My research program centers upon the study of attitudes. We have proposed a model of attitudes as associations in memory between the attitude object and one's evaluation of the object. Our concern has been with the likelihood that such evaluations are sufficiently strong so as to be activated automatically from memory upon the individual's encountering the attitude object. The determinants and the consequences of such accessibility from memory are of interest. 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. We have explored the implications of this view of attitudes in a variety of domains, including prejudice and emotional disorders.

We also are conducting research on the implicit development of attitudes via evaluative conditioning, attitude formation via exploratory behavior, and implicit measures of attitude. Most recently, we have been pursuing a program of research concerned with the weaker end of the attitude-nonattitude continuum and, in particular, how the construction of appraisals in an immediate situation are affected by individual differences in the weighting of positive versus negative valence.