About

Traci Mann is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, affiliated with the College of Liberal Arts. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University, earned in 1995, and a B.A. in Psychology/Math from the University of Virginia, completed in 1990. Her research focuses on self-control of health behaviors, eating regulation, attention and self-control, body image, and health and behavior change. She is involved with the Health and Eating Lab and has contributed to understanding the psychological processes involved in goal setting, goal striving, and health behavior regulation. Her work addresses issues related to public health, particularly in the context of the obesity epidemic, and explores strategies to promote healthier eating habits, such as increasing vegetable intake among children.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Epistemology
• Social psychology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Weight loss advice from a healthcare provider is motivating, but it is also stigmatizing: an experimental, scenario-based approach

  Annals of Behavioral Medicine · 2025-01-01 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  BACKGROUND: It is standard practice for healthcare providers to give weight loss advice or counseling to higher-weight patients (ie, those with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2), but the immediate psychological consequences of this practice have rarely been examined. PURPOSE: We hypothesized that receiving weight loss advice from a healthcare provider might lead people to feel both motivated to engage in healthy behaviors and stigmatized for their weight. METHODS: Participants with higher weight (N = 294) were randomly assigned to read one of two doctor-patient interaction scenarios, and they were asked to imagine that they were the patient receiving advice. The scenario either involved the doctor giving behavioral weight loss advice (ie, standard diet and exercise recommendations) or control advice, which did not address weight or weight loss. Immediately after reading, participants reported their levels of behavioral motivation and weight-based identity threat. RESULTS: Participants who received weight loss (versus control) advice reported significantly greater motivation for healthy eating and greater weight-based identity threat (Ps < .001, ds from 0.42 to 0.64). There were no significant group differences in perceptions of provider empathy or willingness to engage with the healthcare system in the future (Ps > .1, ds from 0.13 to 0.2). CONCLUSIONS: As hypothesized, receiving weight loss advice made participants feel motivated to engage in healthy eating behavior, but it also made them feel stigmatized. These findings suggest that the standard practice of delivering weight loss advice should be reexamined, as it may harm higher-weight people and perpetuate inequity.

  PublisherDOI

• The relationship between body satisfaction and self-esteem in women throughout the lifespan.

  Psychology and Aging · 2025-06-02 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  > 22,000 women) longitudinal data set, we explore this correlation, with an emphasis on including women over age 65, for whom this relationship has not been closely examined. In both studies, we find that the cross-sectional relationship between body satisfaction and self-esteem is weaker in older women than in younger women. Longitudinal analyses also show that the relationship slightly weakens across the 9 years the women were followed, regardless of their age at the start of the study. Survey results suggest this may be due to body image becoming less important to women as they age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• How multiple motives facilitate decisions to exercise in contexts with tempting alternatives: evidence from two scenario studies

  Psychology and Health · 2025-09-17

  article

  OBJECTIVE: Both affectively-charged and reflective motivation may be necessary to sustain recommended physical activity (PA) guidelines, especially in contexts with tempting alternatives. However, our understanding of how different sources of motivation facilitate PA across contexts is limited. This paper presents a novel value-based model that specifies how affectively-charged and reflective motivation interact to support PA decisions based on available alternatives at a given decision point. METHODS AND MEASURES: Two scenario studies tested model assumptions by examining one's general intrinsic motivation for PA (form of affectively-charged motivation), and the reasons one would think of to motivate their PA when faced with alternatives with varying levels of temptingness. RESULTS: In less tempting scenarios, intrinsic motivation was positively associated with selection of affective reasons (Study 1). In more tempting scenarios, instrumental reasons were generally selected, although the specific type of reason differed based on intrinsic motivation (Study 2). CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that instrumental reasons, which motivate behavior through reflective processes, may be particularly important for people when faced with highly tempting alternatives or if they do not find PA to be intrinsically rewarding. More research is needed to determine whether these patterns of motive selection effectively facilitate behavior.

  PublisherDOI

• Early intervertebral degeneration patterns among elite amateur golfers: A T2* mapping study

  Brain and Spine · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Psychological Science in the Wake of COVID-19: Social, Methodological, and Metascientific Considerations

  UNC Libraries · 2025-05-14

  articleOpen access

  The COVID-19 pandemic has extensively changed the state of psychological science from what research questions psychologists can ask to which methodologies psychologists can use to investigate them. In this article, we offer a perspective on how to optimize new research in the pandemic's wake. Because this pandemic is inherently a social phenomenon-an event that hinges on human-to-human contact-we focus on socially relevant subfields of psychology. We highlight specific psychological phenomena that have likely shifted as a result of the pandemic and discuss theoretical, methodological, and practical considerations of conducting research on these phenomena. After this discussion, we evaluate metascientific issues that have been amplified by the pandemic. We aim to demonstrate how theoretically grounded views on the COVID-19 pandemic can help make psychological science stronger-not weaker-in its wake.

  PublisherDOI

• Using Message Matching Strategies to Promote Health

  2025-01-23 · 2 citations

  book-chapterSenior author

  Health messages play a pivotal role within initiatives to support people’s health and well-being. Although some messages are universally relevant, others may only pertain to a subset of people, as the relevance of health issues shifts across groups defined by age, sex, or prior experience. Moreover, within these groups there is meaningful variability, reflecting different needs, goals, and challenges. Should messages be designed with the goal of reaching a broad audience with one message or with the goal of optimizing the match between the message and the recipient? In this chapter, we examine the evidence base regarding the use of this latter approach, which is often termed message tailoring or message matching. Specifically, we consider the strengths and challenges of two approaches to matching health messages: (1) phase/stage matching, in which messages are designed to correspond to where people are in the behavior change process and (2) motivational matching, in which messages are designed to correspond to people’s underlying dispositional concerns, identities, or motivations. We then consider the specific case of how message matching has been used to promote COVID-19 vaccination. Finally, we offer recommendations for how to use message matching strategically and identify a set of research priorities.

  PublisherDOI

• Consequences of receiving weight-related advice from a healthcare provider: Understanding the varied experiences of people with higher weight

  Social Science & Medicine · 2024-03-19 · 6 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The science of weight controllability: Implications and future directions for weight at work research

  Industrial and Organizational Psychology · 2024-03-01 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• The role of social norms, intergroup contact, and ingroup favoritism in weight stigma

  PLoS ONE · 2024-06-20 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Although average body size in the U.S. has increased in recent decades, stigma directed at individuals with higher weight has not diminished. In this study, we explored this phenomenon by investigating the relationship between people's perceived social norms regarding higher weight and their reported levels of weight bias (i.e., anti-fat attitudes). Our predictions for perceived social norms drew on the concepts of intergroup contact and ingroup favoritism, which were also probed in this study. We hypothesized that both greater descriptive norms and more favorable injunctive norms regarding higher weight would be associated with lower reported weight bias. Individuals' quantity and quality of social contact with people with higher weight were also predicted to be associated with lower weight bias. Finally, we predicted that individuals who perceived themselves as heavier would display ingroup favoritism (i.e., report less weight bias). Participants (N = 272) from the United States completed a set of online questionnaires about their perceived social norms, social contact with people with higher weight, and explicit weight bias. We found support for each of these pre-registered predictions (ps < 0.03), and post hoc analyses revealed that quality, but not quantity, of social contact with individuals with higher weight was an important predictor of lower weight bias. Together, these findings provide insight into the social psychology of weight bias and help to lay a theoretical foundation for future efforts to reduce weight stigma.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Emergent closed reduction of cervical facet dislocations: effect of a standardised protocol and purpose-built table on time to reduction

  The South African Orthopaedic Journal (SAOJ) · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01MH063795

  NIH · $825k · 2008

• NIH Grant R01HL088887

  NIH · $1.2M · 2015

Frequent coauthors

• A. Janet Tomiyama

  University of California, Los Angeles

  36 shared

• Andrew Ward

  Swarthmore College

  21 shared

• Lisa K. Comer

  The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

  19 shared

• Zata Vickers

  University of Minnesota

  16 shared

• Joseph P. Redden

  15 shared

• Richie L. Lenne

  University of Minnesota

  14 shared

• Marla Reicks

  12 shared

• Elton Mykerezi

  12 shared