About me

Hi! I’m a PhD student in Psychology at USC. I work with Leor Hackel. I’m broadly interested in the nature of emotion and morality, and how they shape how we interact with other humans. 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.

You can find my CV and resume here.

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