Dr Amanda Rotella

Assistant Professor

Department: Psychology

I am an interdisciplinary researcher broadly interested in human social competition. I'm particularly interested in how socio-ecological factors shape competitive strategies (e.g., inequality, population density, reputation), and how, in-turn, competition influences cooperation, moral behaviours, and fertility decisions.

Before joining Northumbria University as an Assistant Professor in 2022, I was a Lecturer in social and health psychology at Kingston University, London. I also worked as as postdoctoral researcher at the University of Waterloo with Dr Igor Grossmann on a variety of topics, including cultural change, forecasting, and wise reasoning. I previously completed my PhD in 2020 at the University of Guelph, advised by Dr Pat Barclay, investigating when and why people make cooperative decisions.

Email Amanda

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Broadly, I am an interdisciplinary researcher interested in how social, situational, and ecological factors shape human social competition (i.e., how, when, and why we compete), and, in-turn, how competition influences people's behaviours and decisions. I am interested in a variety of topics, including cooperation, cultural change, inequality, morality, reputation, social signals, and wise reasoning.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Insights into accuracy of social scientists' forecasts of societal change, Grossmann, I., Rotella, A., Hutcherson, C., Sharpinskyi, K., Varnum, M., Achter, S., Dhami, M., Guo, X., Kara-Yakoubian, M., Mandel, D., Raes, L., Tay, L., Vie, A., Wagner, L., Adamkovic, M., Arami, A., Arriaga, P., Bandara, K., Banik, G., Bartoš, F., Baskin, E., Bergmeir, C., Bialek, M., Børsting, C., Browne, D., Caruso, E., Chen, R., Chie, B., Chopik, W., Collins, R., Cong, C., Conway, L., Davis, M., Day, M., Dhaliwal, N., Durham, J., Dziekan, M., Elbaek, C., Shuman, E., Fabrykant, M., Firat, M., Fong, G., Frimer, J., Gallegos, J., Goldberg, S., Gollwitzer, A., Goyal, J., Graf-Vlachy, L., Gronlund, S., Hafenbrädl, S., Hartanto, A., Hirshberg, M., Hornsey, M., Howe, P., Izadi, A., Jaeger, B., Kacmár, P., Kim, Y., Krenzler, R., Lannin, D., Lin, H., Lou, N., Lua, V., Lukaszewski, A., Ly, A., Madan, C., Maier, M., Majeed, N., March, D., Marsh, A., Misiak, M., Myrseth, K., Napan, J., Nicholas, J., Nikolopoulos, K., O, J., Otterbring, T., Paruzel-Czachura, M., Pauer, S., Protzko, J., Raffaelli, Q., Ropovik, I., Ross, R., Roth, Y., Roysamb, E., Schnabel, L., Schütz, A., Seifert, M., Sevincer, A., Sherman, G., Simonsson, O., Sung, M., Tai, C., Talhelm, T., Teachman, B., Tetlock, P., Thomakos, D., Tse, D., Twardus, O., Tybur, J., Ungar, L., Vandermeulen, D., Williams, L., Vosgerichian, H., Wang, Q., Wang, K., Whiting, M., Wollbrant, C., Yang, T., Yogeeswaran, K., Yoon, S., Alves, V., Andrews-Hanna, J., Bloom, P., Boyles, A., Charis, L., Choi, M., Darling-Hammond, S., Ferguson, Z., Kaiser, C., Karg, S., Ortega, A., Mahoney, L., Marsh, M., Martinie, M., Michaels, E., Millroth, P., Naqvi, J., Ng, W., Rutledge, R., Slattery, P., Smiley, A., Strijbis, O., Sznycer, D., Tsukayama, E., Loon, A., Voelkel, J., Wienk, M., Wilkening, T., Collaborative, T. 9 Feb 2023, In: Nature Human Behaviour
On the Accuracy, Media Representation, and Public Perception of Psychological Scientists’ Judgments of Societal Change, Hutcherson, C., Sharpinskyi, K., Varnum, M., Rotella, A., Wormley, A., Tay, L., Grossmann, I. 2 Feb 2023, In: American Psychologist
A creative destruction approach to replication: Implicit work and sex morality across cultures, Tierney, W., Hardy, J., Ebersole, C., Viganola, D., Clemente, E., Gordon, M., Hoogeveen, S., Haaf, J., Dreber, A., Johannesson, M., Pfeiffer, T., Huang, J., Vaughn, L., DeMarree, K., Igou, E., Chapman, H., Gantman, A., Vanaman, M., Wylie, J., Storbeck, J., Andreychik, M., McPhetres, J., Uhlmann, E., Abraham, A., Adamkovic, M., Adam-Troian, J., Agadullina, E., Akkas, H., Amir, D., Anne, M., Arbeau, K., Arnestad, M., Aruta, J., Ashraf, M., Azar, O., Baker, B., Baník, G., Barbosa, S., Mendes, A., Baskin, E., Bauman, C., Bavolar, J., Beckman, S., Bendixen, T., Benjamin, A., Berkers, R., Bhattacharjee, A., Bodily, S., Bottom, V., Rotella, A. 1 Mar 2021, In: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Increasing Population Densities Predict Decreasing Fertility Rates Over Time: A 174-Nation Investigation, Rotella, A., Varnum, M., Sng, O., Grossmann, I. 1 Sep 2021, In: American Psychologist
Men’s Mate Value Correlates with a Less Restricted Sociosexual Orientation: A Meta-Analysis, Arnocky, S., Desrochers, J., Rotella, A., Albert, G., Hodges-Simeon, C., Locke, A., Belanger, J., Lynch, D., Kelly, B. Nov 2021, In: Archives of Sexual Behavior
No effect of ‘watching eyes’: An attempted replication and extension investigating individual differences, Rotella, A., Sparks, A., Mishra, S., Barclay, P. 6 Oct 2021, In: PLoS One
Failure to replicate moral licensing and moral cleansing in an online experiment, Rotella, A., Barclay, P. 15 Jul 2020, In: Personality and Individual Differences
Feelings of obligation are valuations of signaling-mediated social payoffs, Rotella, A., Sparks, A., Barclay, P. 30 Apr 2020, In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Measuring delay discounting in a crowdsourced sample: An exploratory study., Rotella, A., Fogg, C., Mishra, S., Barclay, P. Dec 2019, In: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology