Research Interests

My primary research interests fall within the domain of attitude and persuasion research. These interests include the role of affect and cognition in persuasion, the causes and consequences of attitude strength, and the impact of attitude structure on susceptibility to persuasion and attitude-behavior consistency. Other research interests include the psychological mechanisms underlying social influence tactics, the impact of questionnaire design features (e.g., question order and question format) on the measurement of psychological constructs, and methodological issues in the application of statistical methods (e.g. factor analysis and structural equation modelling) to psychological research.

Selected Publications

 Kredentser, M. S., Fabrigar, L. R., Smith, S. M., & Fulton, K.  (in press).  Following what people think we should do versus what people actually do: Elaboration as a moderator of the impact of descriptive and injunctive norms.  Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Fabrigar, L. R., & Wegener, D. T.  (2012).  Understanding statistics: Exploratory factor analysis.  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Wasylkiw, L., Fabrigar, L. R., Rainboth, S., Reid A., & Steen, C.  (2010).  Neuroticism and the architecture of the self: Exploring neuroticism as a moderator of the impact of ideal self-discrepancies on emotion.  Journal of Personality, 78, 471-492.


Fabrigar, L. R., Wegener, D. T., & MacDonald, T. K.  (2010).  Distinguishing between prediction and influence: Multiple processes underlying attitude-behavior consistency.  In C. R. Agnew, D. E. Carlston, W. G. Graziano, & J. R. Kelly (Eds.), Then a miracle occurs: Focusing on behavior in social psychological theory and research (pp. 162-185).  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Fabrigar, L. R., & Wegener, D. T.  (2010).  Attitude structure.  In R. F. Baumeister & E. J.  Finkel (Eds.), Advanced social psychology (pp. 177-216).  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Starzyk, K. B., Fabrigar, L. R., Soryal, A. S., & Fanning, J. J.  (2009).  A painful reminder: The role of level and salience of attitude importance in cognitive dissonance.  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 126-137.

Paik, J. S., MacDougall, B. L., Fabrigar, L. R., Peach, J. M., & Jellous, K. (2009).  Altering category level beliefs: The impact of level of representation at belief formation and belief disconfirmation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1112-1125.

See, Y. H. M., Petty, R. E., & Fabrigar, L. R.  (2008).  Affective and cognitive meta-bases of attitudes: Unique effects on information interest and persuasion.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 938-955.

Smith, S. M., Fabrigar, L. R., Powell, D. M., & Estrada, M. (2007). The role of information processing capacity and goals in attitude-congruent selective exposure effects. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 948-960.

Fabrigar, L. R., Petty, R. E., Smith, S. M., & Crites, S. L., Jr. (2006). Understanding knowledge effects on attitude-behavior consistency: The role of relevance, complexity, and amount of knowledge. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 556-577.

Fabrigar, L. R., Wegener, D. T., MacCallum, R. C., & Strahan, E. J. (1999). Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research. Psychological Methods, 4, 272-299.

Fabrigar, L. R., & Petty, R. E. (1999). The role of the affective and cognitive bases of attitudes in susceptibility to affectively and cognitively based persuasion. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 363-381.