Chris Burris

I think one of life’s biggest tasks is to try to make sense out of what it means to be a conscious self-in-a-body. It’s often a struggle – one that takes place in big contexts (spirituality, sex, death). It can bring out the best (empathy, connection, transcendence) and the worst (shame, selfishness, isolation) in us. Much of my teaching and research is intended to help make that process a little less mysterious – to help us understand others and ourselves a little better.

When not otherwise occupied, my conscious self-in-a-body is usually either trying to run a “less slow” 10K or being stared at by birds.

The content that follows may only represent a portion of the Faculty member's work.

Books

Burris, Christopher T. (2022) Evil in Mind: The Psychology of Harming Others. New York, USA: Oxford University Press.

Chapters

Burris, C. T., & Petrican, R. (2014). Religion, negative emotions, and regulation. In V. Saroglou (Ed.), Religion, personality, and social behavior (pp. 96-122). East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.

Burris, C. T., & Leitch, R. (2016). Your pain, my gain: The interpersonal context of sadism. In K. Aumer (Ed.), The psychology of love and hate in intimate relationships (pp. 85-103). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International.

Articles

Burris, Christopher T. "Poker-Faced and Godless: Expressive Suppression and Atheism." Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 14, no. 3 (2022; online first 2020): 351-361.

Burris, C. T., & Rempel, J. K., Munteanu, A. R., & Therrien, P. A. (2013). More, more, more: The dark side of self-expansion motivation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39, 578-595.

Burris, C. T., & Sani, F. (2014). The immutable likeness of “being”: Experiencing the self as timeless. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 24, 85-103.

Petrican, R., & Burris, C. T. (2014). Transcendent experiences motivate “escape” from the body via intimate partnerships. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 24, 104-123.

Burris, C. T., & Dow, T. (2015). Lost in the Myst?: Narrative video gaming decreases self-reported propensity for spiritual/religious experience. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 25, 18-28.

Reesor Rempel, S., & Burris, C. T. (2015). Personal values as predictors of donor-focused versus recipient-focused organizational helping philosophies. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 44, 181-191.

Burris, C. T., & Raif, K. (2015). Make-believe unmakes belief: Childhood play style and adult personality as predictors of religious identity change. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 25, 91-106

Petrican, R., Todorov, A., Burris, C. T., Rosenbaum, R. S., & Grady, C. (2015). The look that binds: Partner-directed altruistic motivation and biased perception in married couples. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 39, 165-179.

Burris, C. T., & Sani, F. (2016). Beyond death’s (and conception’s) door: The unsettling limitations of incarnate existence. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 26, 113-123.

Burris, C. T., Schrage, K. M., & Rempel, J. K. (2016). No country for girly men: High instrumentality men express empathic concern when caring is “manly.” Motivation and Emotion, 40, 278-289.

Burris, C. T. (2016). Nirvana road: Dissociative experiences predict “Eastern” beliefs about postmortem existence. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 26, 348-359.

Burris, C. T., & Edwards, S. (2017). Does facial width-to-height ratio differentiate among male offender types? Journal of Criminal Psychology, 7, 280-286.

Burris, C. T., & Leitch, R. (2018). Harmful fun: Pranks and sadistic motivation. Motivation and Emotion, 42, 90-102.

Burris, C. T., Rempel, J. K., & Viscontas, T. (2020). Sins of the flesh: Subliminal disapproval by God or people decreases endorsement of hedonistic sex. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 12, 223-230.

Burris, C. T. (2020). Poker-faced and godless: Expressive suppression and atheism. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Advance online publication.

Loewen, M. G. H., Burris, C. T., & Nacke, L. E. (2020). Me, myself, and not-I: Self-discrepancy type predicts avatar creation style. Frontiers in Psychology: Human-Media Interaction. Advance online publication.

Burris, C. T. (2022). Poker-faced and godless: Expressive suppression and atheism. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 14, 351-361.

Others

Burris, C. T. (2013). Soap bubbles. In L. Bormans (Ed.), The World Book of Love (pp. 140-143). Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo Publishers.

Burris, C. T., & Rempel, J. K. (2013). Is greed really good? PSP Connections. Published online Sep 5th, 2013.

PSYCH/GERON/HLTH 218: Psychology of Death and Dying

PSYCH 231: Psychology of Religious Experience

PSYCH 232: Psychology of Evil

PSYCH 330/LS 372: Criminal Profiling

PSYCH 357: Psychology of Good

PSYCH 455: Honours Seminar in Social Psychology [Topic: The Psychology of Religion]

PSYCH 455: Honors Seminar in Social Psychology [Topic: Psychology of Men]

Grants

Burris, C. T., & Rempel, J. K. Testing a motivational theory of love and hate. Standard research grant awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2005)

Rempel, J. K., & Burris, C. T. Restorative justice works: When, why, and for whom? Community-University Research Alliance seed grant awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2008)

Awards

Outstanding Early Career Research Contribution Award 1997, American Psychological Association Division 36 (Psychology of Religion & Spirituality)

The content that follows may only represent a portion of the Faculty member’s work.

Administrative

UW Examinations and Standings Committee (2014-2016; 2018-present)

UW Research Ethics and Integrity Advisory Committee (2012-2016; 2018-present)