Join us for our Social Behavioral Interest Group (SBIG) Colloquium on March 5, 2026!
Speaker: Yaacov Trope (New York University)
Title: Expansive and Contractive Regulation
Abstract: Adaptive functioning requires both being able to immerse ourselves in the here and now, with people who are like us and with us, contracting our regulatory scope, and being able to move beyond the local social environment to expand our regulatory scope. In order to effectively pursue desired ends that vary from the immediate to the very distant, humanshave evolved a range of mental and social mechanisms to support both contractive and expansive regulatory scope and the ability to switch between them. Across these mechanisms, it is possible to distinguish a hierarchy of levels that vary in level of abstractness from a low-level concrete mode to a high-level abstract mode. The research I’ll describe suggests that low-level modes of operation support contractive regulatory scope, whereas high-level modes of operation support expansive regulatory scope.
The Social Behavior Interest Group consists of members of the university community who are interested in social psychological research. The SBIG supports an active program of visiting speakers. The group meets weekly to hear speakers describe their recent research. Since 1990, SBIG has brought in numerous distinguished visiting speakers. Presentations have included contemporary issues in the study of attitudes, social cognition, prejudice & stereotyping, and also applied research questions in the domains of health and consumer behavior.