Raunak Pillai, Ph.D. 

raunak.pillai@stonybrook.edu

Psychology B 201 (Starting Fall 2026)
Phone: TBD

Research Interest:

My research investigates the social-cognitive processes by which people form and update their beliefs.

Current Research:

I am currently pursuing 4 interrelated lines of research. This work aims to contribute to our understanding of human memory, decision-making, and social influence processes. In addition, I aim to produce practical insights relevant to pressing societal questions, such as the spread of false and misleading information online.

1. Socially motivated reasoning: How do social motives, such as the desire to affiliate with groups, affect peoples’ beliefs? To what extent are the effects of social motivations consistent with rational (e.g., Bayesian) theories of belief updating?
2. Judgements of consensus: How do people track and estimate others’ beliefs? What is the role of one’s own beliefs in making these estimates?
3. Repetition and belief: Why, and under what conditions, does repeated exposure to information increase perceptions that it is true?

PUBLICATIONS: Journal Articles

Representative publications:

Pillai, R. M., & Fazio, L. K. (2025). Repeated by many versus repeated by one: Examining the role of social consensus in the relationship between repetition and belief. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 14(2), 154–166.

Jalbert, M. & Pillai, R. M. (2024) An illusory consensus effect: The mere repetition of information increases estimates that others would believe or already know it. Collabra: Psychology, 10(1).

Pillai, R. M., Kim, E., & Fazio, L. K. (2023). All the President’s lies: Repeated false claims and public opinion. Public Opinion Quarterly, 87(3), 764-802.

Pillai, R. M., & Fazio, L. K. (2023). Explaining why headlines are true or false reduces intentions to share false information. Collabra: Psychology, 9(1).

Pillai, R. M., Fazio, L. K., & Effron, D. A. (2023). Repeatedly encountered descriptions of wrongdoing seem more true but less unethical: Evidence in a naturalistic setting. Psychological Science, 34(8), 863-874.

Pillai, R. M., & Fazio, L. K. (2021). The effects of repeating false and misleading information on belief. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 12(6), e1573.