Teaching and mentoring is a deeply rewarding experience to me, and I strive to be the best educator of science that I can. Over the past ten years, as a collaborator, teacher, mentor, and project supervisor, I have worked with scores of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students, from all different backgrounds, majors, and cultures. Many of my students and mentees have won departmental or national awards for the quality of the research projects I supervised. Several of my students and mentees have gone on to enroll in the top law schools, medical schools, and graduate programs in the country.  In recognition of this, I have been awarded a Certificate of Teaching Excellence from the Bok Center at Harvard University.

Teaching Interests

  • Introduction to General, Personality, or Social Psychology

  • Research Methods and Statistics

  • Psychology of the Self

  • Attitudes and Social Behavior

  • Social Cognition

  • Stereotyping and Prejudice

  • Motivations for Social Action

  • Political Psychology

  • Persuasion and Propaganda

  • Fake News and Political Misperceptions

  • Dynamics of Public Opinion

  • Social Psychology and Law

  • Organizational Behavior


Teaching Experience

Attitudes and Social Behavior
Teaching Assistant: Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2015 (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

Confronting Bias in the Self and Others
Instructor: Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020 (Harvard University)
Instructor: Spring 2020, Winter 2021-22 (Harvard Extension School)

Dynamic of Public Opinion

Instructor: Fall 2020, Spring 2022 (Stony Brook University)

Fake News and Political Misperceptions
Instructor: Spring 2019, Spring 2020 (Harvard University)
Instructor: Spring 2020 (Harvard Extension School)

History of Psychology
Teaching Assistant: Spring 2014 (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

Implicit Social Cognition

Co-Instructor, with Mahzarin R. Banaji: Fall 2018 (Harvard University)

**Supervised Independent Study

Introduction to Learning and Human Behavior
Teaching Assistant: Fall 2014 (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

Introduction to Psychology
Teaching Assistant: Fall 2013 (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

Introduction to Research Methods
Discussion Section Leader: Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2013 (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)
Teaching Assistant: Fall 2011 (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

Introduction to Social Psychology
Instructor: Spring 2017, 2018 (Lehigh University)
Discussion Section Leader: Fall 2010, Spring 2011 (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)
Teaching Assistant: Fall 2013 (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

Major Project in Psychology
Discussion Section Leader and Project Supervisor: Fall 2014, Spring 2015 (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

On and Beyond the Witness Stand: Social Psychology & Law
Instructor: Fall 2021 (Stony Brook University)
Instructor: Fall 2018, Fall 2019 (Harvard University)

Persuasion and Propaganda

Instructor: Spring 2021 (Stony Brook University)

Political Psychology of Elite Behavior
Teaching Assistant and Discussion Section Leader: Fall 2012, Spring 2012 (Guest Lecturer Only)

Political Psychology
Instructor: Fall 2017 (Lehigh University)


Invited Presentations, Guest Lectures, & Community outreach

Vitriol, J.A (2022, May). Internal conflict & prejudice-regulation: Emotional ambivalence increases bias awareness. Invited talk to the Ambivalence Conference at Lehigh University.

Vitriol, J.A (2022, March). Defensive reactions to anti-bias education: What it is & why it matters. Invited talk to the Behavioral Sciences and Leadership Department at the United States Air Force Academy.

Vitriol, J.A (2022, March). Defensive reactions to anti-bias education: What it is & why it matters. Invited talk to the Management Department of the Business College at Lehigh University.

Vitriol, J.A (2022, February). Defensive reactions to anti-bias education: What it is & why it matters. Invited talk to the Psychology Department at Occidental College.

Vitriol, J.A (2022, February). Defensive reactions to anti-bias education: What it is & why it matters. Invited talk to the Behavioral Science and Law Department of the New College at Arizona State University.

Vitriol, J.A (2021, November). Defensive responding to implicit bias feedback: Causes, consequences, & solutions…?. Invited talk to the Social-Personality area of the Psychology Department at the University of California, Riverside. Vitriol, J.A. (2020, December). Learning about the unconscious mind. Invited talk to Teach for America.

Vitriol, J.A (2020, November). Misinformation and correction. Invited guest lecture in the Political Science Department at Stony Brook University.

Vitriol, J.A (2020, November). Metacognition in political psychology; Causes and Consequences of Attitude Certainty. Invited presentation at the Nam Lab in the Political Science Department at Stony Brook University.

Vitriol, J.A (2020, October). Infectious disease and political ideology. Paper presented to the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University.

Vitriol, J.A (2020, March). Learning about the unconscious mind. Invited presentation to the Robertson Center at the Success Academy.

Vitriol, J.A (2020, April). Metacognition in political psychology; Causes and Consequences of Attitude Certainty. Invited presentation to the BSL and HCL labs in the Business Schools at Regina University and MIT.

Vitriol, J.A (2020, March). Illusions of knowledge and conspiratorial thinking. Paper to be presented at the University of Miami Conspiracy Theory Conference.

Vitriol, J.A (2019, March). Learning about implicit bias science. Paper presented to the Social Cognition Lab in the Psychology Department at Harvard University.

Vitriol, J.A (2018, November). Learning about implicit bias science. Paper presented to the Psychology Department at the University of Georgia.

Vitriol, J.A (2018, October). Defensive responding to implicit bias feedback: Causes, consequences, & solutions…?. Paper presented to the Social Cognition Lab in the Psychology Department at Harvard University.

Vitriol, J.A (April, 2018). Fake news and a “Post-Truth” reality in modern society. Invited presentation for the Gryphon Society Student Organization in Collaboration with Faculty guest speaker series at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA.

Vitriol, J.A & Packer, D.J. (March, 2018). The science of group membership. Invited presentation for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine, Washington, D.C.

Vitriol, J.A (October 2016). Intergroup Contact Theory. Guest lecture for Lehigh University course on Prejudice and Stereotyping.

Vitriol, J.A (2016, September). The (In)Egalitarian Self: On the Motivated Rejection of Implicit Racial Bias. Paper presented to the Psychology Department at Lehigh University.

Vitriol, J.A (2016, September). The (In)Egalitarian Self: On the Motivated Rejection of Implicit Racial Bias. Paper presented to the Psychology Department at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Borgida, E., Loken, B., Vitriol, J.A. , Williams, A. (April, 2016). Consumer Perceptions of Smokeless Tobacco Consituents as a Function of Public Display Format. Paper presented for the Tobacco Research Studies meeting, Minneapolis, MN.

Vitriol, J.A (July, 2016). Race and Eyewitness Memory. Guest speaker for Critical Thinking Discussion Group, Maple Grove, MN.

Vitriol, J.A (March 2015). Extending Message Learning Approach to Attitude Change. Guest lecture for University of Minnesota Twin-Cities course on Attitudes and Social Behavior.

Vitriol, J.A (May 2015). Reformulating Intergroup Contact Theory. Guest lecture for University of Minnesota Twin-Cities course on Attitudes and Social Behavior.

Vitriol, J.A. (Fall, 2013). Political Psychology. Guest Lecture University of Minnesota Twin-Cities course in Political Science on Political Psychology of Elite Behavior.

Vitriol, J.A. (2012, April). Threat and Prosocial Behavior. Paper presented for the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ Proseminar in Social Psychology.

Center for the Study of Political Psychology, University of Minnesota (with Drs. Eugene Borgida and Howie Lavine, November, 2012). Multi-Investigator Study of the 2012 Presidential Election. Guest Lecture and Workshop at Blake Middle School, Hopkins, MN.

Vitriol, J.A (2012, April; May 2013; May 2014). Resistance to Persuasion. Guest lecture for University of Minnesota Twin-Cities course on Attitudes and Social Behavior.


Mentoring

I also have extensive experience mentoring undergraduate and graduate students as research assistants on my own projects, as well as in helping them to develop their own independent line of research. Three of my undergraduate research assistants have won departmental or national awards for the quality of the research projects I supervised.