Gregory R. Maio

Biography

Prior to working at the University of Bath, I worked at Cardiff University for almost 20 years. Previously, I undertook my undergraduate and postgraduate studies at York University and then Western University in Canada. My PhD research tested social psychological implications of the idea that people treat their human values (e.g., helpfulness, equality) as truisms and never interrogate the values directly. Since then, I have examined diverse topics in social psychology. This work has included a number of ESRC funded projects on values, prejudice, family relationships, and attitudes toward children. These and other projects have led to more than a hundred articles and chapters. I have also attempted to help summarise the broader literatures on values and attitudes, by recently completing a book on values, "The Psychology of Values," and co-writing a textbook on attitudes, "The Psychology of Attitudes and Attitude Change" (with Geoff Haddock, Cardiff University). My research team has been undertaking several research projects in the past few years. I am particularly excited about research looking at adult mental representations of children and about research examining how people understand values and their implications for behaviour. This latter project is occurring in collaboration with other scientists in Brazil and India, and it has implications for understanding people's attitudes toward other groups and the role of values in a variety of important behaviours (e.g., sustainable behaviour to protect the environment). I am currently Head of Department in Psychology, a member of the ESRC Grant Assessment Panels, and an advisor to a number of Research Councils internationally.

Research Interest

Research interests Attitudes Values Motivation Behaviour change