Travis Proulx

Travis Proulx is a Reader in Social Psychology at the School of Psychology, Cardiff University. Previously, he held positions as an Assistant Professor at Tilburg University and Simon Fraser University, with postdoctoral experience at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on how humans respond to meaning violations through assimilation, accommodation, affirmation, abstraction, or assembly, encapsulated in the Meaning Maintenance Model.

• Education:
  • Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia
  • Postdoctoral Researcher at UC Santa Barbara

His work spans social psychology, existential psychology, and cognitive dissonance, utilizing pupillometry to measure physiological arousal from absurd experiences. Recent publications address narcissism, political ideology, and meaning interventions. Notably, he developed a Progressive Values Scale to assess ideological schisms on the Left.

He supervises postgraduate students and has taught courses on human behavior, social cognition, and existential psychology at Cardiff, Tilburg, and Simon Fraser Universities. Collaborations include Brenda Major, Michael Chandler, and colleagues at institutions like Tilburg University and UC Santa Barbara.