Publications

Download my CV (irregularly updated): here (Spanish).

For bibliometric information, visit my Google Scholar profile, my OrcID profile, or my ResearcherID profile. You can also visit my ResearchGate profile.

Some additional stuff at the Open Science Framework.

Articles and book chapters / proceedings

• Moreno-Fernández, M.M., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2025). Eco-friendly labeling biases judgments of environmental impact. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 106, 102715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102715
• Vinas, A., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2025). Reducing the Causal Illusion. A question of motivation or of information? Royal Society Open Science, 12, 250082 .
• Vinas, A., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2025). The combined effect of patient classification systems and availability of resources can bias the judgments of treatment effectiveness. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-01043-w
• Kloos, T., Blanco, F., Rief, W., Meulders, A., & Riecke, J. (2025). Visualizing one´s Best Possible Self increases positive future expectancies, but does not boost selective learning in fibromyalgia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 104748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2025.104748
• Martinez-Pereña, N., Matute, H., Blanco, F., & Barberia, I. (2024). A large-scale study and six-month follow-up of an intervention to reduce causal illusions in high school students. Royal Society Open Science, 11: 240846. doi: 10.1098/rsos.240846
• Ruiz-Martín, H., Blanco, F., & Ferrero, M. (2024). Which learning techniques supported by cognitive research do students use at secondary school? Prevalence and associations with students’ beliefs and achievement. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 9(1), 44. doi.org/10.1186/s41235-024-00567-5
• Viñas, A., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2023). Scarcity affects cognitive biases: The case of the illusion of causality. Acta Psychologica, 239. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.104007.
• Vicente, L., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2023). I want to believe: Prior beliefs influence judgments about the effectiveness of both alternative and scientific medicine. Judgment and Decision Making, 18, E1. doi:10.1017/jdm.2022.3
• Moreno-Fernández, M.M., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2023). Recent advances in the study of the illusion of causality: theory, methods, and practical implications. Psicologica 44(2): e15705.
• Díaz-Lago, M., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2023). Expensive seems better: The price of a non-effective drug modulates its perceived efficacy. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 8, 8.
• Matute, H., Blanco, F., & Moreno-Fernández (2022). Causality bias. In Pohl, R. (Ed.) Cognitive Illusions: Intriguing Phenomena in Thinking, Judgement and Memory. New York: Routledge
• Okan, Y., Blanco, F., Petrova, D., Capra, M., & Perales, J.C. (2022). Editorial: Understanding and Overcoming Biases in Judgment and Decision-Making With Real-Life Consequences. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 917896.
• Moreno-Fernández, M.M., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2021). The tendency to stop collecting information is linked to illusions of causality. Scientific Reports, 11, 3942.
• Barberia, I., Blanco, F., & Rodríguez-Ferreiro, J. (2020). The more, the merrier: Treatment frequency influences effectiveness perception and further treatment choice. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 28, 665–675.
• Blanco, F., Moreno-Fernández, M. M, & Matute, H. (2020). When success is not enough: The symptom base-rate can influence judgments of effectiveness of a successful treatment. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 560273.
• Blanco, F., & Moreno-Fernández, M.M., & Matute, H. (2020). Are the symptoms really remitting? How the subjective interpretation of outcomes can produce an illusion of causality. Judgment and Decision Making, 15(4), 572-585.
• Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2020). Diseases that resolve spontaneously can increase the belief that ineffective treatments work. Social Science in Medicine, 255, 113012.
• Matute, H., Blanco, F., & Díaz-Lago, M. (2019). Learning mechanisms underlying accurate and biased contingency judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 45(4), 373-389.
• Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2019). Base-rate expectations modulate the causal illusion. PLoS One, 14(3), e0212615.
• Blanco, F., Gómez-Fortes, B., & Matute, H. (2018). Causal illusions in the service of political attitudes in Spain and the UK. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(1033).
• Meulders, A., Boddez, Y., Blanco, F., Van Den Houte, M., & Vlaeyen, J.W.S. (2018). Reduced selective learning in fibromyalgia patients versus healthy controls. Pain, 159(7), 1268-1276.
• Blanco, F., & Morís, J. (2018). Bayesian methods for addressing long-standing problems in associative learning: The case of PREE. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71(9), 1844-1859. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2017.1358292
• Blanco, F., Perales, J., & Vadillo, M. A. (2017). ¿Puede la ciencia psicológica rescatarse a sí misma? Incentivos y sesgos de decisión en la crisis de credibilidad. [Can Psychological Science save itself? Incentives and decision biases in the credibility crisis.] Anuari de Psicologia, 18(2): 231-252. doi: 10.7203/anuari.psicologia.18.2.231
• Moreno-Fernández, M. M., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2017). Causal illusions in children when the outcome is frequent. PLoS One, 12(9), e0184707. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184707.
• Blanco, F. (2017). Positive and negative implications of the causal illusion. Consciousness & Cognition, 50, 56-68.
• Blanco, F. (2017). Cognitive Bias. In J. Vonk, and T.K. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. New York: Springer.
• Moreno-Fernández, M. M., Blanco, F., Garaizar, P., & Matute, H. (2017). Fishing for phishers. Improving Internet users’ sensitivity to visual deception cues to prevent electronic fraud. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 421-436.
• Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2018). The illusion of causality: a cognitive bias underlying pseudoscience. In A. B. Kaufman & J. C. Kaufman (Eds.). Pseudoscience: The conspiracy against science (pp. 45-76). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Vadillo, M. A., Blanco, F., Yarritu, I., & Matute, H. (2016). Single- and Dual-Process Models of Biased Contingency Detection. Experimental Psychology, 63(1), 3-19.
• Matute, H., Blanco, F., Yarritu, I., Diaz-Lago, M., Vadillo, M. A., & Barberia, I. (2015). Illusions of causality: How they bias our everyday thinking and how they could be reduced. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 888.
• Blanco, F., Barberia, I., & Matute, H. (2015). Individuals who believe in the paranormal expose themselves to biased information and develop more causal illusions than nonbelievers in the laboratory. PLoS ONE, 10(7): e0131378.
• Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2015). Exploring the factors that encourage the illusions of control: The case of preventive illusions. Experimental Psychology, 62(2), 131-142.
• Matute, H., & Blanco, F. (2014). Reducing the illusion of control when the action is followed by undesired outcomes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 1087-1093.
• Blanco, F., Baeyens, F., & Beckers, T. (2014). Blocking in human causal learning is affected by outcome assumptions manipulated through causal structure. Learning & Behavior, 42(2), 185-199.
• Blanco, F., Barberia, I., & Matute, H. (2014). The lack of side effects of an innocuous treatment facilitates the development of erroneous belief in its effectiveness. PLoS ONE 9(1): e84084.
• Blanco, F., Matute, H., & Vadillo, M. A. (2013). Interactive effects of the probability of the cue and the probability of the outcome on the overestimation of null contingency. Learning & Behavior, 41, 333-340. doi: 10.3758/s13420-013-0108-8.
• Vadillo, M. A., Matute, H., & Blanco, F. (2013). Fighting the illusion of control: How to make use of cue competition and alternative explanations. Universitas Psychologica, 12(1), 261-270.
• Barberia, I., Blanco, F., Cubillas, C. P., & Matute, H. (2013). Implementation and assessment of an intervention to debias adolescents against causal illusions. PLoS ONE 8(8): e71303.
• Meulders, A., Mampaey, J., Blanco, F., Boddez, Y., Vansteenwegen, D., & Baeyens, F. (2013). Offset-control attenuates context conditioning induced by US-unpredictability in a human conditioned suppression paradigm. Psychologica Belgica, 53, 39-56.
• Blanco, F., Matute, H., & Vadillo, M. A. (2012). Mediating Role of Activity Level in the Depressive Realism Effect. PLoS ONE 7(9): e46203.
• Blanco, F., Matute, H., & Vadillo, M. A. (2011). Making the uncontrollable seem controllable: The role of action in the illusion of control. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64, 1290-1304.
• Vadillo, M. A., Musca, S. C., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2011). Contrasting cue-density effects in causal and prediction judgments. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 110-115.
• Musca, S. C., Vadillo, M. A., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2010). The role of cue information in the outcome-density effect: Evidence from neural network simulations and a causal learning experiment. Connection Science, 22, 177-192.
• Blanco, F., Matute, H., & Vadillo, M. A. (2010). Contingency is used to prepare for outcomes: Implications for a functional analysis of learning. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 17 (1), 117-121.
• Blanco, F., Matute, H., & Vadillo, M. A. (2009). Depressive realism: Wiser or quieter?The Psychological Record, 59, 551-562.
• Blanco, F., Vadillo, M. A., & Matute, H. (2008). La pasividad de los deprimidos los protege de la ilusión de control. In I. Etxebarria, A. Aritzeta, E. Barberá, M. Chóliz, M. Jiménez, F. Martínez-Sánchez, P. Mateos, & D. Páez (Eds.), Emoción y Motivación: Contribuciones actuales (Vol. 2, pp. 79-91). Astigarraga, España: Asociación de Motivación y Emoción.
• Musca, S. C., Vadillo, M. A., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2008). Associative and connectionist accounts of biased contingency detection in humans. In R. M. French & E. Thomas (Eds.), From associations to rules: Connectionist models of behavior and cognition (pp. 16-27). London: World Scientific.
• Matute, H., Vadillo, M. A., Blanco, F., & Musca, S. C. (2007). Either greedy or well informed: The reward maximization-unbiased evaluation trade-off. In S. Vosniadou, D. Kayser, & A. Protopapas (Eds.), Proceedings of the European Cognitive Science Conference(pp.341-346). Hove, UK: Erlbaum.
• Matute, H., Vadillo, M. A., Vegas, S., & Blanco, F. (2007). The illusion of control in Internet users and college students. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 10, 176-181.

Submitted manuscripts

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Books (editor)

• Matute, H., Vadillo, M. A., Blanco, F., Orgaz, C., & Vegas, S. (Eds.) (2007). En qué se diferencia la danza de la lluvia del barómetro y de las bajas presiones: Una investigación sobre cómo aprendemos a explicar, predecir y controlar nuestro entorno. Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto [ISBN: 978-84-9830-116-8]

Doctoral Thesis and Master Thesis   

• Blanco, F. (2008). Realismo e ilusión en los juicios de contingencia. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Bilbao: University of Deusto. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2222.3529
• Blanco, F. (2014). Discriminación de contingencias mediante una red conexionista auto-heteroasociativa. (Unpublished Master thesis). Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.

Popularization (mostly in Spanish)

• Blanco, F. (2024). ¿Es más creíble la prensa científica que el telediario? Ciencia Parece pero non e. Xunta de Galicia: Consellería de Cultura, Educación, Formación Profesional e Universidades.
• Blanco, F. (2019). Por qué nunca te pondrás de acuerdo con tu cuñado, según la psicología experimental. CTXT Contexto y Acción.
• Blanco, F. (2018). Por qué hay gente inteligente que cree en fantasmas y supersticiones. The Conversation.
• Blanco, F. (2018). Biased towards pain: The role of expectancy in impaired selective learning in fibromyalgia patients. Body in Mind.
• Blanco, F. (2018). ¿Adquisición o extinción? Un modelo Bayesiano para analizar curvas de aprendizaje. Ciencia Cognitiva, 12(1), 11-16.
• Blanco, F., Moreno, M.M., Garaizar, P., & Matute, H. (2017). Cómo la psicología experimental puede enseñarnos a no caer en el phishing. Xataka.
• Blanco. F. (2016). ¿Crees en los fantasmas? Quizá estés mostrando un sesgo cognitivo. Ciencia Cognitiva, 10(1), 5-7.
• Blanco, F. (2015). Do some paranormal beliefs develop from the experience of coincidences? Mapping Ignorance.
• Blanco, F. (2015). Sensación de control: Necesidad y autoengaño. Una historia de la II Guerra Mundial. Rasgo Latente.
• Blanco, F. (2016). Positive and negative implications of the causal illusion. Imperfect Cognitions.
• Blanco, F. (2004). Algunas reflexiones personales sobre el psicoanálisis (I). Boletín El Escéptico Digital, 4.
• Blanco, F. (2004). Algunas reflexiones personales sobre el psicoanálisis (II). Boletín El Escéptico Digital, 5.
• Regular contributions to Psicoteca.
• Also, check this BLOG. (Written with my students in mind)

Appearances in the media

• Interview for the newspaper “El Correo” (2015). No hay que ser tonto para creer en fenómenos paranormales.
• Interview for the newspaper “El Colombiano” (2015). Internet también tiene fantasmas.
• Interview for the TV Magazine “Qué me estás contando” (ETB, 2017).
• Interview for the radio program “Hoy por Hoy” (Cadena SER, 2017).
• Interview for the radio program “Las Perras de Pavlov” (Canal Extremadura, 2019).
• UNED talk (Madrid, 2021) (video).
• Ciclo de charlas “Ciencia parece, pero no es”. ¿Es más creíble la prensa científica que el noticiero? (Santiago de Compostela, 2023) (video).
• Regular section in the Radio: “Longitud de onda” (also available as podcast).
• Several interviews on the effectiveness of different study techniques: Informativos Tele5, Telediario de la 1, El País, ElDiario.es, El Plural, El Ideal de Granada…
• Curso de verano “Palabras que hieren” sobre teorías de la conspiración y terrorismo. https://youtu.be/gHgZhATLpPIhttps://youtu.be/gHgZhATLpPI

Colaboración regular (una intervención cada mes) en el espacio “Los mitos de la Ciencia”, del programa “Longitud de Onda”, presentado por Fernando Blázquez (Radio Clásica, RNE). https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-longitud-onda_sq_f1250368_1.html

A veces tuiteo mis investigaciones (hashtag: #TuiteoMiPaper):

• Falsos positivos, potencia estadística, y la conducta extraña de los p-valores.
• Creencias paranormales y sesgo cognitivo.
• Cómo la tasa base afecta a las ilusiones causales.
• Ideologías políticas, sesgo e ilusiones causales.
• Los niños también tienen ilusiones cognitivas.
• La extinción de la respuesta condicionada: ¿cómo analizarla por individuo?
• ¿Cómo puede la psicología experimental luchar contra el fraude electrónico?
• Análisis Bayesiano de curvas de extinción (en inglés)
• La “ilusión de control”.
• El efecto de lengua extranjera y los sesgos cognitivos.
• La crisis de replicación en psicología: causas y soluciones.
• Fibromialgia y aprendizaje sobre el dolor.
• Fibromialgia y aprendizaje sobre el dolor (en inglés).