{"id":221,"date":"2023-09-16T21:50:51","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T04:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/social-behavior\/?page_id=221"},"modified":"2025-09-24T17:15:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T00:15:39","slug":"faculty-research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/social-behavior\/home\/faculty-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Research"},"content":{"rendered":" \n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n Research Happening in the Social Behavior Lab\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n
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\n Dr. Leor Hackel’s Social Learning and Choice Lab <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Leor\u2019s research asks how we learn and make decisions in social\u00a0settings, integrating behavioral experiments, computational modeling,\u00a0and neuroimaging approaches. In particular, his work asks:<\/p>\n

1. How do\u00a0we form impressions of other people through positive and negative\u00a0social interactions?<\/p>\n

2. How do we make decisions involving other\u00a0people\u2014such as whether to spend time with them, cooperate with them,\u00a0or reciprocate with them\u2014based on our prior experiences with them?<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0How do social contexts\u2014such as salient social identities or social\u00a0norms\u2014shape our decisions? This work aims to understand how\u00a0domain-general processes (reward-based reinforcement learning and\u00a0value-based choice) intersect with social processes (impression\u00a0formation, morality, closeness, and social identity).<\/p>\n

More information about Dr. Leor Hackel and his lab can be found at his Lab Website<\/a> and at his USC Faculty Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Dr. John Monterosso’s Addiction and Self-Control Lab \n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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John Monterosso studies mechanisms underlying human self-control from the combined perspectives of behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience (sometimes collectively referred to as \u201cneuroeconomics\u201d). He has co-authored 40 journal articles and book chapters. His research is currently supported through two R01 grants from the National Institute on Drug Addiction.<\/p>\n

More information about Dr. John Monterosso and his lab can be found at his\u00a0Lab Website<\/a>, and at his\u00a0USC Faculty Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Dr. Stephen Read’s Lab \n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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His primary area of interest is in computational models of social reasoning and social behavior. He focuses on neural network models of personality and social behavior, legal and everyday decision making, causal reasoning, and causal learning. He is also interested in models of human motivation.<\/p>\n

Additional research done in his lab include:<\/p>\n

1. The creation of realistic personality in computer-based intelligent agents in virtual reality training system<\/p>\n

2. Coherence-based, constraint satisfaction-based models of decision making and impression formation.<\/p>\n

3. The structure and dynamics of human personality.<\/p>\n

4. The use of interactive media in changing risky sexual behavior<\/p>\n

5. The neurobiological bases or risky sexual decision-making<\/p>\n

More information about Dr. Stephen Read and his lab can be found at his Lab Website<\/a> and USC Faculty Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Dr. Wendy Wood’s Lab\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Wendy Wood\u2019s research lab focuses on habit formation and change, social influence, and gender differences in social behavior. Her research on habits addresses everyday behaviors such as exercise, eating, and energy use, along with consumer behavior. Much of her habit research is identifying the mental events that keep us acting habitually. Her other recent work identifies ways to disrupt or impede habit associations so that we are freer to act in new ways that meet our current goals.<\/div>\n
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More information about Wendy Wood and her lab can found at her USC Faculty Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Morteza Dehghani’s Morality and Language Lab\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Morteza\u2019s research spans the boundary between psychology and artificial intelligence. His work investigates properties of cognition by using documents of the social\u00a0discourse, such as narratives, social media, transcriptions of speeches and news articles, in conjunction to behavioral studies. Morteza’s research interests include: 1. Theory-based natural language processing with direct applications to moral decision-making, group dynamics and culture 2. Investigating the role of sacred values in intergroup\u00a0conflict and negotiation 3. Computational cognitive modeling.<\/p>\n

More information about Dr. Morteza Dehghani and his lab can be found at his\u00a0Lab Website<\/a>, and at his\u00a0USC Faculty Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Dr. Daphna Oyserman’s Lab\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Dr. Daphna Oyserman’s research examines how small changes in context can shift mindsets, and so the perceived meaning of behaviors and situations, with large downstream effects on important and consequential outcomes, including health and academic performance. Her theoretical and experimental work conceptualizes the underlying processes, which she then translates into real-world interventions. One line of work focuses on cultural differences in affect, behavior, and cognition \u2013 how people feel, act, and think about themselves and the world around them. A related second line of work focuses on racial, ethnic, and social class gaps in school achievement and health. Throughout, she examines how apparently \u201cfixed\u201d differences between groups may in fact mask highly malleable situated processes that can be profoundly influenced through small interventions that shift mindset.<\/p>\n

All her work involves close collaboration with an interdisciplinary lab group<\/a>\u00a0of doctoral students, post-docs, visiting scholars, and colleagues in the\u00a0USC Dornsife Mind & Society Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More information about Daphna Oyserman and her lab can be found at her USC Faculty Website.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Dr. Norbert Schwarz’s Lab\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Dr. Nobert Schwarz’s research explores how people make sense of the world in which they live and how their decisions are shaped by subtle contextual influences. His theoretical approach emphasizes the socially situated and embodied nature of cognition and the role of feelings and subjective experiences in judgment and decision making. He pursues these basic processes in different domains, including public opinion, consumer behavior, well-being, and the psychology of self-report.<\/p>\n

All his work involves close collaboration with an interdisciplinary\u00a0lab group<\/a>\u00a0of doctoral students, post-docs, visiting scholars, and colleagues in the\u00a0USC Dornsife Mind & Society Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More information about Norbert Schwarz and his lab can be found at his USC Faculty Website.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n Dr. Elisa Baek’s Social Connection Lab<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Elisa’s research aks what factors underlie social (dis)connection by integrating different levels of analysis, from <\/span>nationally-representative surveys and behavioral experiments to neuroimaging and social network analysis. In particular, her work has three major lines of research:<\/span><\/p>\n

1.Individual differences in objective and subjective social (dis)connection.<\/p>\n

2. Information sharing and its role in promoting social connection.<\/p>\n

3. Social influence and persuasion.<\/p>\n

More information about Dr. Elisa Baek and her lab can be found at her Lab Website<\/a>\u00a0and at her USC Faculty Website<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Contact Us\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n \n
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Lab Director <\/h3>\n \n \n
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Leor Hackel<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n

\n (213) 740-6982 \t<\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n lhackel@usc.edu<\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n
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Lab Coordinator <\/h3>\n \n \n
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Kylie Huang<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

\n kyliehua@usc.edu<\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":642,"featured_media":163,"parent":4,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-221","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFaculty Research - Social Behavior Lab<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/social-behavior\/home\/faculty-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faculty Research - Social Behavior Lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/social-behavior\/home\/faculty-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Social Behavior Lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-25T00:15:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/social-behavior\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/354\/2023\/09\/sociapsychimg3.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1022\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"389\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/social-behavior\/home\/faculty-research\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/social-behavior\/home\/faculty-research\/\",\"name\":\"Faculty Research - 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