Weize Zhao

Weize is a postdoctoral fellow working on the computational models of social norms. Weize has been developing various extensions of the Social Sampling Model to explain socio-political phenomena associated with the ideological polarization.

Finnian Wort

Finn is a postdoctoral fellow studying ensemble perception and rank-based judgment. In his research, Finn has been developing computational model of human judgment based on the principle of efficient coding from information theory.

Yuqi Ye

Yuqi is currently studying the relation between income inequality and conspicuous consumption. In her research, Yuqi uses data science approaches to uncover the psychological mechanisms by which income inequality elevates preoccupation with one's social status. Yuqi has been using US mobility data to investigate the relationship between regional level of income inequality and the volume of visits to luxurious clothing stores.

Yuqi is also interested in the psychological interpretation of social status. Using natural language processing methods, Yuqi is currently investigating how different people represent the concept of high and low status in the society.

Alexandra de la Trobe

Alex studies how reputation influences people's decisions to cooperate with each other. In her experimental work, Alex studies how people rely on reputational cues infer how kind and competent others are likely to be in future interactions. Alex's research showcases how different cues may spillover and influence one another, leading to incorrect character judgments. For example, her research shows when people who are regarded as kind are also rated as more competent (i.e. a form of a Halo Effect).

Tom White

Tom's research focuses on the psychological traits of people who identify as collectors of material goods. More specifically, Tom explores whether those who collect differ from non-collectors in the way they perceive the hedonic and utalitarian aspects of other consumer goods.

Yanbo Song

Yanbo's work focuses on the effects of social media algorithms on people's perception of time. In his research, Yanbo investigates to what degree customized and personalized content makes us loose track of time. In his experimental work, Yanbo attempts to isolate unique features of social media algotihtms that contribute to these effects.