Fredrik Björklund
Main areas of research
1. Moral psychology
2. Stereotypes and prejudice
3. Personality assessment
My research concerns how people perceive themselves and others, particularly in moral matters, when interacting with individuals from other groups, and when responding to questionnaire items. Here are short descriptions of three projects that I’m involved in.
1. Moral psychology
How do we come to the judgment that something is morally blameworthy or praiseworthy? How do we make decisions in moral matters? The project concerns moral cognition and we often use experimental methods to study how judgments and decisions are affected by contextual factors and interact with personality.
Some relevant publications
Agerström, J., & Björklund, F. (2009). Moral concerns are greater for temporally distant events and are moderated by value strength. Social Cognition, 27, 260–281.
Agerström, J., & Björklund, F. (2009). Temporal distance and moral concerns: Future immoral behavior is perceived as more wrong and evokes stronger prosocial intentions. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 31, 1–11.
Björklund, F. (2003). Differences in the justification of choices in moral dilemmas: Effects of gender, time pressure and dilemma seriousness. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 44, 459–466.
Björklund, F. (2004). Intuition and ex-post facto reasoning in moral judgment: Some experimental findings. In W. Rabinowicz & T. Rønnow-Rasmussen (Eds.), Patterns of value: Essays on formal axiology and value analysis (Vol. 2, pp. 36–50). Lund: Philosophy Reports.
Haidt, J., & Björklund, F. (2008). Social intuitionists answer six questions about moral psychology. W. Sinnott-Armstrong (Ed.), Moral psychology (Vol 2). The cognitive science of morality: Intuition and diversity (pp. 181–217). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
2. Stereotypes and prejudice
How do stereotypes affect our view of ourselves and others? In this project we investigate how information on group membership affects trait judgments. Just as in the morality project described above we primarily work with social cognitive theories and experimental methods.
Some relevant publications
Björklund, F., Bäckström, M., & Jørgensen, Ø. (in press). In-group ratings are affected by who asks and how: Interactive effects of experimenter group-membership and accountability concerns. The Journal of Social Psychology.
Bäckström, M., & Björklund, F. (2007). Structural modeling of generalized prejudice: The role of social dominance, authoritarianism, and empathy. Journal of Individual Differences, 28, 10–17.
Carlsson, R., & Björklund, F. (2010). Implicit stereotype content: Mixed stereotypes can be measured with the Implicit Association Test. Social Psychology, 41, 213–222.
Gustafsson, U., & Björklund, F. (2008). Women self-stereotype with feminine stereotypical traits under stereotype threat. Current Research in Social Psychology, 13, 1–13.
Tellhed, U., & Björklund, F. (in press). Stereotype threat in salary negotiations is mediated by reservation salary. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology.
3. Personality assessment
What role does social desirability play in the measurement of personality, and how can we develop self-rating inventories that provide relatively “pure” measures of personality? The project involves basic research on social desirability and test development, and applied research on e.g. selection and recruitment.
Some relevant publications
Bäckström, M., Björklund, F., & Larsson, M. (2009). Five-factor inventories have a major higher order factor related to social desirability which can be reduced by framing items neutrally. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 335–344.
Bäckström, M., Björklund, F., & Larsson, M. (in press). Social desirability in personality assessment: Outline of a model to explain individual differences. In M. Ziegler, C. McCann, & R. D. Roberts (Eds.) New perspectives on faking in personality assessment. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bäckström, M., & Björklund, F. (submitted). Item popularity is clearly related to social desirability and faster responses in graded self ratings of the Big Five.
Publications
Books (1)
Articles (33)
- Agerström, J. & Björklund, F. (in press). Why people with an eye toward the future are more moral: The role of abstract thinking. Basic and Applied Social Psychology. Taylor & Francis.
- Erlandsson, A., Björklund, F. & Bäckström, M. (in press). Perceived Utility (not Sympathy) Mediates the Proportion Dominance Effect in Helping Decisions. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. Wiley.
- Strandberg, C. & Björklund, F. (in press). Is moral internalism supported by folk intuitions?. Philosophical Psychology. Taylor & Francis.
- Agerström, J., Björklund, F. & Carlsson, R. (2013). Look at yourself!: Visual perspective influences moral judgment through level of mental construal. Social Psychology, 44, 42-46. Hogrefe.
- Bäckström, M. & Björklund, F. (2013). Social desirability in personality inventories: Symptoms, diagnosis and prescribed cure. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 54, 152-159. Wiley-Blackwell.
- Jörgensen, Ö., Bäckström, M. & Björklund, F. (2013). Bidirectional correction in social judgments: How a cue to the risk of bias causes more favorable ratings of some groups but less favorable of others. The Journal of Social Psychology, 153, 131-148. Taylor and Francis.
- Sinclair, S., Tellhed, U. & Björklund, F. (2013). The Relation between Students’ Implicit Researcher-Gender Associations and Perceptions of a Research Career. Lund Psychological Reports, 13.
- Agerström, J., Björklund, F. & Carlsson, R. (2012). Emotions in time: Moral emotions appear more intense with temporal distance. Social Cognition, 30, 181-198. Guilford Press.
- Agerström, J., Björklund, F., Carlsson, R. & Rooth, D. (2012). Warm and competent Hassan = cold and incompetent Eric: A harsh equation of real-life hiring discrimination. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 34, 359-366. Taylor & Francis.
- Björklund, F., Bäckström, M. & Wolgast, S. (2012). Company norms affect which traits are preferred in job candidates and may cause employment discrimination. The Journal of Psychology: International and Applied, 146, 579-594. Taylor & Francis.
- Björklund, F., Björnsson, G., Eriksson, J., Francén Olinder, R. & Strandberg, C. (2012). Recent work: Motivational internalism. Analysis, 72, 124-137. Oxford University Press.
- Carlsson, R., Björklund, F. & Bäckström, M. (2012). Mixed discriminatory judgments of individuals’ warmth and competence related abilities. Social Psychology, 43, 160-167. Hogrefe.
- Larsson, M., Björklund, F. & Bäckström, M. (2012). Right-wing authoritarianism is a risk factor of torture-like abuse, but so is social dominance orientation. Personality and Individual Differences, 53, 927-929. Elsevier.
- Mõttus, R., Allik, J., Realo, A., Pullman, H., Rossier, J., Zecca, G., Ah-Kion, J., Amoussou-Yéyé, D., Bäckström, M., Barkauskiene, R., Barry, O., Bhowon, U., Björklund, F., Bochaver, A., Bochaver, K., de Bruin, G., Cabrera, H., Chen, S., Church, T., Cissé, D., Dahourou, D., Feng, X., Guan, Y., Hwang, H., Idris, F., Katigbak, M., Kuppens, P., Kwiatkowska, A., Laurinavicius, A., Mastor, K., Matsumoto, D., Reimann, R., Schug, J., Simpson, B. & Ng Tseung, C. (2012). Comparability of self-reported conscientiousness across 21 countries. European Journal of Personality, 26, 303-317. John Wiley & Sons.
- Mõttus, R., Allik, J., Realo, A., Rossier, J., Zecca, G., Ah-Kion, J., Amoussou-Yéyé, D., Bäckström, M., Barkauskiene, R., Barry, O., Bhowon, U., Björklund, F., Bochaver, A., Bochaver, K., de Bruin, G., Cabrera, H., Xiaohua Chen, S., Church, A., Cissé, D., Dahourou, D., Feng, X., Guan, Y., Hwang, H., Idris, F., Katigbak, M., Kuppens, P., Kwiatkowska, A., Laurinavicius, A., Mastor, K., Matsumoto, D., Riemann, R., Schug, J., Simpson, B., Tseung-Wong, C. & Johnson, W. (2012). The effect of response style on self-reported conscientiousness across 20 countries. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 1423-1436.
- Agerström, J., Björklund, F. & Carlsson, R. (2011). Gender differences in implicit moral orientation associations: The justice and care debate revisited. Current Research in Social Psychology, 17, 10-18.
- Björklund, F., Bäckström, M. & Jörgensen, Ö. (2011). In-group ratings are affected by who asks and how: interactive effects of experimenter group-membership and response format. Journal of Social Psychology, 151, 625-634. Taylor & Francis Group.
- Tellhed, U. & Björklund, F. (2011). Stereotype threat in salary negotiations is mediated by reservation salary. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 52, 185-195. Wiley-Blackwell.
- Agerström, J., Björklund, F. & Allwood, C. (2010). The influence of temporal distance on justice and care morality. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 46-55. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
- Carlsson, R. & Björklund, F. (2010). Implicit stereotype content: Mixed stereotypes can be measured with the Implicit Association Test. Social Psychology, 41, 213-222. Hogrefe Publishing.
- Agerström, J. & Björklund, F. (2009). Moral concerns are greater for temporally distant events and are moderated by value strength. Social Cognition, 27, 261-282. Guilford.
- Agerström, J. & Björklund, F. (2009). Temporal distance and moral concerns: Future morally questionable behavior is seen as more wrong and evokes stronger prosocial intentions. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 31, 49-59. Taylor & Francis.
- Bäckström, M., Björklund, F. & Larsson, M. (2009). Five-factor inventories have a major higher order factor related to social desirability which can be reduced by framing items neutrally. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 335-344. Elsevier.
- Olatunji, B., Moretz, M., Mckay, D., Björklund, F., de Jong, P., Haidt, J., Hursti, T., Imada, S., Koller, S., Mancini, F., Page, A. & Schienle, A. (2009). Confirming the three-factor structure of the Disgust Scale-Revised in eight countries. Journal Of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40, 234-255. Sage Publications Inc.
- Bäckström, M. & Björklund, F. (2008). The Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA): Further testing of structural and criterion-related validity. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35, 1398-1410. Sage Publications Inc.
- Björklund, F. & Bäckström, M. (2008). Individual differences in processing styles: validity of the Rational-Experiential Inventory. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 49, 439-446. Wiley InterScience.
- Gustafsson, U. & Björklund, F. (2008). Women self-stereotype with feminine stereotypical traits under stereotype threat. Current Research in Social Psychology, 13, 219-231. University of Iowa, Department of Sociology.
- Bäckström, M. & Björklund, F. (2007). Structural modeling of generalized prejudice: The role of social dominance, authoritarianism, and empathy. Journal of Individual Differences, 28, 10-17.
- Rohner, J. & Björklund, F. (2006). Do self-presentation concerns moderate the relationship between implicit and explicit homonegativity measures?. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 47, 379-385. Blackwell Publishing.
- Ellervall, E., Björklund, F., Rohlin, M., Vinge, E. & Knutsson, K. (2005). Antibiotic prophylaxis in oral health care: administration strategies of general dental practitioners. Acta Odontologica Scandinavica, 63, 321-329. Taylor & Francis.
- Björklund, F. & Hursti, T. (2004). A Swedish translation and validation of the Disgust Scale: A measure of disgust sensitivity. Scandinavian journal of psychology, 45, 279-284. Blackwell Publishing.
- Björklund, F. (2003). Differences in the justification of choices in moral dilemmas: Effects of gender, time pressure and dilemma seriousness. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 44, 459-466.
- Björklund, F. (2000). Defense mechanisms and morality: A link between isolation and moralization. In Rönnberg, J. (Eds.) Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (pp. 55-61), 41. Blackwell Publishers.
Book chapters (4)
- Agerström, J. & Björklund, F. (2013). Temporal construal and moral motivation. In Heinrichs, K., Oser, F. & Lovat, T. (Eds.) Handbook of moral motivation: Theories, models, applications (pp. 181-196). Sense Publishers.
- Bäckström, M., Björklund, F. & Larsson, M. (2011). Social desirability in personality assessment: Outline of a model to explain individual differences. In Ziegler, M., MacCann, C. & Roberts, R. (Eds.) New perspectives on faking in personality assessment (pp. 201-213). Oxford University Press.
- Haidt, J. & Björklund, F. (2008). Social intuitionists answer six questions about moral psychology. In Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (Ed.) Moral psychology (Vol 2). The cognitive science of morality: Intuition and diversity (pp. 181-217). MIT press.
- Haidt, J. & Björklund, F. (2008). Social intuitionists reason, in conversation. In Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (Ed.) Moral psychology (Vol 2). The cognitive science of morality: Intuition and diversity (pp. 241-254). MIT press.
Conference papers (13)
- Erlandsson, A., Björklund, F. & Bäckström, M. (2012). Perceived Utility (not Sympathy) Mediates the Proportion Dominance Effect.
- Agerström, J. & Björklund, F. (2009). Temporal distance increases moral blame: The mediational role of attribution bias. The 10th Annual Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, 405-405.
- Agerström, J., Björklund, F. & Allwood, C. (2007). The Influence of Temporal and Spatial Distance on Moral Judgment and Decision Making. Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
- Björklund, F. (2007). Disgust-based intuitions and personality traits affect moral judgments.
- Björklund, F. & Bäckström, M. (2007). Why are some persons more prejudiced than others? The role of social dominance, authoritarianism, and empathy. In Harackiewicz, J. (Ed.) Annual Meeting (pp. 138-138). Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
- Gustafsson, U. & Björklund, F. (2007). Implicit and explicit self-stereotyping in salary negotiations. In Harackiewicz, J. (Ed.) Annual Meeting (pp. 217-217), 2007. Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
- Björklund, F. (2006). Rationality and experientiality as moderators of moral judgment.
- Björklund, F. (2005). Just because it’s disgusting does make it more wrong: Level of disgust affects moral judgment.
- Björklund, F. (2004). Intuition and ex-post facto reasoning in moral judgment: Some experimental findings.
- Björklund, F. (2003). Differences in the justification of choices in moral dilemmas: effects of gender, time pressure and dilemma seriousness.
- Björklund, F. (2003). Emotion and social motivation in university students’ real life moral dilemmas.
- Björklund, F. (2003). The role of intuition and reasoning in moral judgment.
- Björklund, F., Ferguson, M. & Trope, Y. (2002). Perceived costs of omission vs. commission errors play a role in trait inferences.
Reports (12)
- Jörgensen, Ö., Bäckström, M. & Björklund, F. (2012). A measure of internal and external motivation to control in-group bias. In Lindgren, M. (Ed.) Lund Psychological Reports. Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund.
- Agerström, J., Björklund, F. & Allwood, C. (2009). The effects of time and abstraction on moral concerns. Lund Psychological Reports. Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund.
- Rohner, J., Björklund, F. & Mårtensson, J. (2007). Transforming fiction into fact: Flawed reality—monitoring of socially sensitive person—information. In Hansson, S. & Lindgren, M. (Eds.) Lund Psychological Reports. Department of Psychology, Lund University.
- Bäckström, M., Björklund, F., Hansson, S., Bern, D. & Westerlundh, B. (2005). What makes some persons more prejudiced than others? Modeling the role of social dominance, empathy, social desirability, and gender. In Hansson, S. & Lindgren, M. (Eds.) Lund Psychological Reports. Department of Psychology, Lund University.
- Westerlundh, B., Hansson, S., Björklund, F. & Bäckström, M. (2005). On the nature and expression of prejudice as seen in judgments of pictorial stimuli. In Hansson, S. & Lindgren, M. (Eds.) Lund Psychological Reports. Lund University, Department of Psychology.
- Björklund, F. (2004). Intuition and ex-post facto reasoning in moral judgment: Some experimental findings. In Rabinowicz, W. & Rønnow-Rasmussen, T. (Eds.) LPR. Lund philosophy reports 2004:1. Patterns of value. Essays on formal axiology and value analysis, vol. 2, pp 36-50.. Lund University, Department of Philosophy.
- Björklund, F. (2004). Just because it’s disgusting does make it more wrong: Level of disgust affects moral judgment. In Hansson, S. & Westerlundh, B. (Eds.) Lund Psychological Reports. Lund University, Department of Psychology.
- Rohner, J. & Björklund, F. (2004). Implicit and explicit homonegativity as moderated by self-presentation concerns and sexual orientation. Lund Psychological Reports. Lund University, Department of Psychology.
- Björklund, F., Bäckström, M., Hansson, S., Rohner, J. & Westerlundh, B. (2003). Attitudes to gender, age and sexual preferences in a Swedish setting : Results with the Implicit Association Test. In Hansson, S. & Westerlundh, B. (Eds.) Lund Psychological Reports. Lund University, Department of Psychology.
- Björklund, F. (2002). Emotion and social motivation in university students´ real life moral dilemmas. In Nyström, M. & Fridell, M. (Eds.) Lund Psychological Reports. Lund University, Department of Psychology.
- Björklund, F. (2000). Differences in the justification of choices in moral dilemmas: effects of gender, time pressure and dilemma seriousness. Lund psychological reports. Department of Psychology, Lund University.
- Björklund, F., Haidt, J. & Murphy, S. (2000). Moral dumbfounding: when intuition finds no reason. Lund psychological reports. Department of Psychology, Lund University.
Supervision at Lund University (5)
- Nilsson, A. (2013). The Psychology of Worldviews: Toward a Non-Reductive Science of Personality. Media-Tryck, Lund University. Dissertation.
- Carlsson, R. (2013). Warmth and competence in implicit stereotypes and discrimination. Dissertation.
- Jörgensen, Ö. (2012). In-group bias control. Department of Psychology, Lund university. Dissertation.
- Agerström, J. (2008). Temporal Distance and Morality: Moral Concerns Loom Larger in the Distant Future. Department of Psychology, Lund University. Dissertation.
- Gustafsson, U. (2008). Why Women Ask for Less Salary than Men: Mediation of Stereotype Threat in Salary Negotiations. Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 213, SE-221 00 LUND. Dissertation.
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