JOSEPH SOMMER

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton's University Center for Human Values (UCHV). I'm primarily interested in belief, bounded rationality, and the interaction of cognition with computational and environmental constraints. My research aims to understand the mechanisms of belief formation and how beliefs are updated (or not) in response to evidence.My work on belief integrates research across several disciplines, including Cognitive Science (judgment and decision-making, problem solving, memory, and reasoning), Social Psychology (attitudes, persuasion, social influence), Philosophy (philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, mental representation, epistemology), and AI (reason maintenance, belief revision, case-based reasoning).

Email: joseph.sommer@princeton.edu

RESEARCH

BELIEF

The Cognitive Science of Belief

Sommer, J. (forthcoming at Psychological Inquiry). In the Mind or In the World? Types of Beliefs and the Locality of Evidence. Preprint: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/utrzvSommer, J., Musolino, J., & Hemmer, P. (2024). Updating, Evidence Evaluation, and Operator Availability: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Belief. Psychological Review. 131(2), 373–401. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000444Sommer, J., Musolino, J., & Hemmer, P. (2022). Toward a Cognitive Science of Belief. In J. Musolino, J. Sommer, & P. Hemmer (Eds). The Cognitive Science of Belief: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Cambridge University Press.

Consistency Among Beliefs

Sommer, J. & Lombrozo, T. (2025). Do Whales Have Hair? Are Whales Mammals? Identifying Synchronic Inconsistencies Among Beliefs. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 47.Sommer, J., Musolino, J., & Hemmer, P. (2023). A Hobgoblin of Large Minds: Troubles With Consistency in Belief. WIREs Cognitive Science, e1639.
https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1

Beliefs and Behavior

Sommer, J. & Oktar, K. (2025). Maps by Which We May Not Steer: Why Psychologists Should Expect Low Belief-Behavior Correspondence. Psychological Inquiry, 36(1), 60–66.

Understanding Religious Belief

Sommer, J. (2025). Engaging, Authoritative, but also Evidential. Invited commentary on W. Gervais (2024). Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species. Religion, Brain, and Behavior.Sommer, J. (2024). Religion as Belief, A Realist Theory: A Commentary on Religion as Make-Believe, A Theory of Belief, Imagination, and Group Identity. Philosophical Psychology.

MINIMALLY COUNTERINTUITIVE CONCEPTS

Sommer, J., Hemmer, P., & Musolino, J. (2023). Counterintuitive Concepts Across Domains, A Unified Phenomenon? Cognitive Science, 47(4), e13276.Sommer, J., Spencer, C., Musolino, J., & Hemmer, P. (2023). A New Methodological Tool for Research on Supernatural Concepts. Behavior Research Methods, 55(1), 220-235.Sommer, J., Musolino, J., & Hemmer, P. (2022). The Memorability of Supernatural Concepts: Some Puzzles and New Theoretical Directions, Journal of Cognition and Culture, 22(1-2), 90-135.