Northern Illinois University
Department of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Research Interests

My research delves into the intricacies of how individuals perceive, experience and interpret social interactions. A significant emphasis of my work centers on understanding how people construct meaning around interpersonal transgressions and the intricate relationship between this sense-making process, feelings of regret and the desire for apologies.

Representative Publications

• McCarthy, R. J. & Wilson, J. P. (2023). Perpetrators’ and Victims’ Folk Explanations of Aggressive Behaviors and Desires for Apologies. Collabra: Psychology, 9(1), 84918. 
• McCarthy, R. J. (in press). Do perpetrators and victims rely on different information when judging whether aggressive behaviors are justified? Aggressive Behavior. 
• McCarthy, R. J. & Wilson, J. P. (in press). Perpetrators’ Folk Explanations of Their Regretted and Justified Aggressive Behaviors. The Journal of Social Psychology.  
• McCarthy, R. J., Jensen, A. P., Wilson, J. P., & Rivers, A. K. (2022). Perpetrators’, Victims’, and Witnesses’ Folk Explanations of Aggressive Behaviors. Psychological reports, 00332941221123781. 
• Milner, J. S., Crouch, J. L., McCarthy, R. J., Ammar, J., Dominguez-Martinez, R., Thomas, C. L., & Jensen, A. P. (2022). Child physical abuse risk factors: A systematic review and a meta-analysis. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 101778. 
• McCarthy, R. J., Rivers, A. K., Jensen, A. P., Pawirosetiko, J. S., & Erickson, J. M. (2022). Is the victim-perpetrator asymmetry stronger in situations where blame is being assigned?. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 101, 104333.
  
  • OSF | The victim-perpetrator asymmetry is stronger in situations where blame is being assigned
• McCarthy, R. J., Erickson, J. M., Hu, X., Pawirosetiko, J. S., Tarleton, H. L., Thomas, C. L., Tillery, M. G., & Sagarin, B. J. (2021). Broad agreement, but notes of caution with the implications of Sakaluk's (2020) critique of Wisman and Shrira (2020). Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50, 773-777.
  • McCarthy, R.J. (2020). OSF | commentary on Wisman & Shrira (2020)
• McCarthy, R. J., & Rivers, A. K. (2021). Does trait hostility moderate the asymmetry in victim-perpetrator perceptions of aggressive behaviors? Psychological Reports. 
  • OSF | Trait Hostility-Victim-Perpetrator Asymmetry
• McCarthy, R. J., Gervais, W., Aczel, B., Al-Kire, R. L., Baraldo S. M., Baruh L., Basch, C., Baumert, A., Behler, A., Bettencourt, A., Bitar, A., Bouxom, H., Buck, A., Cemalcilar, Z., Chekroun, P., Chen, J. M., del Fresno- Díaz, A., Ducham, A, Edlund, J. E.,…Zogmaister, C. (2021). A multi-site collaborative study of the hostile priming effect. Collabra: Psychology, 7, 18738. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.18738
  • OSF | Hostile Priming-Multi-Site Collaboration
• McCarthy, R.  J., Skowronski, J. J., Verschuere, B., Meijer, E. H., Jim, A., Hoogesteyn, K., Orthey, R., …. Yildiz, E. (2018). Registered Replication Report: Srull & Wyer (1979). Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 1(3), 321-336. 
  •  OSF | RRR - Mazar/Srull - cheating and hostility priming
• McCarthy, R., et al. (2018). An Investigation of Abstract Construal on Impression Formation: A Multi-Lab Replication of Mccarthy and Skowronski (2011). International Review of Social Psychology, 15, 1-6. doi:10.5334/irsp.133
  • OSF | Collaborative Data Collection
• McCarthy, R. J. (2017). Due diligence: Revisiting the heat-aggression association hypothesis. Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, 2, 216-227, 
  • OSF | Heat-Aggression Association-AMP
• McCarthy, R. J., & Elson, M. (2017). A Conceptual Review of Lab-Based Aggression Paradigms. Collabra: Psychology, 4(1), 1–12, doi:10.1525/collabra.104 
  • OSF | A Conceptual Review of Lab-Based Aggression Paradigms
• McCarthy, R. J., & Chartier, C. R (2017). Collections²: Using “Crowdsourcing” within Psychological Research. Collabra: Psychology, 3(1), 1-6, doi:10.1525/collabra.107
• McCarthy, R. J. (2017). Experiencing Instigations and Trait Aggression Contribute to Harsh Parenting Behaviors. Psychological Reports, 120, 1078-1095. doi:10.1177/0033294117711934
  • OSF Project Link for Experiencing Instigations and Trait Aggression Contribute to Harsh Parenting Behaviors
• McCarthy, R. J., Skowronski, J. J., Crouch, J. L., & Milner, J. S. (2017). Parents’ spontaneous evaluations of children and symbolic harmful behaviors toward their child. Child Abuse & Neglect, 67, 419-428. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.02.005
  • OSF | Parents' Spontaneous Trait Inferences is Moderated by Risk for Child Physical Abuse
• McCarthy, R. J., Miron, L. R., Milner, J. S., Coley, S. L., Ormsby, L., & Oliver., M. (2016). When does child maltreatment occur? Daily variations in child maltreatment among families served by the United States Air Force Family Advocacy Program. Military Behavioral Health, 364-372. doi:10.1080/21635781.1181586 
• McCarthy, R. J., Wagner, M. F., Basham, A, & Jones, C. (2016). Individual Differences in Parents’ Impressions of Children and Child Physical Abuse: A Meta-Analysis. Psychology of Violence, 6, 485-496. doi:10.1037/vio0000028
  • OSF | Parents' Impressions of Children-Child Physical Abuse Meta-Analysis
• Coley, S. L., McCarthy, R. J., Milner, J. S., Ormsby, L., & Travis, W. J. (2016). Intimate partner maltreatment recidivism in United States Air Force Families. Military Medicine, 181, 926-930. doi:10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00333
• Zengel, B., McCarthy, R. J., Skowronski, J. J., & Ambler, J. (2016). Spontaneous trait inference and spontaneous trait transference are both unaffected by prior evaluations of informants. The Journal of Social Psychology, 157, 382-387. doi:10.1080/00224545.2016.1192099
  • OSF | STI-STT with prior evaluations
• McCarthy, R. J., Coley, S. C., Wagner, M. F., Zengel, B., & Basham, A. (2016). Does playing video games with violent content temporarily increase aggressive inclinations? A pre-registered experimental study. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 67, 13-19. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2015.10.009
  • OSF Project Link for Does playing video games with violent content temporarily increase aggressive inclinations?
• McCarthy, R. J., Crouch, J. L., Basham, A., Milner, J. S., & Skowronski, J. J. (2016). Validating the Voodoo doll task as a proxy for aggressive parenting behaviors. Psychology of Violence, 6, 135-144. 
  • OSF | VDT Validation Studies
• McCarthy, R. J. (2014). Close replication attempts of the heat priming-hostile perception effect. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 54, 165-169. 
  • OSF | The Effect of "Heat-Priming" on Hostile Perceptions
• McCarthy, R. J., Crouch, J. L., Skowronski, J. J., Milner, J. S., Hiraoka, R., Rutledge, E., & Jenkins, J. (2013). Child physical abuse risk moderates spontaneously inferred traits from ambiguous child behaviors. Child Abuse & Neglect, 37, 1142-1151. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2013.05.003
• Crawford, M. T., McCarthy, R. J., Kjaerstad, H. L., & Skowronski, J. J. (2013). Inferences are for doing: The impact of approach and avoidance states on the generation of spontaneous trait inferences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39, 267-278. doi:10.1177/0146167212473158  
• McCarthy, R. J., & Skowronski, J. J. (2011). Level of construal affects the impact of central traits on impression formation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 1304-1307. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.05.017
• McCarthy, R. J., & Skowronski, J. J. (2011). The interplay of controlled and automatic processes in the expression of spontaneously inferred traits: A PDP analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 229-240. doi:10.1037/a0021991
• McCarthy, R. J., & Skowronski, J. J. (2011). What will Phil do next? The influence of spontaneous trait inferences on behavior predictions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 321-332. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.10.015