automatic activation of associated evaluations: An overview. Cognition and Emotion, 15, 115-141.
• Fazio, R. H., Eiser, J. R., & Shook, N. J. (2004). Attitude formation through exploration: Valence asymmetries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 293-311.
• Fazio, R. H., & Hilden, L. E. (2001). Emotional reactions to a seemingly prejudiced response: The role of automatically-activated racial attitudes and motivation to control prejudiced reactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 538-549.
• Fazio, R. H., Ledbetter, J. E., & Towles-Schwen, T. (2000). On the costs of accessible attitudes: Detecting that the attitude object has changed. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 197-210.
• Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2004). Reducing the influence of extra-personal associations on the Implicit Association Test: Personalizing the IAT. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 653-667.
• Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2004). Trait inferences as a function of automatically-activated racial attitudes and motivation to control prejudiced reactions. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 26, 1-11.
• Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2003). Relations between implicit measures of racial prejudice: What are we measuring? Psychological Science, 14, 636-639.
• Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2002). Implicit acquisition and manifestation of classically conditioned attitudes. Social Cognition, 20, 89-103.
• Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2001). Implicit attitude formation through classical conditioning. Psychological Science, 12, 413-417.
• Towles-Schwen, T., & Fazio, R. H. (2003). Choosing social situations: The relation between automatically-activated racial attitudes and anticipated comfort interacting with African Americans. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 170-182.
• Towles-Schwen, T., & Fazio, R. H. (2001). On the origins of racial attitudes: Correlates of childhood experiences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 162-175.

Other Publications:

• Fazio, R. H. (2000). Accessible attitudes as tools for object appraisal: Their costs and benefits. In G. Maio & J. Olson (Eds.), Why we evaluate: Functions of attitudes (pp. 1-36). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Fazio, R. H., & Olson, M. A. (2003). Implicit measures in social cognition research: Their meaning and use. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 297-327.
• Fazio, R. H., & Towles-Schwen, T. (1999). The MODE model of attitude-behavior processes. In S. Chaiken & Y. Trope (Eds.), Dual process theories in social psychology (pp. 97-116). New York: Guilford.