Matthew Ruby
I come from the deep woods of New England, where I completed my undergraduate training in Psychology and German Language and Literature at Colby College. After spending a year as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany, I came to study social and cultural psychology under the guidance of Dr. Steve Heine. My main research program investigates how people in different cultural contexts resolve the omnivore’s dilemma, especially the life/death paradox. In particular, I investigate how people draw the line between which animals are acceptable to eat and which are not, as well as differences in how omnivores and vegetarians resolve the life/death paradox. Alongside my main program of research on the omnivore’s dilemma, I also have a keen interest in the psychology of emotional and physical well-being, investigating such questions as why people have difficulty exercising, how people respond to genetic explanations of obesity, and how people can be encouraged to behave more prosocially.
Email: matt@psych.ubc.ca
Publications:
Ruby, M.B., Heine, S.J. (in press). Too close to home: Factors predicting meat avoidance. Appetite.
Ruby, M.B. (2012). Vegetarianism: A blossoming field of study. Appetite, 58, 141-150.
Ruby, M.B., & Heine, S.J. (2011). Meat, morals, and masculinity. Appetite, 56, 447-450.
Ruby, M.B., Dunn, E., & Perrino, A., Gillis, R., & Viel, S. (2011). The invisible benefits of exercise. Health Psychology, 30(1), 67-74
Heine, S.J., & Ruby, M.B.. (2010). Cultural psychology. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 1(2), 254-266.