Research interests

Self regulation • Motivation • Social power • Attribution • Social cognition

Publications

• Ecker, Y., Lange, & Cook. (2026). Maintain the relationship or protect it from threat? Jealousy shapes distinct types of goal striving in romantic relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

   

• Ecker, Y., Diel, K., Hofmann, W., Unkelbach, C., & Imhoff, R. (in press). The role of comparison processes in maintenance goals: Evidence from the health and relationship domains. Applied Psychology: Health & Wellbeing.

   

• Ecker, Y., Weitzel, A. I., & Lammers, J. (2025). Bias towards progress-oriented leaders: People prefer progress- over maintenance-oriented leaders even when a maintenance orientation is required. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 154(11), 2963−2980. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001827

   

• Ecker, Y. (2024). The unseen pillar of behavior: A review of maintenance goals. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 18(9), e70003.

   

• Ecker, Y., Lange, J., & Imhoff, R. (2024). The General Maintenance Orientation Scale: Interindividual differences in nurturing what we have. European Journal of Psychological Assessment. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000866

   

• Ecker, Y., Busch, A. W., Schreiber, S., & Imhoff, R. (2024). From social traditions to personalized routines: Maintenance goals as a resilience factor. European Journal of Social Psychology, 54(4), 803–817. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3074

   

• Ecker, Y., Gilead, M. & Imhoff, R. (2023). An examination of the motivations to maintain, approach, and avoid by proximity to the ideal state. Social Cognition, 41(1), 88–102. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2023.41.1.88

   

• Ecker, Y., Gilead, M., & Imhoff, R. (2023). The phenomenology of maintenance goals: Lower threat and greater satisfaction with the current state. Motivation and Emotion, 47(2), 246–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-022-09994-7

   

• Zalmanson, L., Oestreicher-Singer, G. & Ecker, Y. (2022). The role of social cues and trust in users’ private information disclosure. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 46(2), 1109–1134. https://doi.org/10.25300/misq/2022/16288

   

• Ecker, Y., Imhoff, R., & Lammers, J. (2021). Self-control failure increases a strategic preference for submission as means to avoid future failure. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 95, Article 104155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104155

   

• Ecker, Y., & Bar-Anan, Y. (2019). Sensory preconditioning of evaluation requires accurate memory of the co-occurrence between the neutral stimuli. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 85, Article 103886 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103886

   

• Ecker, Y., & Bar-Anan, Y. (2019). Conceptual overlap between stimuli increases misattribution of internal experience. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 83, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.03.006

   

• Ecker, Yael & Bar-Anan, Yoav. (2019). The misattributing personality: The relationship between priming in the affect misattribution procedure, need for closure, and body awareness. Social Cognition, 37(5). 499-515. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2019.37.5.499

   

• Ecker, Y., & Bar-Anan, Y. (2019). Applicability increases the effect of misattribution on judgment. Cognition and Emotion, 33(4), 709-721 https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2018.1498322

   

• Ecker, Y., & Gilead, M. (2018). Goal-directed allostasis: The unique challenge of keeping things as they are and strategies to overcome it. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13, 618–633. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618769847

   

• Gilead, M., David, Y. B., & Ecker, Y. (2017). Not our fault: Judgments of apathy versus harm toward socially proximal versus distant others. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(5), 568–575. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617714583