Dr. Stephen Want

Biography

Dr. Want directs the Media and Social Development Lab at TMU. Before joining TMU in 2005 he worked at The University of British Columbia and The University of Sheffield and completed his training at The University of Birmingham (undergraduate) and The University of Oxford (graduate).

At TMU, Dr. Want has taught Introductory Psychology (Psy102/202), Developmental Psychology (Psy302, Psy908, Ps8502) Social Psychology (Psy918, Ps8504, Ps8519) and Evolutionary Psychology (Psy544). He has also taught Research Methods and Statistics I (Psy411). Dr. Want is a prior recipient of the Excellence in Teaching First-Year Classes Award from the Faculty of Arts.

Dr. Want’s research interests concern questions about the use and effects of various forms of mass media (e.g. magazines, television, social media) as well as the process of social comparison. He is also interested in the psychology of teaching and learning, and the psychology and methodology of psychological experiments (e.g. demand characteristics, replication, p-hacking, measurement).

Selected Publications

Lazarevic, L.,... Want, S.C.,… Grahe, J. (2025). Collaborative registered replication of Griskevicius et al., (2010): Can pro-environmental behavior be promoted by priming status motivation? Collabra: Psychology, 11, 143773. doi: 10.1525/Collabra.143773

Want, S.C., Dahoah Halevi, L., Vahedi, Z., & Saiphoo, A. (2024). Seven points as an estimate of the smallest subjectively experienced decrease in body satisfaction on a one-item visual analogue scale. Body Image, 51, 101788. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101788

Zannella, L., Vahedi, Z., & Want. S.C. (2020) What do undergraduate students learn from participating in psychological research? Teaching of Psychology, 47, 121-129. doi: 10.177/0098628320901379

Vahedi, Z., Zannella, L., & Want, S.C. (2019). Students' use of information and communication technologies in the classroom: Uses, restriction, and integration. Active Learning in Higher Education. doi: 10.1177/1469787419861926

Saiphoo, A. & Want, S.C. (2018). High cognitive load during attention to images of models reduces young women's social comparisons: Further evidence against cognitive efficiency. Body Image, 27, 93-97. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2018.08.012 (external link)