Zachary Rothschild

Affiliation: Psychology

Associate Professor of Psychology, on leave for the fall 2024 semester

My research interests focus on the psychological defenses people employ to maintain a meaningful and controllable conception of reality and a positive moral identity when faced with circumstances that threaten to undermine these perceptions. I am particularly interested in the destructive consequences these defensive processes have on interpersonal and intergroup relationships. For example, one recent line of research examines how people engage in scapegoating to protect their perceived personal control or moral identity when confronted with large-scale negative events (e.g., climate change, economic turmoil). In a related line of research, I am exploring how feelings of guilt over personal/collective harm-doing can drive defensive expressions of moral outrage at other perceived harm-doers in the name of justice.

Curriculum Vitae

Rothschild, Z. K. & Keefer, L. A. (2023) Individual Differences Moderate the Dual-Motive Model of Scapegoating, Journal of Research in Personality, 105, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2023.104400

Rothschild, Z. K., & Keefer, L. A. (2022) Meaningful outrage: Moral outrage at injustice can boosts perceived meaning in life among those high in justice sensitivity. European Journal or Social Psychology. 52, 124-146.

Rothschild, Z. K., Keefer, L. A., & Hauri, J. (2021). Defensive partisanship? Evidence that in-party scandals increase out-party hostility. Political Psychology, 42, 3-21.

Keefer, L. A. & Rothschild, Z. K. (2020). Hoarding happiness: Object attachment attenuates the well-being costs of attachment anxiety. Journal of Individual Differences. 1-16.

Rothschild, Z. K., Hauri, J., & Keefer, L. A. (2020). Specific phobias: Maintaining control in the face of chaotic threats. Journal of Clinical and Social Psychology, 39, 383-418.

Rothschild, Z. K., & Keefer, L. A. (2018). Righteous or self-righteous anger? Justice sensitivity moderates defensive outrage at a third-party harm-doer. European Journal of Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2349

Rothschild, Z. K. & Keefer, L. A. (2017). A cleansing fire: Moral outrage alleviates guilt and buffers threats to one’s moral identity. Motivation and Emotion. DOI: 10.1007/s11031-017-9601-2

Rothschild, Z. K., Landau, M. J., Keefer, L. A., & Sullivan, D. (2015). Another’s punishment cleanses the self: Evidence for the moral cleansing function of punishing transgressors. Motivation and Emotion, 39, 722-741.

Sullivan, D., Landau, M. J., Rothschild, Z. K., Keefer, L. A. (2014). Searching for the root of all evil: An existential-sociological perspective on political enemyship and scapegoating. Invited Chapter in J. van Prooijen & P. A. M. van Lang (Eds.), Power, Politics and Paranoia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Press.

Rothschild, Z. K., Landau, M. J., Molina, L. K, Branscombe, N., & Sullivan, D. (2013). Displacing blame over the ingroup's harming of a disadvantaged group can fuel moral outrage at a third-party scapegoat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 898-906.

Rothschild, Z. K., Landau, M. J., Sullivan, D., & Keefer, L. A. (2012). A dual-motive model of scapegoating: Displacing blame to reduce guilt or increase control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 1148-1163.

Landau, M. J., Sullivan, D., Keefer, L. A., & Rothschild, Z. K. (2012). Subjectivity uncertainty theory of objectification: Compensating for uncertainty about how to positively relate to others by downplaying their subjective attributes.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 1234-1246.

Keefer, L. A., Landau, M. J., Rothschild, Z. K., & Sullivan, D. (2012). Attachment to objects as compensation for close others' perceived unreliability. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 912-917.

Landau, M. J., Sullivan, D., Rothschild, Z. K., & Keefer, L. A. (2012). Deriving solace from a nemesis: Having scapegoats and enemies buffers the threat of meaninglessness. In P. R. Shaver & M. Mikulincer (Eds.), Meaning, mortality, and choice: The social psychology of existential concerns. (pp. 183-202). American Psychological Association.

Sullivan, D., Landau, M. J., Branscombe, N. B., & Rothschild, Z. K. (2012). Competitive victimhood as a response to accusations of ingroup harm doing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 778-795. *Winner of the Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Award

Rothschild, Z. K., Landau, M. J., & Sullivan, D. (2011). By the numbers: Structure-seeking individuals prefer quantitative over qualitative representations of personal value to compensate for the threat of unclear performance contingencies. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1508-1521.

Landau, M. J., Rothschild, Z. K., & Sullivan, D. (2011). The extremism of everyday life: Fetishism as a defense against existential uncertainty. In M. A. Hogg & D. L. Blaylock (Eds.), Extremism and the psychology of uncertainty. (pp. 131-146). West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Vail, K. E., Rothschild, Z. K., Weise, D. R., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (2010). A terror management analysis of the psychological function of religion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14, 84-94.

Sullivan, D., Landau, M. J., & Rothschild, Z. K. (2010). An existential function of enemyship: Evidence that people attribute influence to personal and political enemies to compensate for threats to control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 434-439.

Rothschild, Z. K., Abdollahi, A., & Pyszczynski, T. (2009). Does peace have a prayer? The effect of mortality salience, compassionate values, and religious fundamentalism on hostility toward out-groups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 816-827.

Pyszczynski, T., Rothschild, Z. K., & Abdollahi, A. (2008). Terrorism, violence, and hope peace a terror management perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 318-322.

Personal Website

Education

PhD, University of Kansas
MA, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
BA, Knox College

Psychology

Zachary Rothschild

Selected Publications

Education