Johanna Peetz – New faculty profile

A lot can be learned from the research of new faculty member and professor of Psychology, Johanna Peetz.  Her work relates tremendously to our everyday lives and can help us better understand what we might expect from tomorrow.  For some of us, it might be even a little too applicable…

Peetz is interested in how and why people make the financial decisions that they do on a day to day basis.  More specifically, she works on developing a more comprehensive understanding of how people predict how much money they will spend versus how many dollars actually come out of their pockets.  Her research has shown that more often than not, we are the victims of our own optimism.

Why is it that we tell ourselves that if we go out for lunch we will only spend five dollars, when in fact, if we really thought about it logically, we’d easily be able to determine that it is going to cost us more?  Peetz is trying to identify the factors that influence our idealistic/unrealistic or realistic outlooks on our personal finances.

Peetz is also interested in the promises we make to those closest to us.  In relationships, she has found that we often “over-promise” things to the ones we love the most.  Your partner promised to make you breakfast in bed every day and hasn’t followed through?  For many people it would be natural to suspect that this means that they don’t care for you as much their words might indicate.  In fact, Peetz’s research has shown the opposite:  It’s more likely that your partner cares for you so much that they are willing to promise the impossible.

Thirdly, Peetz wants to obtain a better grasp on the psychological aspects of time.  Reflected in her other two principal areas of focus, Peetz works on improving our perceptions of our past, present and future selves.  Does thinking positively about our future motivate us to live more healthily?  How do temporal landmarks effect how we presently live?  Do we overindulge late in the year, because on January 1^st we’ve promised ourselves that we will turn over a new leaf?

It’s these types of practical and pragmatic questions that Peetz dissects everyday in her research.  Possessing extensive knowledge of these common problems doesn’t necessarily mean she is able to avoid her own financial and personal missteps.

“Social psychology and everyday life interests me.  I often find myself in my studies.  Even having studied all of this, I still make the same mistakes as everybody else and often overspend,” says Peetz as she holds up a very small, empty veggie tray with a green ‘$7.99’ sticker plastered on the transparent lid…

 Read this article and more in the Spring 2012 edition of FASSinate