Associate Professor (A.B., A.M., Ph.D., The University of Chicago; Post-doc, University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research)

Psychology Graduate Program Director

Office: Armitage Hall Room 345, Rutgers-Camden, 311 N. 5th St., Camden NJ 08102
Email: seduffy@scarletmail.rutgers.edu 
Office phone: (856) 225-6204 (but email is better)

Research Areas: Memory and learning, cultural and group dynamics, environmental psychology, spatial reasoning. 

 

Recently, I had an unbelievable opportunity to meet a scientific hero of mine, Dr. Katalin Karikó, awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Dr. Karikó’s research on the therapeutic use of mRNA led to effective vaccines against COVID during the pandemic, saving millions of lives. If you remember having had the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine – that was the result of many years of her painstaking effort to harness the power of transcribed mRNA. 

Dr. Karikó’s memoir Breaking Through: My Life in Science is a must-read for anyone at any point in their scientific career. It describes her journey from her childhood in Hungary to her experience with academic culture in the United States. When I first read it, I went from cover to cover in one sitting, it is such a compelling story of a remarkable scientific career. The book should be on every scientist’s shelf.

There are also two children’s books written about her life and achievements: Never Give Up: The race for the future of vaccines, and Kati’s Tiny Messengers: Dr. Katalin Karikó and the battle against COVID-19.

It’s just amazing what great scientists like Dr. Kariko can accomplish, and I am always in awe of all those involved in this endeavor. 

NEW! Spring 2025 International Studies Course (Paris) Psychology and neuroscience of urbanism. Here is the brochure (come visit Paris with me!). 

RECENT COURSES:

Fall 2024: Graduate Statistics; Cognition, Neuroscience, and Cinema
Winter, 2025: Cultural Psychology of Food
Spring 2025: International Studies course, Readings in Psychology
Summer 2025: Cultural Psychology of Food, Method and Theory
Fall 2025: Graduate Research Methods, Readings in Psychology

OFF SHORE WIND: Some lectures on environmentalism and offshore wind energy in New Jersey. 

MUSIC PAGE:

Please click here my carillon (cathedral/church bell) music page!  For a number of years I played the largest musical instrument ever designed and built, and wrote some free sheet music for it so you can play it too! 

THINGS I AM CURRENTLY WORKING ON OR THINKING ABOUT:

Memory: How we make sense and meaning of a world we imperfectly perceive? (with economist John Smith)
Learning: Are we truly Bayesian or merely Bayesian-like in our cognitions? (with economist John Smith).
Social psychology: How does automatic Imitation work and what role does it play in dynamic interaction? (with C. Bouquet and R. van Der Wel)
Environmentalism: How do people think about renewable energy, such as offshore wind? (the basis of my course Environmental Psychology)
Culture, psychology, and food (the basis for my course The Cultural Psychology of Food)
Psychology of art, music and photography (the basis for my course The Psychology of Art and Music)
Psychology of humor (a course I developed and taught for many years)

WORKING PAPERS:

Please see John Smith’s site for several other works in progress or under review and supplementary materials. 

Duffy, S., & Smith, J. (In preparation). Signal detection theory’s learning problem

Duffy, S., & Bouquet, C. (in preparation). Gender differences in preferences for humor produced by men or women

Krassner, M., Duffy, K., Wiesniewski, K., August, A., & Duffy, S. (in preparation). A century of smiles: Changes in emotional expression in portrait photography 1920-2020.

Duffy, S., & Keir, A. (in preparation). Public opinions of offshore wind energy in New Jersey. 

RECENT PAPERS (older papers at my google scholar page): 

Duffy, S., & Smith, J. (submitted). The random thickness of indifference. 

Duffy, S., & Smith, J. (in press). An economist and a psychologist form a line: What can imperfect perception of line length tell us about stochastic choice. Theory and Decision.

Duffy, S., & Smith, J. (2025). Stochastic choice and imperfect perception of line lengths: What is hiding in the noise?  Journal of Economic Psychology, 102787. 

Bouquet, C., van der Wel, R., Lafleur, M., & Duffy, S. (2025) Regulation of automatic imitation: Domain specific versus domain general control processes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 51, 32-49. 

Duffy, S., Nadeo, J.J., Owens, D., & Smith, J.  (2024). Cognitive Load and Mixed Strategies: On brains and minimax. International Game Theory Review, 26, 2450004.

Duffy, S., Hertel, J., Igan, D., Pinhiero, M., & Smith, J. (2022) Bayesian integration in sensorimotor learning: Another look at Kording and Wolpert (2004). Cortex, 153, 87-96.

Duffy, S., Gussman, S.,& Smith, J. (2021). Visual judgments of length in the economics laboratory: Are there brains in stochastic choice? Journalof Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 93,163-193.

Duffy, S., & Smith, J. (2020). On the category adjustment model: Another look at Huttenlocher, Hedges, and Vevea (2000). Mind and Society, 19, 163-193.

Duffy, S., & Smith, J. (2020). Omitted-variable bias and other matters in the defense of the category adjustment model: A comment on Crawford (2019). Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 85: 101501. 

Duffy, S., & Smith, J. (2018). Category effects on stimulus estimation: Shifting and skewed frequency distributions-A reexamination. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 25, 1740-1750.

Duffy, S. (2017). Cognitive development. In K. Nadal (Ed.) The Sage Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender. (pp. 306-309). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Jonas, K. J., Cesario, J., Alger, M., Bailey, A. H., Bombari, D., Carney, D., Dovidio, J. F., Duffy, S., Harder, J. A., van Huistee, D., Jackson, B., Johnson, D. J., Keller, V. N., Klaschinski, L., LaBelle, O., LaFrance, M., Latu, I. M., Morssinkhoff, M., Nault, K., Pardal, V., Pulfrey, C., Rohleder, N., Ronay, R., Smart Richman, L., Schmid Mast, M., Schnabel, K., Schröder-Abé, M. & Tybur, J. M. (2017).  Power poses – where do we stand?, Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, 2, 139-141.

Latu, I. M., Duffy, S., Pardal, V. & Alger M. (2017). Power vs. persuasion: Can open body postures embody openness to persuasion? Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, 2, 68-80.

Allred, S., Crawford, L.E., Duffy, S. & Smith, J. (2016) Working memory and spatial judgments: Cognitive load increases the central tendency bias. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 23, 1825-1831.

Allred, S., Duffy, S., & Smith, J. (2016). Cognitive load and strategic sophistication. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 125, 162-178.

Duffy, S., Smith, J., & Woods, K. (2015). How does the preference for increasing payments depend on the size and source of the payments? Management Science Letters, 5, 1071-1080.

Duffy, S. & Smith, J. (2014). Cognitive load in the multiple player prisoner’s dilemma game: Are there brains in games?.Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 51, 47-56.

Duffy, S., Hartwig, T., & Smith, J. (2014). Costly and discrete communication: An experimental investigation. Theory and Decision, 76, 395-415.

Duffy, S. & Smith, J. (2013). Preference for increasing wages: How do people value various streams of income? Judgment and Decision Making, 8, 74-90.

See my Google Scholar page for links to all published articles. 

Letters of Recommendation: Read this if you are looking for a letter of recommendation. 

Interested in doing an independent study in my lab? Click here for the application. 

John Smith and I sporting Rutgers gear at Saint Mark’s Plaza in Venice, Italy at the conclusion of the Bounded Rationality in Choice Conference in Venice, Italy, June, 2024.