Research Interest
Research Interests
I am interested in human motivation. In my studies, I examine how personality and social factors influence how and why people behave the way they do. My work is mainly experimental and takes a broad perspective on motivation that includes social power, achievement motivation, action orientation, cognitive control, affect, working memory, embodiment, and inadvertent plagiarism.
Teaching
In the academic year 2011/12 I teach the courses Self-regulation & Health (together with Dr. Yael De Liver), Current Debates In Motivation & Social Cognition (in English; together with Prof. Jens Förster), and Motivation (in Dutch).
Media Mentions
Thinking literally: The surprising ways that metaphors shape your world (The Boston Globe)
Want Serious Answers? Weigh Someone Down (The Washington Post)
Abstract Thoughts? The Body Takes Them Literally (The New York Times)
Wer machtlos ist, macht Fehler (Sueddeutsche Zeitung - Germany)
Cognitive disenhancement: Status and mental agility (The Economist)
Wer sich bewegt, sieht die Welt aus einer anderen Perspektive (Tages-Anzeiger - Switzerland)
Tyngde får deg til å tenke (forskning.no - Norway)
Weighty Issues: Don't Let Cheap Chips Get You Down (pokerlistings.com)
Tragen, um getragen zu werden (Deutschlandfunk - German National Radio)
Publications
Förster, J., & Jostmann, N. B. (in press). What is automatic self-regulation? Journal of Psychology.
Koole, S. L., Jostmann, N. B., & Baumann, N. (in press). Do demanding conditions help or hurt self-regulation? Personality and Social Psychology Compass.
Dannenberg, L., Förster, J., & Jostmann, N. B. (2012). ‘‘If only. . .’’: When counterfactual thoughts can reduce illusions of personal authorship. Consciousness and Cognition, 21, 456-463.
Lakens, D., Schneider, I. K., Jostmann, N. B., & Schubert, T. W. (2011). Telling things apart: Key distance influences response times in binary categorization tasks. Psychological Science, 22, 887-89.
Schneider, I. K., Rutjens, B. T., Jostmann, N. B., & Lakens, D. (2011). Weighty matters: Importance literally feels heavy. Social Psychological andPersonality Science, 2, 474-478.
Jostmann, N. B., Karremans, J., & Finkenauer, C. (2011). When love is not blind: Rumination impairs implicit affect regulation in response to romantic relationship threat. Cognition & Emotion, 25, 506-518.
Jostmann, N. B., & Koole, S. L. (2010). Dealing with demands: The role of action versus state orientation. In R. Hoyle (Ed.), Handbook of personality and self-regulation (pp. 332-352). Oxford, UK : Wiley-Blackwell.
Jostmann, N. B., Lakens, D., & Schubert, T. W. (2009). Weight as an embodiment of importance. Psychological Science, 20, 1169-1174.
Jostmann, N. B., & Koole, S. L. (2009). When persistence is futile: A functional analysis of action orientation and goal disengagement. In G. B. Moskowitz and H. Grant (Eds.), The psychology of goals (pp. 337-361). New York, USA : Guilford .
Smith, P. K., Jostmann, N. B., Galinsky, A. D., & Van Dijk, W. W. (2008). Lacking power impairs executive functions. Psychological Science, 19, 441-447.
Jostmann, N. B., & Koole, S. L. (2007). On the regulationof cognitive control: Action orientation moderates the impact of high demands in Stroop interference tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136, 593-609.
Jostmann, N. B., & Koole, S. L. (2006). On the waxing and waning of working memory: Action orientation moderates the impact of demanding relationship primes on working memory capacity.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1716-1728.
Koole, S. L., Kuhl. J., Jostmann, N. B., & Finkenauer,C.(2006). Self-regulation in interpersonal relationships: The case of action versus state orientation. In K. D. Vohs & E. J. Finkel (Eds.), Self and relationships: Connecting intrapersonal and interpersonal processes (pp. 360-383). New York, USA: Guilford.
Jostmann, N. B., Koole, S. L., Van der Wulp, N. Y., & Fockenberg, D. A. (2005). Subliminal Affect Regulation: The Moderating Role of Action versus State Orientation. European Psychologist, 10,209-217.
Koole, S. L., Kuhl, J., Jostmann, N. B.,& Vohs, K. D. (2005). On the hidden benefits of state orientation: Can people prosper without efficient affect regulation skills? In A. Tesser, J. Woods, & D. A. Stapel (Eds.), Psychological perspectives on the self (pp. 217-244). New York , USA : Psychology Press.
Koole, S. L., & Jostmann, N. B. (2004). Getting a grip on your feelings: Effects of action orientation and external demands on intuitive affect regulation. Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology, 87, 974-990.