Dr. Kentaro Fujita
Professor, Social Psychology, Decision Psychology
128 Lazenby Hall
1827 Neil Ave.
Columbus, OH. 43210
Education
- PhD, New York University, 2006
- MA, New York University, 2004
- AB, Harvard College, 2000
Kentaro Fujita received his A.B. summa cum laude in psychology from Harvard College in 2000, and his Ph.D. in psychology from New York University in 2006. His research interests focus on why despite possessing remarkable intelligence and reasoning capacity people often make decisions and behave in ways that undermine their valued goals and objectives. For example, why do smokers continue to smoke when they know the health risks? Why do consumers spend more money than they can afford? Why are dieters so tempted by indulgent foods? To understand these self-control failures, Dr. Fujita’s research draws from a number of areas in psychology, including motivation, cognition, self-regulation, and judgment & decision-making.
Awards, Honors and Recognition
2021: Finalist, National Postdoctoral Association Gallagher Mentor Award
2020: Faculty Mentor of the Year Award, Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, The Ohio State University
2012: Distinguished Teaching Award, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University
2010: SAGE Young Scholars Award, Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology
2009, 2010, 2013: Nominee, Distinguished Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year, The Ohio State University
2005: Stuart W. Cook Award for Graduate Research in Social-Personality, New York University
2004: Departmental Nominee, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Teaching Award, New York University
2004: Graduate Student Poster Award, Society for Personality and Social Psychology
2002: Statistics Training Fellowship, National Institute of Mental Health
2001: Graduate Student Fellowship, National Science Foundation
2001: Alternate Recipient, Jacob K. Javits Fellowship
2000: Henry Mitchell McCracken Fellowship, New York University
1999: Phi Beta Kappa
1997-1999: John Harvard Scholarship for Academic Achievement of the Highest Distinction, Harvard University
1997-1999: Harvard College Research Program Fellow, Harvard University
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Belding, J. N., Naufel, K. Z., & Fujita, K. (2015). Using high-level construal and perceptions of changeability to promote self-change over self-protection motives in response to negative feedback. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(6), 822-838. DOI.
Carnevale, J. J., Fujita, K., Han, H. A., & Amit, E. (2015). Immersion vs. transcendence: How pictures and words impact evaluative associations assessed by the Implicit Association Test. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 6, 92-100.
Rim, S., Amit, E., Fujita, K., Trope, Y., Halbeisen, G., & Algom, D. (2015). How words transcend and pictures immerse: On the association between medium and level of construal. Social Psychological and Personality Science. Science, 6, 123-130.
Schley, D. R., & Fujita, K. (in press). Seeing the math in the story: On how abstraction promotes performance on mathematical word problems. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Fujita, K., & Trope, Y. (2014). Structured vs. unstructured regulation: On procedural mindsets and the mechanisms of priming effects. Social Cognition, 32 (Supplement), 68-87. DOI.
Fujita, K., Trope, Y., Cunningham, W. A., & Liberman, N. (2014). What is control? A conceptual analysis. In J. W. Sherman, B. Gawronski, B., & Y. Trope (Eds.), Dual-process theories of the social mind (pp. 50-68). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Packer, D. J., Fujita, K., & Chasteen, A. (2014). The motivational dynamics of dissent decisions: A goal-conflict approach. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5, 27-34. DOI.
Stillman, P. E., Gilovich, T. D., & Fujita, K. (2014). Predicting group outcomes from brief exposures. Social Cognition, 32, 71-82. DOI.
Fukukura, J., Ferguson, M. J., & Fujita, K. (2013). Psychological distance can improve decision-making under information overload. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142, 658-665. DOI.
Fujita, K., Clark, S. L., & Freitas, A. L. (2013). "Think globally, act locally": Construal levels and environmentally relevant decision-making (pp. 87-107). In H. C. M. van Trijp (Ed.), Encouraging Sustainable Behavior. New York: Psychology Press.
Gollwitzer, P. M., Marquardt, M. K., Scherer, M., & Fujita, K. (2013). Identity-goal threats: Engaging in distinct compensatory efforts. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4, 555-562. DOI.
Mann, T., de Ridder, D. T. D., & Fujita, K. (2013). Social psychological approaches to self-regulation: Processes of goal setting and goal striving. Health Psychology, 32, 487-489. DOI.
Packer, D. J., Fujita, K., & Herman, S. (2013). A goal conflict approach to understanding when conscientious people dissent. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 927-932. DOI.
Fujita, K., & Carnevale, J. J. (2012). Transcending temptation through abstraction: The role of construal level in self-control. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21, 248-252. DOI.
Fujita, K., & MacGregor, K. E. (2012). Basic goal distinctions. In H. Aarts & A. J. Elliot (Eds.), Goal-oriented behavior (pp. 85-114). New York: Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis.
Johnson, I. R., & Fujita, K. (2012). Using perceptions of changeability to promote system-change motives over system-justification motives in information search. Psychological Science, 23, 133-140. DOI.
Fujita, K., & Sasota, J. A. (2011). The effect of construal levels on asymmetric temptation-goal cognitive associations. Social Cognition, 29, 125-146. DOI.
Henderson, M. D., Wakslak, C. J., Fujita, K., & Rohrbach, J. (2011). Construal level theory and spatial distance: Implications for mental representation, judgment, and behavior. Social Psychology, 42, 165-173. DOI.
Eyal, T., Hoover, G. M., Fujita, K., & Nussbaum, S. (2011). The effect of distance-dependent construals on schema-driven impression formation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 278-281. DOI.
Fujita, K. (2011). On conceptualizing self-control as more than the effortful inhibition of impulses. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 352-366. DOI.
Darwent, K. M., Fujita, K., & Wakslak, C. J. (2010). On the role of abstraction in global and local processing phenomena. Psychological Inquiry, 21, 198-202. DOI.
Fujita, K., & Roberts, J. C. (2010). Promoting prospective self-control through abstraction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 1049-1054. DOI.
Fujita, K., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Seeing the big picture: A construal level analysis of self-control. In R. R. Hassin, K. N. Ochsner, & Y. Trope (Eds.), Self control in society, mind, and brain (pp. 408-427). New York: Oxford University Press.
Scholer, A. A., Zou, X., Fujita, K., Stroessner, S. J., & Higgins, E. T. (2010). When risk-seeking becomes a motivational necessity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 215-231. DOI.
Fujita, K., & Han, H. A. (2009). Moving beyond deliberative control of impulses: The effects of construal levels on evaluative associations in self-control. Psychological Science, 20, 799-804. DOI.
Fujita, K. (2008). Seeing the forest beyond the trees: A construal level approach to self-control. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 1475-1496. DOI.
Fujita, K., Eyal, T., Chaiken, S., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2008). Influencing attitudes toward near and distant objects. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 562-572. DOI.
Iida, M., Seidman, G., Shrout, P. E., Fujita, K., & Bolger, N. (2008). Modeling support provision in intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 460-478. DOI.
McCulloch, K. C., Aarts, H., Fujita, K., & Bargh, J. A. (2008). Inhibition in goal systems: Means isolation and suppression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 857-865. DOI.
Fujita, K., Gollwitzer, P. M., & Oettingen, G. (2007). Mindsets and pre-conscious open-mindedness to incidental information. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 48-61. DOI.
Fujita, K., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2007). Temporal construal theory. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of social psychology (pp. 971-973). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Fujita, K., Henderson, M., Eng, J., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2006). Spatial distance and mental construal of social events. Psychological Science, 17, 278-282. DOI.
Fujita, K., Henderson, M. D., Eng, J., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2006). Spatial distance and mental construal of social events. Psychological Science, 17, 278-282.
Fujita, K., Trope, Y., Liberman, N., & Levin-Sagi, M. (2006). Construal levels and self-control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 351-367. DOI.
Fujita, K., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2006). The role of mental construal in self-control. In D. DeCremer, M. Zeelenberg, & J. K. Murnighan (Eds.), Social psychology and economics (pp. 193-211). New York: Sage Publications.
Henderson, M. D., Fujita, K., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2006). Transcending the "Here": The effects of spatial distance on social judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 845-856. DOI.
Gollwitzer, P. M., Fujita, K., & Oettingen, G. (2004). Planning and the implementation of goals. In R. Baumeister & K. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation research: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 211-228). Guildford: New York.
Shih, M., Ambady, N., Richeson, J. A., Fujita, K., & Gray, H. M. (2002). Stereotype performance boosts: The impact of self-relevance and the manner of stereotype activation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), 638-647. DOI.