Lotte Thomsen

Faglige interesser
I am interested in how elementary kinds of relational motives underpin meaningful psychological and social phenomena and intergroup relations, how these relational primitives are represented, and in how relational motives and meanings emerge in phylo- and ontogenesis.
I see this as a general psychological topic that relates to social, cognitive, evolutionary, and developmental psychology (as well as cognitive linguistics, pragmatist philosophy and social and anthropological theory.)
I currently address it using a combination of methods that includes questionnaires and surveys, social psychological scenario- and priming experiments, looking-time experiment with infants, experimental economics games, longitudinal panel studies, and ethnographic field work and participant observation.
Bakgrunn
Utdanning
2009 Ph.D. in Social Psychology, Harvard University
2004 MA in Social Psychology with minors in Statistics and Culture, Brain, & Development
2000 Fulbright Visiting Scholar, UCLA, Fulbright and University of California Education Abroad visiting scholar in Department of Psychology
1998 Visiting student, University of Manchester
1999-2002 Cand.psych., University of Copenhagen
1996-1999 Bachelor of Psychology, University of Copenhagen
Arbeidserfaring
Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Oslo, August 2012 →
Research Fellow, Harvard University, January 2010 →
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, December 2009 – August 2012
Teaching Fellow (Research in Intergroup Relations) Harvard University, 2007 - 2008
Teaching Assistant (Research Methods in Social Psychology) UCLA, 2002
Teaching Assistant (Social Psychology) UCLA, 2001
Lecturer (Social Psychology) Open University, University of Copenhagen, 1999 - 2000
Teaching Assistant (Social Psychology), University of Copenhagen, 1998
Analysist, Strategisk Forum, Huset Mandag Morgen, 1999 - 2000
Publikasjoner
Thomsen, L. & Carey, S. (2013). Core Cognition of Social Relations. IN M.Banaji & Gelman, S. (Eds.). Navigating the Social World: What infants, children and other species can teach us. New York: Oxford University Press.
IJzerman, H., Karremans, J., Thomsen, L., & Schubert, T. (2013). Sharing forCaring: Warmth embodies communal sharing among young children. Journal of Social Psychology.
Ho, A. K., Sidanius, J., Pratto, F., Levin, S., & Thomsen, L. (2012) Social Dominance Orientation: Revisiting the structure and function of a variablepredicting social and political attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 583
Thomsen, L., Frankenhuis, W. E., Ingold-Smith, M., & Carey. S. (2011). Big & Mighty: Preverbal infants mentally represent social dominance. Science, 331, 477-480
Thomsen, L. Green, E., Ho, A., Levin, S., van Laar, C., Sinclair, S. & Sidanius, J. (2010). Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: SDO Asymmetrically Predicts Perceived Ethnic Victimization among White and Latino Students Across Three Years. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 225-238.
Green, E., Thomsen, L., & Sidanius, J. , Staerkle, C., & Potanina, P.(2009).Reactions to crime as a hierarchy-regulating strategy: The moderating role of social dominance orientation. Social Justice Research, 22, 416-436.
Fiske, A.P., Thomsen, L., & Thein, S. M. (2009). Differently embodying different relationships, European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1294-1297.
Navarette, D., Olson, A., Ho, A., Mendes, W., Thomsen, L., & Sidanius, J.(2009) Fear Extinction to an Outgroup Face: The Role of Target Gender. Psychological Science, 20, 155-158.
Ho, A. Thomsen, L, & Sidanius, J. (2009). Perceived Academic Competenceand Overall Job Evaluations: The Case of Afro- and Euro-American students' evaluations of Afro- and Euro- American professors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39, 389-400.
Thomsen, L., Green, E., & Sidanius, J. (2008). We Will Hunt Them Down: How social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism fuel ethnic persecution of immigrants in fundamentally different ways. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1455-1464.
Thomsen, L., Sidanius, J. & Fiske, A. (2007). Interpersonal leveling, independence, & self-enhancement: A comparison between Denmark and the US and relational practice framework for cultural psychology. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 445-469.
- Blomster, Johanna Katarina; Thomsen, Lotte & Seibt, Beate (2020). Moved by Observing the Love of Others: Kama Muta Evoked Through Media Fosters Humanization of Out-Groups. Frontiers in Psychology. ISSN 1664-1078. . doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01240
- Kleppestø, Thomas Haarklau; Czajkowski, Nikolai Olavi; Vassend, Olav; Røysamb, Espen; Eftedal, Nikolai Haahjem; Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer; Kunst, Jonas R. & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Correlations between social dominance orientation and political attitudes reflect common genetic underpinnings. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. ISSN 0027-8424. 116(36), s 17741- 17746 . doi: 10.1073/pnas.1818711116 Fulltekst i vitenarkiv.
- Kleppestø, Thomas Haarklau; Eftedal, Nikolai Haahjem & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Social Dominance Orientation(SDO), In Shackelford Todd K. & Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford (ed.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer International Publishing. ISBN 9783319169996. Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science.
- Kunst, Jonas R.; Dovidio, John F. & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Fusion with political leaders predicts willingness to persecute immigrants and political opponents. Nature Human Behaviour. ISSN 2397-3374. s 1- 13 . doi: 10.1038/s41562-019-0708-1 Fulltekst i vitenarkiv.
- Kunst, Jonas R.; Thomsen, Lotte & Dovidio, John F. (2019). Divided Loyalties: Perceptions of Disloyalty Underpin Bias Toward Dually-Identified Minority-Group Members. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. ISSN 0022-3514. 117(4), s 807- 838 . doi: 10.1037/pspi0000168 Fulltekst i vitenarkiv.
- Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Egalitarianism: Psychological and socio-ecological foundations. Current Opinion in Psychology. ISSN 2352-250X. 32, s 146- 152 . doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.08.014
- Thomsen, Lotte (2019). The developmental origins of social hierarchy: how infants and young children mentally represent and respond to power and status. Current Opinion in Psychology. ISSN 2352-250X. 33, s 201- 208 . doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.07.044
- Kunst, Jonas R.; Boos, Beverly Karen; Kimel, Sasha; Obaidi, Milan; Shani, Maor & Thomsen, Lotte (2018). Engaging in extreme activism in support of others’ political struggles: The role of politically motivated fusion with out-groups. PLOS ONE. ISSN 1932-6203. 13(1) . doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190639
- Kunst, Jonas R.; Boos, Beverly Karen; Y. Kimel, Sasha; Obaidi, Milan; Shani, Maor & Thomsen, Lotte (2018). Engaging in extreme activism in support of others’ political struggles: The role of politically motivated fusion with out-groups. PLOS ONE. ISSN 1932-6203. . doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190639
- Kunst, Jonas R.; Kimel, Sasha; Shani, Maor; Alayan, Ramzi & Thomsen, Lotte (2018). Can Abraham Bring Peace? The Relationship Between Acknowledging Shared Religious Roots and Intergroup Conflict. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. ISSN 1941-1022. . doi: 10.1037/rel0000192 Fulltekst i vitenarkiv.
- Obaidi, Milan; Bergh, Robin; Sidanius, Jim & Thomsen, Lotte (2018). The Mistreatment of My People: Victimization by Proxy and Behavioral Intentions to Commit Violence Among Muslims in Denmark. Political Psychology. ISSN 0162-895X. 39(3), s 577- 593 . doi: 10.1111/pops.12435
- Obaidi, Milan; Bergh, Robin; Sidanius, Jim & Thomsen, Lotte (2018). The mistreatment of my people: Victimization by proxy and behavioral intentions to commit violence among Muslims in Denmark. Political Psychology. ISSN 0162-895X. . doi: 10.1111/pops.12435
- Obaidi, Milan; Kunst, Jonas R.; Kteily, Nour; Thomsen, Lotte & Sidanius, Jim (2018). Living Under Threat: Mutual Threat Perception Drives Anti-Muslim and Anti-Western Hostility in the Age of Terrorism. European Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0046-2772. 48(5), s 567- 584 . doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2362 Fulltekst i vitenarkiv.
- Obaidi, Milan; Thomsen, Lotte & Bergh, Robin (2018). They Think We Are a Threat to Their Culture”: Meta-Cultural Threat Fuels Willingness and Endorsement of Extremist Violence against the Cultural Outgroup. International Journal of Conflict and Violence. ISSN 1864-1385. . doi: 10.4119/UNIBI/ijcv.647
- Thomas, Ashley J.; Thomsen, Lotte; Lukowski, Angela F.; Abramyan, Meline & Sarnecka, Barbara W. (2018). Toddlers prefer those who win but not when they win by force. Nature Human Behaviour. ISSN 2397-3374. 2(9), s 662- 669 . doi: 10.1038/s41562-018-0415-3
- Thomsen, Lotte & Fiske, Alan P. (2018). Communal Sharing/Identity Fusion Does Not Require Reflection on Episodic Memory of Shared Experience, or Trauma - and Usually Generates Kindness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. ISSN 0140-525X. . doi: 10.1017/s0140525x18001784
- Thomsen, Lotte; Obaidi, Milan & Bergh, Robin (2018). They Think We Are a Threat to Their Culture”: Meta-Cultural Threat Fuels Willingness and Endorsement of Extremist Violence against the Cultural Outgroup. International Journal of Conflict and Violence. ISSN 1864-1385.
- Thomsen, Lotte & Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer (2018). A theory of how evolved psychology underpins attitudes towards societal economics must go beyond exchanges and averages. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. ISSN 0140-525X. . doi: 10.1017/s0140525x18000535
- Eikemo, Marie Helene; Biele, Guido; Willoch, Frode; Thomsen, Lotte & Leknes, Siri (2017). Opioid modulation of value-based decision-making in healthy humans. Neuropsychopharmacology. ISSN 0893-133X. 42(9), s 1833- 1840 . doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.58 Fulltekst i vitenarkiv.
- Kunst, Jonas R.; Kteily, Nour & Thomsen, Lotte (2017). “You Little Creep”: Evidence of Blatant Dehumanization of Short Groups. Social Psychological and Personality Science. ISSN 1948-5506. . doi: 10.1177/1948550617740613 Fulltekst i vitenarkiv.
- Kunst, Jonas R.; Ronald, Fischer; Sidanius, Jim & Thomsen, Lotte (2017). Preferences for group dominance track and mediate the effects of macro-level social inequality and violence across societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. ISSN 0027-8424. 114(21), s 5407- 5412 . doi: 10.1073/pnas.1616572114
- Kunst, Jonas R.; Sadeghi, Talieh; Tahir, Hajra; Sam, David Lackland & Thomsen, Lotte (2016). The vicious circle of religious prejudice: Islamophobia makes the acculturation attitudes of majority and minority members clash. European Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0046-2772. 46(2), s 249- 259 . doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2174
- Kunst, Jonas R. & Thomsen, Lotte (2015). Prodigal Sons: Dual Abrahamic Categorization Mediates the Detrimental Effects of Religious Fundamentalism on Christian–Muslim Relations. The international journal for the psychology of religion. ISSN 1050-8619. 25(4), s 293- 306 . doi: 10.1080/10508619.2014.937965 Fulltekst i vitenarkiv.
- Kunst, Jonas R.; Thomsen, Lotte; Sam, David Lackland & Berry, John W. (2015). “We Are in This Together”: Common Group Identity Predicts Majority Members’ Active Acculturation Efforts to Integrate Immigrants. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. ISSN 0146-1672. 41(10), s 1438- 1453 . doi: 10.1177/0146167215599349
- Kunst, Jonas R.; Thomsen, Lotte & Sam, David Lackland (2014). Late Abrahamic reunion? Religious fundamentalism negatively predicts dual Abrahamic group categorization among Muslims and Christians. European Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0046-2772. 44(4), s 337- 348 . doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2014
- Thomsen, Lotte; Obaidi, Milan; Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer; Kteily, Nour & Jim, Sidanius (2014). Individual differences in relational motives interact with the political context to produce terrorism and terrorism-support. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. ISSN 0140-525X. . doi: 10.1017/S0140525X13003579
- IJzerman, Hans; Karremans, Johan; Thomsen, Lotte & Schubert, Thomas (2013). Caring for sharing: How attachment styles modulate communal cues of physical warmth. Social Psychology. ISSN 1864-9335. 44, s 160- 166 . doi: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000142
- Thomsen, Lotte & Carey, Susan (2013). Core Cognition of Social Relations, In Banaji Mahzarin R. & Susan A. Gelman (ed.), Navigating the Social World: What infants, children and other species can teach us. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199890712. 1.4. s 17 - 23
- Ho, Arnold K.; Pratto, Felicia; Levin, Shana & Thomsen, Lotte (2012). Social Dominance Orientation: Revisiting the structure and function of a variablepredicting social and political attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. ISSN 0146-1672. 38(5), s 583- 606 . doi: 10.1177/0146167211432765
- Thomsen, Lotte; Frankenhuis, Willem; Ingold-Smith, McCaila & Carey, Susan (2011). Big & Mighty: Preverbal infants mentally represent social dominance. Science. ISSN 0036-8075. 331, s 477- 480 . doi: 10.1126/science.1199198
- Thomsen, Lotte; Green, Eva G. T.; Ho, Arnold K.; Levin, Shana; van Laar, Colette; Sinclair, Stacey & Sidanius, Jim (2010). Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: SDO Asymmetrically Predicts Perceived Ethnic Victimization among White and Latino Students Across Three Years.. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. ISSN 0146-1672. 36, s 225- 238 . doi: 10.1177/0146167209348617
- Fiske, Alan Page; Thomsen, Lotte & Thein, Seinenu M. (2009). Differently embodying different relationships. European Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0046-2772. 39, s 1294- 1297 . doi: 10.1002/ejsp.697
- Green, Eva G. T.; Thomsen, Lotte; Sidanius, Jim; Staerklé, Christian & Potanina, Polina (2009). Reactions to crime as a hierarchy-regulating strategy: The moderating role of social dominance orientation. Social justice research. ISSN 0885-7466. 22, s 416- 436 . doi: 10.1007/s11211-009-0106-3
- Ho, Arnold K.; Thomsen, Lotte & Sidanius, Jim (2009). Perceived Academic Competenceand Overall Job Evaluations: The Case of Afro- and Euro-American students' evaluations of Afro- and Euro- American professors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. ISSN 0021-9029. 39, s 389- 400 . doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00443.x
- Navarette, Carlos David; Olsson, Andreas; Arnold K, Ho; Mendes, Wendy Berry; Thomsen, Lotte & Sidanius, James (2009). Fear Extinction to an Outgroup Face: The Role of Target Gender. Psychological Science. ISSN 0956-7976. 20, s 155- 158 . doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02273.x
- Thomsen, Lotte; Green, Eva G. T. & Sidanius, Jim (2008). We Will Hunt Them Down: How social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism fuel ethnic persecution of immigrants in fundamentally different ways. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. ISSN 0022-1031. 44, s 1455- 1464 . doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.06.011
- Thomsen, Lotte; Sidanius, Jim & Fiske, Alan Page (2007). Interpersonal leveling, independence, & self-enhancement: A comparison between Denmark and the US and relational practice framework for cultural psychology. European Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0046-2772. 37, s 445- 469
- Eftedal, Nikolai Haahjem; Kleppestø, Thomas Haarklau; Røysamb, Espen; Vassend, Olav; Ystrøm, Eivind & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Moral opportunism: A unique genetic grounding associates lesser guilt from perpetrating injustice with greater sensitivity to being the victim of it..
- Eidjar, Oda; Kjos Fonn, Erik; Haugane Zahl, Joakim & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Seeking out the majority: Preverbal expectations whether third parties will join the larger group.
- Haugane Zahl, Joakim; Kjos Fonn, Erik; Eidjar, Oda & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Return the Favor: Preverbal Infants Represent Direct Reciprocity under Resource Scarcity.
- Haugane Zahl, Joakim; Kjos Fonn, Erik; Eidjar, Oda & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Return the Favor: Preverbal Infants Represent Direct Reciprocity under Resource Scarcity,.
- Kjos Fonn, Erik; Haugane Zahl, Joakim; Eidjar, Oda & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Early-developing Coalitional Preferences: Most male, but not female, pre-verbal infants and pre-schoolers prefer members of larger groups.
- Kjos Fonn, Erik; Haugane Zahl, Joakim; Eidjar, Oda & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Early-developing Coalitional Preferences: Most male, but not female, pre-verbal infants and pre-schoolers prefer members of larger groups..
- Kleppestø, Thomas Haarklau; Czajkowski, Nikolai Olavi; Vassend, Olav; Røysamb, Espen; Eftedal, Nikolai Haahjem; Kunst, Jonas R.; Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer & Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Social dominance orientation has both genetic and unique environmental influences, but only genetic pleiotropy accounts for its correlation with political attitudes..
- Thomsen, Lotte (2019). Innate Building-blocks of Political Psychology.
- Thomsen, Lotte; Kjos Fonn, Erik; Haugane Zahl, Joakim; Eidjar, Oda & Carey, Susan (2019). The structure of dominance: Preverbal infants map pyramidal position to social dominance..
- Thomsen, Lotte (2018). Innate Relational Representations and Motives.
- Thomsen, Lotte; Haugane Zahl, Joakim; Kjos Fonn, Erik & de Born, Victoria (2018). Preschoolers use gratitude as a cue for future altruism..
- H. Kleppestø, Thomas; Czajkowski, Nikolai Olavi; Vassend, Olav; Røysamb, Espen; R. Kunst, Jonas & Thomsen, Lotte (2017). Preferring domination or egalitarianism: Genetic and environmental structure of Social Dominance Orientation.
- Prendergast, Claire Nicole & Thomsen, Lotte (2017). ‘Selvations’ in Social Motivation. Social justice research. ISSN 0885-7466. 30(3), s 1- 8 . doi: 10.1007/s11211-017-0289-y
- Thomsen, Lotte (2017). Core Relational Cognition.
- Thomsen, Lotte (2017). Core Relational Motives.
- Thomas, Ashley J.; Abramyan, Meline; Lukowski, Angela & Thomsen, Lotte (2016). Preferring the Mighty to the Meek: Toddlers Prefer Novel Dominant Agents.
- Thomsen, Lotte (2015). Fundamental Intergroup Relational Orientations.
- Thomsen, Lotte; Obaidi, Milan; Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer; Kteily, Nour & Sidanius, Jim (2014). Individual differences in relational motives interact with the political context to produce terrorism and terrorism-support. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. ISSN 0140-525X. 37(4), s 377- 378 . doi: 10.1017/S0140525X13003579