Social Psychology Graduate Students

Begüm is a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Elisa Baek at the Social Connection Lab. She received her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Statistics from Barnard College. She then worked as a lab manager for Dr. Leor Hackel and Dr. Wendy Wood’s labs at USC, where she focused on how individuals learn from social rejection and acceptance using computational neuroimaging. Her current work focuses on understanding the mechanisms of social (dis)connections and loneliness, using neuroimaging techniques and behavioral experiments — specifically, what distinguishes people who can establish social connections easily from others who can’t and what contributes to loneliness and social disconnections across individuals.

Contact Begüm at babur@usc.edu

Jenna Blyler is a doctoral student researching how language, power (i.e., religion and politics), and trust influence risky decision-making. Advised by Dr. Joe Árvai, Jenna applies this focus to issues such as biodiversity loss, ecosystem services, and land use. She has a Bachelor’s in Psychology and Political Science and a Master’s in Public Policy from Jacksonville University, where she researched political polarization and extremism, conspiratorial thinking, and health risk perceptions. Her professional experience is in copywriting and digital marketing.

Contact Jenna at blyler@usc.edu

Saewon is a first year PhD student working with Dr. Elisa Baek at the Social Connection Lab. She received her B.A. and M.A. in Psychology from Korea University, where her research centered on the role of social connection for individuals under adversity. She is broadly interested in understanding the factors that make people socially connected and exploring the neurological underpinnings that support these connections.

Contact Jina at saewon.chung@usc.edu

Yema is a third year Ph.D. student working with Dr. Stephe Read and Dr. Lynn Miller. Prior to studying at USC, she worked on outreach initiatives that sought to understand and address climate vulnerability, advance public health, and promote community resilience. Her current research interests are centered on better understanding how individuals make decisions relating to climate change and sustainability at both an individual and policy level.

Contact Yema at yconteh@usc.edu

Yalda is a Ph.D. student in Social Psychology working with Dr. Morteza Dehghani at the Morality and Language (MOLA) Lab. She received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in psychology from the University of Tehran. Most of her work centers on how moral values and cultural forces shape our judgment and decision-making on large and minor scales. More specifically, she is interested in how endorsing some moral beliefs can lead to violence, prejudice, and discrimination. Contact

Yalda at daryani@usc.edu

Kira Harris (she/her) is a PhD student in social psychology working with Dr. Leor Hackel.  She is broadly interested in why and how people make decisions to interact with some individuals over others. Her current research includes exploring the role of gossip in memory and understanding rewards and costs in social interaction.

Contact Kira at kiraharr@usc.edu

Chang Lu is a first-year Ph.D. student in social psychology with Dr. Elisa Baek. Her research interests revolve around social connections, particularly dyadic interaction and conversation. She received her BA from UC Irvine.

Contact Chang at clu81945@usc.edu

Jean is a first year PhD student in social psychology working with Dr. Leor Hackel. She is interested in using a reward learning framework to study interpersonal closeness and impression formation. She received her BA in Neuroscience from Princeton University, where she conducted research with Dr. Susan Fiske on the role of social reward in stereotype maintenance.

Contact Jean at jeanluo@usc.edu

Avisha is a Ph.D. student in Social Psychology working with Prof. Stephen Read. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. She is interested in the neuroscience of emotions and social perception, focusing specifically on understanding the heterogeneity within these behaviors and experiences.

Contact Avisha at avisha@usc.edu

İrem is a PhD student in Psychology at USC, working with Prof. Norbert Schwarz. Her research examines how processing fluency, social cues, and cultural context influence person perception and decision making. She is particularly interested in how disfluency, such as accented or distorted speech, shapes social judgments in both human and artificial agent interactions. Bridging situated social cognition, applied linguistics, and intergroup relations, her work aims to uncover the cognitive and social mechanisms that guide how we understand and evaluate others across diverse communicative settings.

Contact İrem at kuyucu@usc.edu

Madison is a first-year Ph.D. student in social psychology working with Dr. Leor Hackel. She received her B.S. in Applied Psychology from NYU, where she studied intergroup bias and political polarization with Dr. Claire Robertson in Dr. Jay Van Bavel’s Social Identity and Morality Lab and examined social learning processes with Dr. Diane Hughes. Her current research investigates how social identity and the identity relevance of moral issues shape moral beliefs, interpersonal judgments, and responses to disagreement. Broadly, she aims to translate insights from moral psychology and intergroup relations into prosocial design strategies that foster healthier digital spaces. She is also interested in AI–human interaction and mindfulness, as well as using computational modeling and brain imaging to study social cognition.

Contact Madison at akles@usc.edu

Contact Shea at sundali@usc.edu