Gordon Pennycook

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EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of Waterloo in 2016
M.A. University of Waterloo in 2010
B.A. University of Saskatchewan in 2009

TEACHING
BUS 260 Introduction to Organizational Behaviour
GBUS/MBA 838 Research Methods in Management

RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research focus is on reasoning and decision-making, broadly defined. I investigate the distinction between intuitive processes (“gut feelings”) and more deliberative (“analytic”) reasoning processes and am principally interested in the causes (a) and consequences (b) of analytic thinking. That is, what makes us think and why is it (thinking) important?

I have fairly broad interests, although most are organized under these two broad research programs. I’ve published on religious belief, sleep paralysis, morality, creativity, smartphone use, health beliefs (e.g., homeopathy), language use among climate change deniers, pseudo-profound bullshit, delusional ideation, fake news (and disinformation more broadly), political ideology, and science beliefs (in roughly that order). I am also interested in the methodological and theoretical issues that pertain to the measurement of cognitive reflection and motivated reasoning. My research sits at the intersection of cognitive and social psychology and most recently I have gotten interested in the use of social media data for social science (both correlational and experimental). I’ve also done some recent work on misinformation and misperceptions relating to COVID-19. For an overview of recent work on misinformation and motivated reasoning, click here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k2D4zVqkSHB1M9wpXtAe3UzbeE0RPpD_E2UpaPf6Lds.