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I received an Honours BA in Psychology and Sociology/Anthropology from Mount Allison University in 1994 and my PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Waterloo in 2000.
I joined Wilfrid Laurier University in 2000. I am currently a Full Professor in the Social Psycholoy area of Wilfrid Laurier University's Psychology department.
Please visit my lab website for the most up-to-date information about current projects: https://www.annewilsonpsychlab.com/
My research focuses on self and identity over time, and motivated social cognition. I examine how people’s identities extend across time, how people reconstruct the past and envision the future, and how these temporal perspectives, in turn, affect their understanding of the present. I am interested in how these processes work for the personal self, interpersonal relationships, group/social identity, and national identity. This broad interest connects to a wide range of content areas: self and well-being, goal pursuit (academic, health, collective action), personal, relationship, and collective memories, people's beliefs about the capacity for personal or societal change, and judgments of moral transgressions online and offline.
I am also interested in the role of media and social media in shaping (and sometimes distorting) our perception of self and others. This perspective informs my work on intergroup perception and misperception, including political polarization and other forms of intergroup conflict.
2019: Laurier Research Chair, Wilfrid Laurier University
2015: Fellow, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Successful Societies Program.
2014: Member of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, Royal Society of Canada
2014: Fellow, Canadian Psychological Association
2012: Waterloo Region Record “Top 40 under 40” award
2007-2017: Tier II Canada Research Chair in Social Psychology
2009: Fellow, Society for Experimental Social Psychology
2001: Premier’s Research Excellence Award
2015: Fellow, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Successful Societies Program.
2014: Member of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, Royal Society of Canada
2014: Fellow, Canadian Psychological Association
2012: Waterloo Region Record “Top 40 under 40” award
2007-2017: Tier II Canada Research Chair in Social Psychology
2009: Fellow, Society for Experimental Social Psychology
2001: Premier’s Research Excellence Award
I regularly supervise highly motivated undergraduate students (honours thesis students and both paid and volunteer research assistants) and graduate students. Visit www.annewilsonpsychlab.com and click the “Join” tab to learn more about joining the lab.
Please visit www.annewilsonpsychlab.com for a complete list of publications
- Dawson, A. J., Williams, S., & Wilson, A. E. (2023). A Tale of Two Tweets: What factors predict forgiveness of past transgressions on social media? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231214629
- Dawson, A. J., Leith, S. A., Ward, C. L., Williams, S., & Wilson, A. E. (2022). Far away or yesterday? Shifting perceptions of time for political ends. PLOS One, 17(11), e0277179. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277179
- Chishima, Y., Huai-Ching Liu, I., & E Wilson, A. E. (2021). Temporal distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Letter writing with future self can mitigate negative affect.Applied Psychology. Health and Well-being, 13(2), 406-418.
- Wilson, A.E., Parker, V., & Feinberg, M. (2020). Polarization in the contemporary political and media landscape. Special Issue on Political Ideologies, Current Opinions in Behavioral Science, 34, 223-228. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352154620301078
- Hideg, I., & Wilson, A.E. (2020). History backfires: Reminders of past injustices against women undermine support for workplace policies promoting women. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 156, 176-189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.10.001
- Son Hing, L., Wilson, A.E., Gourevitch, P., English, J., & Sin, P. (2019). Psychological responses to rising income inequality: Processes that legitimize growing disparities. Special Issue of Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Inequality as a Multidimensional Process, 148 (3), 105–135.
- Evans, M. B., Shanahan, E., Leith, S., Litvak, N., Wilson, A. E. (2019). Living for today or tomorrow? Self-regulation amidst proximal or distal exercise outcomes. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-being, 11(2), 304–327.
- Cortes, K., & Wilson, A. E. (2016). When slights beget slights: Attachment anxiety, subjective time, and intrusion of the relational past in the present. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 1693-1708.
- Ward, C., & Wilson, A. E., (2015). Implicit theories of change and stability moderate effects of subjective distance on the remembered self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
- Leith, S., Ward, C., Giacomin, M., Landau, E., Ehrlinger, J., & Wilson, A. E. (2014). Changing theories of change: Strategic shifting in implicit theory endorsement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107, 597-620.
- Peetz, J., & Wilson, A. E. (2008). The temporally extended self: The relation of past and future selves to current identity, motivation, and goal pursuit. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 2090-2106.
- Wilson, A. E., & Ross, M. (2003). The identity function of autobiographical memory: Time is on our side. Invited paper in Memory: Special Issue Exploring the Functions of Autobiographical Memory, 11, 137-149.