Professor Roger Giner-Sorolla

Professor of Social Psychology
Telephone
+44 (0)1227 823085
Professor Roger Giner-Sorolla

About

Professor Roger Giner-Sorolla completed his undergraduate degree at Cornell University and was awarded his PhD in Social Psychology from New York University in 1996. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia and two year-long contracts, he joined the University of Kent in 2001. He was promoted to Professor in 2013, and has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology from 2016-2022. Currently, he is Principal Investigator on a Leverhulme Foundation grant examining the causes and consequences of treating whole professions as morally heroic.
Roger's main field covers the social role of emotions, particularly those with a moral application. He is an advocate of transparency in scientific reporting and has written many articles and editorials in support of improved reporting guidelines and pre-registration. He has taught Master's statistics and methodology since 2001 at Kent. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and a member of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology.

Research interests

After an early career focused on attitudes components and information processing, Professor Roger Giner-Sorolla's core research interests are currently in moral emotions, specifically the self-condemning emotions of guilt and shame, and the other-condemning ones of anger, contempt and disgust. He studies the related topics of intergroup apologies, dehumanisation, emotionally driven prejudice, and collective moral roles. He also has a side interest in the ironic enjoyment of music and other aesthetic experiences.

Key publications

  • Russell, P.S., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Bodily-moral disgust: What it is, how it is different from anger and why it is an unreasoned emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 328-351.
  • Zaiser, E., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Saying sorry: Shifting obligation after conciliatory acts satisfies perpetrator group members. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105, 585-604.
  • Russell, P.S., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2011). Moral anger, but not moral disgust, responds to intentionality. Emotion, 11, 233-240.
  • Giner-Sorolla, R., & Espinosa, P. (2011). Social cueing of guilt by anger and shame by disgust. Psychological Science, 22, 49-53.

Grants and Awards

2013-14R. Giner-Sorolla
ESRC 
Evaluation of Emotion Regulation of Others and Self (EROS)
£15,000
October 2009R Giner-Sorolla, M Van Vugt and S Derbyshire
ESRC/MRC
Guilt and self-control in indivual and social dilemmas
£62,000
June 2009R Giner-Sorolla and M Weick
ESRC
UK Social Cognition Network
£32,240
May 2009R Giner-Sorolla and M Van Vugt 
ESRC
The Social Guilt Hypothesis
£167,855 
June 2006R Giner-Sorolla
University of Kent 
Promising Scholars Award
 
June 2005R Giner-Sorolla
Wellcome Trust 
Vacation Research Scholarship
 
2005-2006R Giner-Sorolla
ESRC
The recipient’s view of compunction between groups
£45,000
2005-2007R Giner-Sorolla
British Academy Small Grant 
Are affectively based attitudes stronger, faster, and more automatic?
£7,500
2005-2006R Giner-Sorolla
ESRC
Anticipated and actual affect in prejudice control
£95,000
2003-2004R Giner-Sorolla and R J Brown
ESRC
When and how does feeling guilty reduce prejudice?
£40,000
2003-2004R Giner-Sorolla and R J Brown
ESRC
When and how does feeling guilty reduce prejudice?
£40,000
2003-2004R Giner-Sorolla and R J Brown
European Science Foundation Workshop Award
New directions in intergroup emotions (workshop conducted in September 2004)

Teaching

PSYC7103  Advanced Research Methods and Statistics

PSYC6360  Being a Smart Research Consumer

Supervision

Professor Giner-Sorolla is available to supervise PhD candidates who arrive with a clear vision of what they want to study that broadly fits with his research interests - that is, morally relevant emotions, collective emotions and apologies, dehumanization, or one of the other topics listed above.

Current PhD students (primary supervision)

2024: Catherine Palmer, “Beneficial effects of the emotion of shame”
2023: Hadi Shaban Azad, “Gheirat as an emotion of social defence: Western analogues and differences”
2017: Anne-Christine Wikman, “Determinants and consequences of resentment”    

Past PhD students

2019-2023: Daqing Liu, “Determinants of moral character judgments leading to disgust reactions”
2019-2023: Felicity Gallagher, “Creepiness as an emotion in sexual harassment”
2019-2023: Nuray Demir, “Group status and defensive dehumanization”
2015-2019: Heather Rolfe, “Moralization of musical taste”
2015-2019: Daniel Noon, “The antecedents and functions of group-based moral emotions” (co-supervision with Dr P. S. Russell, University of Surrey)
2014-2017: Tom Kupfer, “Social functions of moral disgust”
2013-2016: John Sabo, “The morality of disgust, gore and violence in entertainment and imagination”
2013-2016: Darren McGee, “Shame and guilt in social and religious relationships”
2012-2016: Stine Torp Løkkeberg, “Shame and doctor-patient communication” (co-supervision with Dr N. Gausel, Østfold University College, Fredrikstad, Norway)
2010-2013: Neil McLatchie, “Guilt, self-control, and the brain”. Co-supervision with Dr S Derbyshire, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham
2009-2013: Erica Zaiser, “Reception of intergroup apologies by apologizing group members”
2006-2009: Pascale S. Russell, “Disgust, anger, and emotional justification”
2005-2009 : Valeschka M. Guerra, “Individual and cultural differences in bases for moral judgment”
2003-2007: Roberto Gutierrez, “Anger and disgust in moral judgment”  


Professional

Membership of professional organisations

  • Society for Personality and Social Psychology (Fellow)
  • Association for Psychological Science (Fellow); Member of Rising Stars selection committee 2023-2024
  • Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science
  • Society for Experimental Social Psychology
  • European Association for Social Psychology
  • International Society for Research on Emotions 

Journal editing and management

  • Co-editor (with Eliot Smith & Diane Mackie) of special issue on intergroup emotions, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, January 2007.
  • Co-editor (with Mark Brandt & Matt Crawford) of special issue on pre-registered research, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
  • Associate editor: Personality and Social Psychology Compass (2009-2011)
  • Associate editor: Group Processes and Intergroup Relations (2011-2013)
  • Associate editor: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (2013-2015)
  • Editor-in-chief: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (2016-2022) 
  • Personality and Social Psychological Science: SPSP Consortium Representative and Treasurer (2024-) 

Selected Invited teaching

  • Workshop on open science, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastián, Spain, April 2024.
  • Two-day workshop on statistical reform and open science, HINN Institute, Lillehammer, Norway, September 2023.
  • Invited panel address on scientific publishing, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain, November 2023.
  • Online workshop on publishing issues and policies with editors of Social Psychology Bulletin, February 2022.
  • Online guest lecture, Education University of Hong Kong, October 2021.
  • Online lecture and discussion section on emotions, Universidad del Desarrollo, Concepción, Chile, June 2021. 
Last updated