Michael Inzlicht's program of research consists of related lines of research, characterized by the integration of social, neuroaffective, and psychophysiological approaches. The major focus of his lab is on the neuroscience of self-control, where he takes an affective neuroscience approach to investigate the function, role, and psychological correlates of one of the brain’s major nodes of executive control, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). This is a part of the brain located in the medial prefrontal cortex and indexed by an electroencephalographic (EEG) signal called the error-related negativity (ERN). By studying the ACC and the ERN he has gained a better understanding of how self-control works and how it gets depleted. Although not as active a research focus of his as it once was, he also studies prejudice and discrimination, focusing specifically on the psychological consequences of belonging to stigmatized groups.
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- Hogeveen, J., Inzlicht, M., & Obhi, S. S. (in press). Power changes how the brain responds to others. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. doi: 10.1037/a0033477
- Tritt, S M., Page-Gould, E., Peterson, J. B., & Inzlicht, M. (in press). System justification and electrophysiological responses to feedback: Support for a positivity bias. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
- Gutsell, J. N., & Inzlicht, M. (2010). Empathy constrained: Prejudice predicts reduced mental simulation of actions during observation of outgroups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 41-845.
- Inzlicht, M., & Al-Khindi, T. (2012). ERN and the placebo: A misattribution approach to studying the arousal properties of the error-related negativity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 799-807.
- Inzlicht, M., & Ben-Zeev, T. (2000). A threatening intellectual environment: Why females are susceptible to experiencing problem-solving deficits in the presence of males. Psychological Science, 11, 365-371.
- Inzlicht, M., & Gutsell, J. N. (2007). Running on empty: Neural signals for self-control failure. Psychological Science, 18, 933-937.
- Inzlicht, M., Gutsell, J. N., & Legault, L. (2012). Mimicry reduces racial prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 361-365. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2011.06.007
- Inzlicht, M., & Kang, S. K. (2010). Stereotype threat spillover: How coping with threats to social identity affects aggression, eating, decision making, and attention. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 467-481.
- Inzlicht, M., McGregor, I., Hirsh, J. B., & Nash, K. (2009). Neural markers of religious conviction. Psychological Science, 20, 385-392.
- Inzlicht, M., McKay, L., & Aronson, J. (2006). Stigma as ego depletion: How being the target of prejudice affects self-control. Psychological Science, 17, 262-269.
- Inzlicht, M., & Schmeichel, B. J. (2012). What is ego depletion? Toward a mechanistic revision of the resource model of self-control. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 450-463. doi:10.1177/1745691612454134
- Inzlicht, M., Tullett, A. M., & Good, M. (2011). Existential neuroscience: A proximate explanation of religion as flexible meaning and palliative. Religion, Brain, & Behavior, 1, 244-251. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2011.653537
- Johns, M., Inzlicht, M., & Schmader, T. (2008). Stereotype threat and executive resource depletion: Examining the influence of emotion regulation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137, 691-705.
- Legault, L., Al-Khindi, T., & Inzlicht, M. (2012). Preserving integrity in the face of performance threat: Self-affirmation enhances neurophysiological responsiveness to errors. Psychological Science, 3, 1455-1460.
- Legault, L., Gutsell, J. N., & Inzlicht, M. (2011). Ironic effects of antiprejudice messages: How motivational interventions can reduce (but also increase) prejudice. Psychological Science, 22, 1472–1477.
- Legault, L., & Inzlicht, M. (2013). Self-determination, self-regulation, and the brain: Autonomy improves performance by enhancing neuroaffective responsiveness to self-regulation failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105, 123-138. doi:10.1037/a0030426.
- Proulx, T., Inzlicht, M., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2012). Understanding all inconsistency compensation as a palliative response to violated expectations. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 285-291.
- Robinson, M. D., Schmeichel, B. J., & Inzlicht, M. (2010). A cognitive control perspective of self-control strength and its depletion. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4, 189-200.
- Teper, R., & Inzlicht, M. (2013). Meditation, mindfulness, and executive control: The importance of emotional acceptance and brain-based performance monitoring. Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, 8, 85-92. doi:10.1093/scan/nss045.
- Tullett, A. M., Harmon-Jones, E., & Inzlicht, M. (2012). Right-frontal cortical asymmetry predicts empathic reactions: Support for a link between withdrawal motivation and empathy. Psychophysiology, 49, 1145-1153. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2012.01395.x.
Department of Psychology
University of Toronto Scarborough
1265 Military Trail
Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4
- Phone: (416) 208-4826
- Fax: (416) 287-7642
- Skype Name: michael.inzlicht