The University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN

Pierce Ekstrom

EDUCATION

The University of MinnesotaMinneapolis, MN

PhD. Social PsychologyExpected May 2017

Minor in Political Psychology

Summer Institute in Political PsychologyStanford, CA

Summer 2013

The University of ChicagoChicago, IL

B.A. in Psychology (Honors) and in Political Science (Honors)June 2012

Phi Beta Kappa (early inductee)

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Political psychology
• Conflict (both interpersonal and intergroup)
• Motivated reasoning, bias, and heuristic judgment
• Perceptions of legitimacy and fairness
• Moral judgments

HONORS & AWARDS

• Gough Travel Award, University of Minnesota, Dept. of Psychology (2013)
• PRISM Summer Research Grant, University of Chicago (2011)
• Earl Franklin Research Fellowship Honorable Mention, University of Chicago, Dept. of Psychology (2011)

PUBLICATIONS

• Chen, P.G., Appleby, J., Borgida, E., Callaghan, T. H., Ekstrom, P. D., Farhart, C. E., Housholder, E., Kim, H., Ksiazkiewicz, A., Lavine, H., Luttig, M. D., Mohanty, R., Rosenthal, A., Sheagley, G., Smith, B. A., Vitriol, J. A., & A. Williams. (In press). The Minnesota Multi-Investigator 2012 Presidential Election Panel Study. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy.
• Ekstrom, P. D. & Federico, C. M. (manuscript in preparation). Personality and the Evolution of Political Preferences Across Political Campaigns.

PRESENTATIONS

• Appleby, J., Ekstrom, P. D., Farhart, C., Kim, H., Rosenthal, A., Sheagley, G., Smith, B., & Williams, A. L. (2013, April). Candidate Trait Evaluations in the 2012 Presidential Election. Paper presented at the Center for the Study of Political Psychology’s 2013 Symposium, Minneapolis, MN.
• Ekstrom, P. D. (2011, October). As far as I can throw him: Trust in political and interpersonal contexts. Paper presented at the University of Chicago PRISM Undergraduate Research Symposium, Chicago, IL.
• Ekstrom, P. D., Brehm, J.J., & Visser, P.S. (2011, January). As far as I can throw him: Trust in political and interpersonal contexts. Poster presented at the Political Psychology Pre-conference of the Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego, CA.
• Ekstrom, P. D., Brehm, J.J., & Visser, P.S. (2012, May). Fool me once, shame on whom? Trust and betrayal in political and interpersonal contexts. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
• Ekstrom, P. D. & Visser, P.S. (2013, January). Fool me once, shame on whom? Trust and betrayal in political and interpersonal contexts. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, LA.
• Ekstrom, P. D., Gonzales, M. H., Williams, A. L., Weiner, E. (2014, July). Saving Face: Language, identity, and reactions to political scandal. Paper accepted for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Political Psychology, Rome, Italy.
• Ekstrom, P. D., Gonzales, M. H., Williams, A. L. (2014, February). Saving Face: Language, identity, and reactions to political scandal. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Austin, TX.
• Williams, A. L., Gonzales, M. H., & Ekstrom, P. D. (2014, February). “Another brainwashed liberal”: Knowledge, moral language, and the persuasiveness of communications. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Austin, TX.
• Williams, A. L., Gonzales, M. H., & Ekstrom, P. D. (2014, February). “Another brainwashed liberal”: Knowledge, moral language, and the persuasiveness of communications. Paper accepted for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Political Psychology, Rome, Italy.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Center for the Study of Political PsychologyMinneapolis, MN

Administrative Fellow2013-2014

• Managed large-scale online data collection for scholars associated with the center
• Coordinated visiting lectures by faculty from other research institutions
• Helped plan weekly student meetings on topics of professional interest

Visser Lab (PI: Penny S. Visser, PhD)Chicago, IL

Research AssistantFebruary 2010-June 2012

Areas of research included political psychology, attitude strength and change, and the self and social networks

• Collected data on statewide initiative information pamphlets across the country from the past 10 years to determine the impact of this state-issued information on voter behavior
• Work-shopped current research projects during lab meetings
• Assisted in designing, promoting, and executing participant-based studies
• Promoted TESS (Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences), for which Dr. Visser was Co-Principal Investigator. Contacted faculty at various universities for input and assistance and distributed information through professional associations across domains of Social Science

Rios Lab (PI: Kimberly Rios, PhD)Chicago, IL

Research AssistantSummer 2010 & 2011

Areas of research have included minority opinion expression, intergroup relations, and social influence

• Assisted in designing, promoting, and executing participant-based studies
• Coded data (consisted of interpreting written and video-recorded responses by participants in order to score their apparent confidence and other traits from a standard “Big Five” personality trait scale)

Capitol AllianceFort Worth, TX

Summer InternSummer 2009

• Conducted market research and helped present findings to potential clients, who later accepted our RFP bid
• Researched campaign finance, compiling data from elections for over 180 legislators and political figures
• Investigated opposing candidates and other individuals of interest on a case by case basis

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

University of MinnesotaMinneapolis, MN

Section Leader, Major Projects2013-2014

• Guided students through independent research projects of their choosing

Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Social Psychology2012-2013

• Graded student papers, held regular office hours, and composed exam questions

Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Health PsychologySeptember-December 2012

• Graded student papers, held regular office hours, and composed exam questions

Breakthrough CollaborativeFort Worth, TX

7th Grade English TeacherJune-July 2006

• Prepared lesson plans for and taught two small classes of rising 7th graders. The program targets promising students from low income brackets and lasts for six weeks, plus a two week training program for instructors

Admissions committee member2007-2008

• Served on annual committee to determine admissions selections to summer program

Fort Worth Country DayFort Worth, TX

Writing Center Student Advisor2007-2008

• Tutored high school students on writing, editing individual drafts and teaching overall writing skills

SKILLS

Fluent in French

Film and Digital Photography

MS Office, Adobe Photoshop, SPSS, Stata, R, Abby FineReader, Qualtrics Survey Software

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