Psychology of infectious illness and sickness behavior
Published Articles
Ackerman, J., Samore, T., Fessler, D., Kupfer, T., Choi, S., Merrell, W., et al. (2025). I see sick people: Beliefs about sensory detection of infectious disease are largely consistent across cultures. Brain, Behavior and Immunity. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2025.04.020
Merrell, W., Choi, S., Ackerman, J. (2024). When and why people conceal infectious disease. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976231221990
Choi, S., Merrell, W., Ackerman, J. (2023). Safety first, but for whom? Shifts in risk perception for self and others following COVID-19 vaccination. Social and Personality Psychological Compass. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12757
Choi, S., Merrell, W., Ackerman, J. (2022). Keep your distance: Different roles for knowledge and affect in predicting social distancing behavior. Journal of Health Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053211067100
Ackerman, J., Merrell, W., Choi, S. (2020). What people believe about detecting infectious disease using the senses. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2020.100002
Selected Work Under Review / In Preparation
Merrell, W., Sabree, K.^, Meyer, M.^, Ackerman, J. (In preparation). Disease concealment is ubiquitous but its prevalence is underestimated by public health experts.
Merrell, W., Zubaly, B.^, Ackerman, J. (In preparation). Fear of exclusion and exploitation as motivational drivers of infectious disease concealment.
Fan, L.*, Merrell, W.*, Donner, M., Ackerman, J., Tybur, J. (In preparation). From whom do we hide our sickness? Interpersonal value and the selective concealment of infectious illness.
* Represents equally shared first authorship
^ Graduate student collaborator
Social hierarchy in places, faces, and groups
Published Articles
Vossoughi, N., Merrell, W., Kteily, N., Ho, A. (2026). The Role of Egalitarian Ideology in System-Challenging Collective Action among Members of Dominant and Marginalized Racial Groups. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672261427820
Merrell, W.*, Fan, L.*, Sheehy-Skeffington, J., Thomsen, L. (2025). Resource possession in the mind’s eye: Ideological convergence and divergence in the perceptions of poor people. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672251371787
Merrell, W., Ackerman, J. (2025). Flaunting Porsches or Paris? Comparing the social signaling value of experiential and material conspicuous consumption. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672251331658
Merrell, W., Vossoughi, N., Kteily, N., Ho, A. (2024). Looking White but feeling Asian: The role of perceived membership permeability and perceived discrimination in multiracial-monoracial alliances. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241267332
Fessler, D.*, Merrell, W.*, Holbrook, C., Ackerman, J. (2023). Beware the foe who feels no pain: Relationships between relative formidability and pain sensitivity in U.S. online samples. Evolution and Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.11.003
Ackerman, J., Merrell, W., Williams, L. (2024). Social cognition and consumer psychology. In D. Carlston, K. Johnson, & K. Hugenberg (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Social Cognition (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197763414.013.35
Selected Work Under Review / In Preparation
Merrell, W., Fan, L., Sheehy-Skeffington, J., Thomsen, L. (In principle acceptance, Stage 1 Registered Report). Height, hierarchy, and humanity: A registered replication and extension of Kunst et al. (2019). Social Psychological & Personality Science.
Merrell, W., Fan, L., Sheehy-Skeffington, J., Thomsen, L. (Conditional acceptance). The folk psychology of spatial resource patchiness and social hierarchy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Merrell, W., Fan, L., Gothreau, C., Laustsen, L. (Invited revise & resubmit, minor revision). Democrats and Republicans hold similarly gendered mental images of ideal politicians. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations.
Merrell, W. (Invited revise & resubmit, major revision). Experiential vs. material conspicuous consumption signal distinct forms of status. Journal of Consumer Psychology.
Merrell, W., Kruse, M., Laustsen, L. (In preparation). Disentangling automatic and deliberative psychological processes in conjoint experiments.
Merrell, W., Ho, A. (In preparation). How do racially minoritized perceivers categorize dual-minority multiracial people? The case of Kamala Harris.
Merrell, W., Fan, L., Hjorth, F., Dinesen, P., Sønderskov, K. (Under review). Perceived threat in local contexts amplifies spatial representations of bad areas. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Chaar, R.+, Pischel, K.+, Giritlioglu, A., Merrell, W., Fessler, D. (In preparation). Ripped or racialized? Folk myths of muscularity in American Black men.
* Represents equally shared first authorship
+ Undergraduate student collaborator