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Our Team

Lab Director

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Emily Balcetis, PhD

Over the last 20 years, Emily has become one of the most sought-after voices on motivation science, researching the factors that contribute to differences in judgments and behaviors among individuals. She delivers lectures, offers training and keynoting hundreds of programs and events at secondary schools, colleges, universities, community organizations, and corporations on the social, cognitive, and motivational mechanisms that lead impact obstacles and successes as people pursue their goals. She is also a frequent commentator on media, blogs, and podcasts, delivering a voice filled with knowledge and respect for the varied challenges people face.

View Emily's CV here

Communications Director

Genna Goins

Genna is a recent graduate of NYU where she double majored in trumpet performance and psychology at NYU. She joined the SPAM Lab in spring 2022 and has since discovered interests in learning about diversity in leadership and the influences it has on young people as well as understanding the prevalence of gender disparities in society. Amongst others, Genna has been a part of the team responsible for collecting data analyzing how jurors may view video evidence in a court setting. As the lab's communications manager, maintaining its website and creating its newsletters are major parts of Genna's responsibilities. During her free time, Genna can be found crafting, attending Broadway shows, and trying different pizzas throughout New York City.

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Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow

Jordan S. Daley, PhD

Jordan received his PhD in social psychology from Northwestern University, where he was a member of the Social Cognition Lab. Jordan joins the SPAM Lab as a provost's postdoctoral fellow as of fall 2023. He studies biases related to and at the intersection of social cognition, social attitudes, person-person, and intergroup relations. He uses innovative methods to go beyond the identification of bias to reveal the constructs that relate to and the mechanisms that drive psychological biases that are relevant to real-world, lived experience. In his free time, Jordan spends a lot of time following sports, listening to the latest music, and hanging out with his friends, family, and dog.

View Jordan's CV here

Graduate Students

Nallely De La Rosa

PhD Candidate

Nallely is a PhD student in the Social Psychology Program at New York University (NYU). She earned her B.A. in Child and Adolescent Development from California State University, Northridge, where she is currently a Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program Fellow. Nallely’s research focuses on the impact of stereotypes on motivation and well-being, particularly among racially minoritized groups. She explores how the absence of diversity affects these communities. Additionally, she examines the role of stereotypes in shaping intra-minority interactions and coalition-building. You can explore her work and access her CV here.

Jenna is a second-year doctoral candidate in the social psychology program at NYU. She received her B.S. in human development (Department of Psychology) from Cornell University. Jenna is interested in how we generate inferences about others’ intentions by observing their behavior, and how these inferences are biased by our motivations, expectations, social relationships, and obligations. She is interested in how these inferences translate to judgment and action in domains including law, social justice, decision theory, and organizational behavior. In her spare time, you might find Jenna figure skating at an ice rink, watching stand-up at a comedy club, or searching for the best cannoli in NYC.

View Jenna's CV here

Jenna Landy

 PhD Candidate

Ma Xiao

PhD Candidate

Ma Xiao (Ma-sh-iao) is a third-year doctoral student in the social psychology program at NYU. In 2019 received his BA in psychology and statistics from Carleton College in Minnesota. After graduation, he conducted clinical research as a post-graduate associate at Yale Psychiatry, OCD Research Clinic. His research interests focus on how factors affecting motivation and self-control processes across construal levels. He also wants to investigate motivational research in interpersonal settings to help facilitate growth and bridge performance gaps in minority students. For example, what factors change perception of “leaders” and “the successful” in minority students?

View Ma Xiao's CV here

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Ke (Kay) Fang

Masters Student

Kay is a master's candidate at NYU Gallatin. His research aims to understand how complex social dynamics like political polarization, normative shifts, and collective action emerge from individual-level motivational and cognitive factors. Utilizing micro-level computational cognition paired with macro-level network science, agent-based modeling, and Natural Language Processing, he is especially interested in enhancing social psychology by integrating a multilevel perspective and computational approaches. Outside of research, he savors the ritual of brewing pour-over coffee, exploring museums in NYC, and occasionally drawing.

More information on Kay's work and his CV can be found here

Heather Li

Masters Student

Heather is currently pursuing a master's degree in industrial and organizational psychology at NYU. Broadly, Heather is interested in exploring the impact of gender and race stereotypes on leadership perceptions. When not in the lab, she enjoys watching Japanese anime and playing bridge games with a robot, as she has been unable to find a human teammate.

Research Assistants

Yaa Afriyie

Brittney Anderson

Elizabeth Baker

Diya Basu

Tianyi Chen

Armon Dadvand

Gabby Fabela

Genna Goins

Mike Guerrero

Ainsley Hoh

Cat Howard

Bryce Lexow

Hannah Maria

Anya Pabby

Ryan Pan

Abi Rivera

Michelle Stern

Weiwei Tan

Yuming Tan

June Van De Graff

Diya Varma

Susanah Vosmik

Julia Yi

Lab Alumni

Abby Bisi, Engagement Manager at Prophet

David Bosch, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology, MA Program Coordinator at New York University

Stephanie Cardenas, Assistant Professor at Williams College

Shana Cole, Assistant Professor at Rutgers University

Jennifer Elek, Principal Court Research Associate at the National Center for State Courts

Yael Granot, Assistant Professor at Smith College

Corey Guenther, Associate Professor at Creighton University

Erin Hennes, Assistant Professor at University of Missouri

Clint Irvin, Data Scientist at Synovus

Kristyn Jones, UX Researcher at WhatsApp

David Kalkstein, Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford

Madelaine Krehm, UX Researcher at Google

Amy Krosch, Assistant Professor at Cornell University

Jeff Kukucka, Associate Professor at Townson University 

Usman Liaquat, Post-Doctoral Fellow at Cornell University

Saaid Mendoza, Associate Professor at Providence College

Jennie Qu-Lee, Quantitative User Experience Researcher at Google

Soyon Rim, Associate Professor at William Paterson College

Jojanneke van der Toorn, Professor at Leiden University

Website Design

Genna Goins

Armon Dadvand

Rebekah Zhang, SPAM Lab Logo Design

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