Karen Gasper

Karen Gasper is Professor of Psychology at Pennsylvania State University's Department of Psychology, based at University Park's Moore Building with contact email kxg20@psu.edu and phone (814) 863-1713.

Education:

• Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1999

Her research investigates how affective states—particularly boredom, neutrality, happiness, and hope—shape cognitive processes, creativity, decision-making, environmental behaviors, and social interactions. She challenges traditional affective science by demonstrating neutral affect's independent role in cognition, showing how mundane emotional states influence regulatory processes, subjective well-being, and behavioral outcomes across diverse contexts including climate action and political behavior.

Recent publications (2019-2023) reveal consistent focus on neutral affect's co-occurrence with other emotions and its unique impact on attitudes. Key trends include examining boredom's social consequences, neutrality's relationship with ambivalence, and hope's role in climate action—bridging theoretical emotion research with real-world applications in political and environmental psychology.

Scientific Awards: No awards documented in source material.

Dr. Gasper actively mentors graduate students evidenced by asterisked co-authors across publications, with advisees contributing to studies on emotional regulation and social cognition. Her Fall 2025 office hours (Tuesdays 10:45a.m.-11:30a.m. in 518 Moore Building) reflect ongoing academic engagement, though specific grant history remains unmentioned.

She directs the FBIPLab (Feelings, Behavior, and Interpersonal Processes Lab), which explores affect-cognition-behavior interconnections through experimental and survey methodologies.