Prof. Helweg-Larsen is a Professor of Psychology at Dickinson College and holds the Glenn E. & Mary Line Todd Chair in the Social Sciences; she also directs the Social Identity and Risk Lab. She uses social psychological methods to examine why smart people do dumb things.<\/p>\n
She has examined the causes, consequences, and correlates of optimistic bias (thinking you are less at risk than others), focusing on how emotions, cognitions, and behaviors are affected by whether we over- or underestimate our risks. In two NIH-funded grants, she has examined cross-culturally how moralized beliefs about smoking affect risk perceptions and quitting intentions as well as the effects of stigmatization on smokers\u2019 willingness to quit smoking. That is, if smokers feel stigmatized, are they more interested in quitting?<\/p>\n
During the pandemic, Prof. Helweg-Larsen has been a highly sought-after expert to explain how biases undermine our capacity to assess risks. She has been interviewed about risk by the New York Times and NPR\u2019s Marketplace and she is a frequent guest on NPR member stations across the US. In addition, she has discussed in print media, radio, and television in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Denmark what makes for a happy country and people. And the role Danish concepts such as hygge<\/em>,\u00a0pyt<\/em>,\u00a0samfundssind,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0overskud<\/em>\u00a0might play.<\/p>\n Just out: \u201cTobacco is still one of the world\u2019s top killers \u2013 here are the key obstacles to enacting generational smoking bans\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0The Conversation, April 10, 2026.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n See media appearances here:<\/p>\n Articles for General Audiences<\/a> | Newspapers & Magazines<\/a> | Radio Interviews<\/a> | Television<\/a> | Videos<\/a> | Podcasts<\/a> | Dickinson College News<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prof. Helweg-Larsen is a Professor of Psychology at Dickinson College and holds the Glenn E. & Mary Line Todd Chair in the Social Sciences; she also directs the Social Identity and Risk Lab….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3538,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/helwegm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/helwegm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/helwegm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/helwegm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3538"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/helwegm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/helwegm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/helwegm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions\/941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/helwegm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}