Spike W. S. Lee

Associate Professor of Marketing

Degrees:

2012 PhD, Social Psychology, University of Michigan. Chair: Norbert Schwarz.
“Psychological consequences of embodied and metaphorical thinking:
Empirical properties, theoretical implications, and future directions.”

2010 MS, Social Psychology, University of Michigan. Advisor: Norbert Schwarz.
“Clean your dirty mouth—No, not your hands: Modality-specific
embodiment of the morality-hygiene metaphor.”

2007 BSSc, Psychology, First-Class Honors, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Advisor: Michael Harris Bond. “Language as a culture-prime: Situated
cognition and motivation effects on the self.”

Email:

Send an email to Spike W. S. Lee

Phone:

416-946-0012

Personal Website:

http://mindandbodylab.wixsite.com/mindandbodylab

Bio

Spike is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Psychology (Cross-Appointed) at the University of Toronto.

He is interested in how higher-order mental processes are grounded in sensorimotor experiences with the physical world, often leading to quirky effects (e.g., physical cleansing helps people move on by "wiping the slate clean"; when people "smell something fishy," they become suspicious and invest less money in a trust-dependent economic game). In terms of theoretical goals, he explores how the mind interacts with the body in multiple ways; why mind-body relations are often predicted by the metaphors we use; when and how metaphors influence affect, motivation, judgment, and behavior; what cognitive principles govern these effects; and how they vary by experimental, social, and cultural contexts.

He received the 2017 Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science, the 2016 Rising Star designation by the Association for Psychological Science, and the 2010 Early Graduate Student Researcher Award from the American Psychological Association.

Academic Positions

2016 - present

Assistant Professor of Psychology (Cross-Appointment), University of Toronto
2012 - present

Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Toronto

Selected Publications - Papers

Embodiment as procedures: Physical cleansing changes goal priming effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146, 592-605.

Dong, P., & Lee, S. W. S. (2017).
Dirty hands and dirty mouths: Embodiment of the moral-purity metaphor is specific to the motor modality involved in moral transgression. Psychological Science, 21, 1423-1425.

Lee, S. W. S., & Schwarz, N. (2010).
Washing away postdecisional dissonance. Science, 328, 709.

Lee, S. W. S., & Schwarz, N. (2010).
Washing away postdecisional dissonance. Science, 328, 709. Supplemental Online Material

Lee, S. W. S., & Schwarz, N. (2010).
Wiping the slate clean: Psychological consequences of physical cleansing. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 307-311.

Lee, S. W. S., & Schwarz, N. (2011).
Bidirectionality, mediation, and moderation of metaphorical effects: The embodiment of social suspicion and fishy smells. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103, 737-749.

Lee, S. W. S., & Schwarz, N. (2012).
Framing love: When it hurts to think we were made for each other. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 54, 61-67. AudioSlides

Lee, S. W. S., & Schwarz, N. (2014).
Framing love: When it hurts to think we were made for each other. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 54, 61-67.

Lee, S. W. S., & Schwarz, N. (2014).
Multimodal priming of abstract constructs. Current Opinion in Psychology, 12, 37-44.

Lee, S. W. S. (2016).
Am I doing better than you? That depends on whether you ask me in English or Chinese: Self-enhancement effects of language as a cultural mindset prime. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 785-791.

Lee, S. W. S., Oyserman, D., & Bond, M. H. (2010).
Sneezing in times of a flu pandemic: Public sneezing increases perceptions of unrelated risks and shifts preferences for federal spending. Psychological Science, 21, 375-377.

Lee, S. W. S., Schwarz, N., Taubman, D., & Hou, M. (2010).
A cultural look at moral purity: Wiping the face clean. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 577.

Lee, S. W. S., Tang, H., Wan, J., Mai, X., & Liu, C. (2015).
A cultural look at moral purity: Wiping the face clean. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 577. Academic Minute

Lee, S. W. S., Tang, H., Wan, J., Mai, X., & Liu, C. (2015).
Contextualism as an important facet of individualism-collectivism: Personhood beliefs across 37 national groups. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44, 24-45.

Owe, E., Vignoles, V. L., Becker, M., Brown, R., Smith, P. B., Lee, S. W. S., et al. (2012).
Does culture influence what and how we think? Effects of priming individualism and collectivism. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 311-342. Supplemental material (Appendix B)

Oyserman, D., & Lee, S. W. S. (2008).
Does culture influence what and how we think? Effects of priming individualism and collectivism. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 311-342.

Oyserman, D., & Lee, S. W. S. (2008).
How successful you have been in life depends on the response scale used: The role of cultural mindsets in pragmatic inferences drawn from question format. Social Cognition, 31, 222-236.

Uskul, A. K., Oyserman, D., Schwarz, N., Lee, S. W. S., & Xu, A. J. (2013).

Selected Publications - Books and Chapters

Maggots and morals: Physical disgust is to fear as moral disgust is to anger. In K. R. Scherer & J. R. J. Fontaine (Eds.), Components of emotional meaning: A sourcebook. Oxford University Press.

Lee, S. W. S., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2013).
Metaphor in judgment and decision making. In M. J. Landau, M. D. Robinson, & B. P. Meier (Eds.), Metaphorical thought in social life. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Lee, S. W. S., & Schwarz, N. (2014).
Clean-moral effects and clean-slate effects: Physical cleansing as an embodied procedure of psychological separation. In R. Duschinksy, S. Schnall, & D. Weiss (Eds.), Purity and danger now: New perspectives. London: Routledge.

Lee, S. W. S., & Schwarz N. (in press).
Priming culture: Culture as situated cognition. In S. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of cultural psychology (pp. 255-279). New York: Guilford Press.

Oyserman, D., & Lee, S. W. S. (2007).
A situated cognition perspective on culture: Effects of priming cultural syndromes on cognition and motivation. In R. M. Sorrentino & S. Yamaguchi (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition across cultures (pp. 237-265). San Diego, CA: Elsevier.

Oyserman, D., & Lee, S. W. S. (2008).

Featured Work

Research and Teaching Interests

For the most up-to-date information, please go to my lab website: http://mindandbodylab.wixsite.com/mindandbodylab

Honors and Awards

2018

Early Researcher Award, Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science
2016

Rising Star, Association for Psychological Science
2010

Early Graduate Student Researcher Award, American Psychological Association

Academic / Professional Service

2016-2017

Editor, Special Issue, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
2013

Editor, Special Issue, Journal of Consumer Psychology
2013-2014

Editor, Special Issue, In-Mind
2016-2018

Board Member, Social Sciences, Humanities, and Education Research Ethics Board, University of Toronto
2014-2018

Organizer, Annual Speaker Series, Department of Marketing, Rotman School of Management