Amit Goldenberg, Lab Director
I am an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, an affiliate with Harvard’s Department of Psychology, and a member of the Digital Data and Design Institute (D^3). My research focuses on what makes people emotional in social and group contexts, and how such emotions can be changed when they are unhelpful or undesired. I am particularly interested in how technology is used for both emotion detection and regulation.
In my work I try to integrate between experimental psychology that examines behavior at the individual level, and research inspired by complex systems, in which I focus on the psychology of collectives. To integrate these domains, I employ a multi-method approach that combines behavioral experiments, analysis of data from digital media, and computational modeling.
I received my PhD in psychology from Stanford University. Before that, I worked as a journalist and a writer. In 2016, my first novel ‘A City Forsaken’ (עיר הנידחת) was published in Israel (Keter Publishing House).
Eric Shuman, Postdoctoral fellow
I am a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Amit Goldenberg at Harvard Business School and with Eric Knowles at New York University. My research focuses on intergroup relations and interventions to advance social change towards greater equality. More specifically, my work focuses on identifying the effects and effectiveness of various types of collective action by the disadvantaged and understanding the psychological roots of resistance to social change among the advantaged group. Further I am interested in understanding the spread of engagement with social movements on social networks and how this connects to offline action.
Federico Zimmerman, Postdoctoral fellow
I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Lab within the Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard Business School.
I am a computational social scientist who is interested in the psychological processes associated with social interactions. During my doctoral studies at the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina, I conducted research using a combination of experimental and computational methods to investigate the underlying psychological mechanisms behind affective polarization and political segregation.
Ella Givon, Postdoctoral fellow
I am a clinical psychologist and Postdoctoral Fellow at the lab, affiliated to Harvard's psychology department.
I obtained my BA, MA, and PhD degrees from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. In my research, I employ computational models to gain deeper insights into the conscious subjective emotional experience. During my doctoral studies, I focused on investigating the dissociation between semantic valence and actual experience, as well as empirically testing the concept of emotional errors. I am interested in how people know what they feel and specially in sex differences in emotional experiences.
Greg Depow, Postdoctoral fellow
I am a postdoctoral fellow working at the Rady School of Management with Dr. Chris Oveis, and at Harvard Business School with Dr. Amit Goldenberg.
I research empathy as a multidimensional construct that can be strategically regulated based on the demands on the situation. In particular, how empathy can be regulated wisely to improve the well-being of empathizers and targets alike in different contexts--from leaders helping followers, to medical practitioners delivering care, to social media users engaging with the content on their feed.
I earned a B.A. from the University of the Fraser Valley and a Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Toronto.
Matthew Nemesure, Lead Data Scientist at D^3
I am currently a lead data, focused on scaling research data science efforts across the D^3 institute.
Prior to joining D^3, I received my PhD from Dartmouth College where my research primarily focused on applied machine learning and digital mental health.
Megan Gorges, PHD Student
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.
Daan Vandermeule, PHD Student
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, PHD Student
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.
Kyle LaFollette, PHD Student
I am a PhD candidate in Psychology at Case Western Reserve University, working primarily with Professors Heath Demaree, Brooke Macnamara, and Amit Goldenberg. My research focuses on cognitive mechanisms underlying social and emotional decision-making, particularly where negative emotions are perceived or experienced. I primarily use computational cognitive modeling and affective computing methods to explore these mechanisms. My work aims to elucidate the cognitive processes that give rise to affective decisions, by investigating how negative emotions, such as anxiety, anger, and sadness, influence individuals and collectives. In addition to this primary line of research, I also have interests in developing new computational methods for psychological science, such as equation discovery algorithms for reinforcement learning models and simulation routines for diffusion models with analytically intractable likelihood functions.
Prior to my doctoral studies, I obtained a B.Sc. in Cognitive Science and Biopsychology from the University of Michigan and conducted post-bac research at the University of Arizona and Stanford University.
Joanna Zun Li, Research Assistant
I am a research associate in Amit’s lab working on technology and emotion regulation.
I am broadly interested in how player dynamics systems influence inter/intrapersonal processes in online games and VR. I am passionate about the potential of online spaces to democratize access to experiences.
I received my bachelor’s in business and psychology from New York University and my master’s in human development from Harvard. Prior to joining HBS, I worked with Sesame Workshop’s Joan Ganz Cooney Centre, the Fair Play Alliance, and Riot Games in developing a design playbook for digital thriving.
Visitors and Affiliates
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.
Lucia Freira
I am an Economist, a United Nations Behavioural Science former Fellow, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Neuroscience Lab at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires.
I am currently working with Amit Goldenberg and Joaquín Navajas, studying how people collectively use emotional regulation techniques, such as reappraisal. I am also interested in issues related to polarization, crime, and family violence, with a focus on its consequences for child development.
Alumni
David Bailey - Honglin Bao - Ari Dyckovsky - Alina Herderich - Zi Huang - Yael Millgram - Michael Pinus - Ke Wang