Regular biography
Dolores Albarracín is a Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, affiliated with the Business School (BUS) department. She is recognized for her contributions to health care management and related fields. Her work involves exploring how individuals change their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, with a focus on the theoretical and empirical distinctions among these constructs. She teaches courses that integrate advanced readings with applied research experiences, emphasizing evidence-based strategies for behavior change in domains such as health, policy, and communication. Her teaching includes seminars and capstone projects that engage students in designing and conducting experiments to test novel approaches to belief and behavior modification.
Scholar-generated biography
Dolores Albarracin is a social psychologist whose research focuses on persuasion, attitudes, media, and health. Her work explores how attitudes form, change, and predict behavior, with a particular emphasis on the effectiveness of interventions aimed at behavior change. Albarracin has conducted extensive meta-analyses on topics such as fear appeals, selective exposure to information, and the psychological efficacy of debunking misinformation. Her research also examines the role of media in shaping public attitudes, especially during health crises like the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Albarracin's contributions highlight the cognitive and motivational factors that influence belief formation and behavior.