About me

Hi! I’m a PhD student in Psychology at USC. I work with Leor Hackel. I’m broadly interested in how emotion shapes social connection and wellbeing. My research uses a multi-method approach, using tools such as quantitative survey, psychophysiological task, and social network analysis.

Before graduate school, I received my B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy from NYU where I studied the effect of partisan identity on fake news perception and prejudice expression in Jay Van Bavel and Jon Freeman’s labs. Then, I worked as a lab manager at Columbia in Kevin Ochsner’s lab, where I studied person perception and emotion regulation across the brain, dyadic, and social network levels.

Besides research, I am also passionate about science communication. Since 2021, I have been writing and translating articles for Neureality (神经现实), a leading science communication platform in China, exploring topics such as human connection, empathy, and AI

You can find my CV and resume here.

Feel free to reach out. My email is yzhang51@usc.edu