Co-principal investigator
Jillian Jordan
I am an Assistant Professor in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School.
My research investigates moral behavior and the psychology that surrounds it, with a focus on the role of reputation. When and why do people make personal sacrifices for moral causes, including through acts of prosociality and expressions of moral outrage? And how are the answers to these questions shaped by the powerful human drive to be seen positively by others? To address these questions, I explore the ways that reputation motives create hidden incentives that shape moral behavior, emotions, and cognition—often without people's conscious awareness. My work integrates methods from psychology, behavioral economics, and evolutionary game theory.
Prior to joining HBS, I received my Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Dispute Resolution Research Center at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. Email. Google scholar.
Lab Manager
Zi Huang
(name is pronounced Z like the letter)
I despise introductions because they reduce human complexity to 100 words or fewer. But I'll try anyway: I'm a double lab manager to Amit and Julian De Freitas. I enjoy using computational methods of language and data processing in my work. I strive to create a fun and comedic work environment where we can do cool things while enjoying each others' company.
I received my Bachelor's Degrees in Drama and Information Science from the University of Michigan. LinkedIn.
Amala Okafor
I am a senior research manager at the Digital, Data and Design (D^3) Institute at the Harvard Business School, with administrative and research management support functions for four labs including Digital Emotions. I have a legal training background with administrative work experience spanning through Tufts Medical Center, Harvard John Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. I coordinate the Institute’s administrative activities for the labs and manage timelines between the principal investigators and their collaborators. I also ensure that the labs’ projects for the institute align with its guidelines, goals, objectives, among other functions.
I graduated with Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in law from University of Ibadan, and Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, respectively, and was called to the Nigerian Bar. I was an assistant professor of criminal and administrative law, and a criminal trial attorney before starting a career in administration and management.
Postdocs
Michael Pinus
My work is in the area of social-personality-clinical psychology. My main area of interest focuses on how social interactions contribute to emotional regulation and wellbeing. Specifically, I study the psychology of conversation – what makes a conversation good, healthy, or helpful – and how emotions shape how we think and interact with others, and vice versa. I am particularly interested in developing machine learning algorithms able to detect high-quality 1-on-1 and group conversations.
I received my B.A. In psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and my M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Ben Gurion University of the Negev. In my Ph.D. (recently submitted) I focused on implicit assessment of beliefs about the self, and on interactions and discrepancies of implicit and explicit beliefs about the self.
Eric Shuman
I’m a PhD student in social psychology at the University of Groningen supervised by Eran Halperin, Tamar Saguy, and Martijn van Zomeren and plan to start my postdoc in July.
My research interests include collective action, emotions, and power relations. In particular, I am interested in different types of collective action (e.g. nonviolent, nonnormative, violent). My research examines psychological factors that promote support for these types of action, but also the effectiveness of these types of action at motivating the advantaged group to address inequality. Further I am interested in understanding the spread of engagement with social movements on social networks and how this connects to offline action. Twitter.
Graduate Students
Jonas Paul Schöne
I am a doctoral student in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford supervised by Prof. Brian Parkinson and Prof. Amit Goldenberg.
In my research I investigate the spread of emotions in groups, specifically the reason why negative emotions tend to spread faster, and the factors and consequences of this spread. To answer these questions I use mixed methods, combining traditional psychological research techniques with modern computational social science approaches. Prior to my doctoral studies I obtained a B.Sc. in Business Psychology and researched emotions at the Stanford University, Norwegian Cyber Defense Force, and the Leicester City Football Academy. Twitter.
Megan Gorges
I am a doctoral student in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School.
I am broadly interested in emotions at work, and am working on projects focused on gender and emotion perception, passion, and awe. I studied psychology at UC Berkeley and then worked for three years as a Human Capital Consultant at Deloitte. Prior to joining HBS, I was a Lab Manager at Berkeley Haas and helped to manage the Berkeley Culture Initiative.
Ke Wang
I am a doctoral student in Public Policy at Harvard University studying judgment and decision making.
I received my Bachelors degree from Wuhan University and his Masters degree from the University of Chicago, concentrating in Psychology. My current research focuses on how emotions influence us and how we influence emotions in contexts such as health, morality, and social interactions. I enjoys exploring the human mind and behavior, and am eager to apply behavioral insights to make a better society.
Daan Vandermeule
I am a Ph.D. student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Prof. Eran Halperin.
I received a B.S. and M.S. in Psychology at the University of Leuven. My main research interests focus on the mechanisms driving emotional similarity amongst members of a group and the implications of emotional similarity for individual and group outcomes.
Yajun Cao
I am a Ph.D. student in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School.
I received a B.S. in Psychology and B.B.A. from Peking University. My research interests revolve around emotions and social cognition. I am especially interested in how emotions and perceptions shape interpersonal interactions and their management applications.
Research Affiliates
David Bailey
I received my Bachelor’s in psychology from UCLA and currently assist Dr. Goldenberg with research on how emotions spread within groups in an online setting.
I am broadly interested in how social cognition influences group behavior and decision-making.
Honglin Bao
I graduated from Michigan State and current work with Amit as a Research Associate.
From the view of complex adaptive systems, my research focuses on the "collective behavior" in social systems - Science, Organization, Culture, and Social Media - using computational methods and collaborating with experimentalists. More info can be found here.
Hanqiu Li
I am the lab manager of Pro. James Gross at the Stanford Psychophysiology Lab.
My research interest focuses on emotion regulation and the role of emotions (particularly loneliness) in social interactions. I have been joining various psychology labs doing research about emotion regulation, neuroscience, psychophysiology, social motivation, color, and other fields among different populations such as college students and ASD children. I love cats but I am allergic to cat fur! LinkedIn.
Mehmet Onur Yaşa
I am currently a graduating MA student in social psychology at Koç University in Istanbul.
Before starting my graduate education, I have worked as a summer intern in various research groups at KU Leuven and University College London. I am curious about emotions in social contexts and multi-method approaches, especially using innovative tools to investigate behaviors.
Jose Cordova
I am an undergraduate student in Economics/Psychology. I love doing research and running experiments.
I am hoping to focus on research full time after graduating in 2022. In my free time I like to play soccer, guitar and spend time with my cats and dogs.