Team

Ashwini is an Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at NYU and the director of the WE-search Lab. Before coming to NYU, Ashwini was a postdoctoral fellow at the Polarization and Social Change Lab at Stanford University and received her PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.  Ashwini will be an Assistant Professor at Harvard University starting Fall 2025. 

Ashwini's work broadly asks how psychological processes related to identity and language help (or harm) the realization of democratic ideals. Her recent work has studied technologically mediated environments to illuminate how identity processes impact political deliberation and discussion, and social cohesion in the digital age. Ashwini was recently part of the team that built the newly launched text analysis program, LIWC-22. Check it out! 

Outside of lab, Ashwini likes to hang out at coffee shops, listen to podcasts, and wander around new cities. 

Evelina is a third-year PhD student in the NYU social psychology program. She received her BA in Psychology and BS in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles in 2022.

Her research explores people’s emotional reactions to social events and how emotions shape people’s beliefs and behaviors. Specifically, her research asks: 1) What emotions do people experience when discussing social issues? 2) How can we, as social psychologists, regulate these emotions to promote belief updating and engagement in collective actions to facilitate changes in society?

Outside the lab, she loves traveling, photography, music, and good food.

Jules is a first-year PhD student in the WE-Search Lab at NYU. She holds a MSc in Clinical Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience from LMU Munich in Germany.

Jules seeks to explore how identity and group dynamics hinder societal progress toward equality, examining both micro-level everyday interactions and macro-level political environments. In her free time, Jules volunteers as the Research Officer for the Junior Researcher Programme, where she supports international teams of psychology students and their supervisors in developing and executing research projects over a 13-month period.

Outside of research, Jules is an avid traveler with a deep love for books, food, and (German) music. She is incredibly excited to explore New York City and everything it has to offer.

Claire is a postdoctoral researcher, appointed jointly in the Social Identity and Morality Lab at NYU and at the Rotman School of Business at University of Toronto. She completed her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at NYU in 2024. 

Her research focuses on intergroup conflict, in particular on political polarization. She has examined how people’s evolved predisposition towards negativity and moral threats leads to overexposure of intergroup hostility online, contributing to pluralistic ignorance and false polarization between groups. She has also examined  misinformation and conspiracy theory belief. She uses a wide array of methods in her research, including natural language processing, big data analysis, global mega-study collaborations, and computational cognitive modeling. 

When she’s not in the lab, you can find her wandering through the amazing farmers markets in NYC, trying new restaurants with her friends, or reading anything she can get her hands on. 

Kayley is a third year PhD student in the Social Psychology program at NYU. She received her BA in Psychology from Boston College and previously worked in clinical psychology before transitioning to social psychology.

Her research focuses on intergroup conflict and political polarization, with an emphasis on belief formation. She is particularly interested in how people form beliefs in opposition to those they dislike. Her work explores the psychological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, examining how partisan identity, affective polarization, and social norms shape self-concept and political attitudes. She also investigates the broader consequences of polarization, including its effects on collective action and democratic engagement. 

Outside of the lab, you can find her traveling with friends or curled up on the couch with a fantasy novel. 

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 when and how we generate inferences about others’ intentions, and how these inferences are biased by our motivations, expectations, and social relationships. She is interested in how these inferences turn into decisions in domains including social action and the law. 

In her spare time, you might find Jenna figure skating at Bryant Park, watching stand-up at the Comedy Cellar, or searching for the best cannoli in NYC.

Lin is the manager of the WE-search Lab. She graduated from Georgetown University with a BSFS in International Political Economy and minors in Psychology and Mathematics. 

Lin is interested in how people use verbal narratives to transmit causal knowledge in society. Social phenomena like intergroup conflicts and inequality result from highly complex causal relations. How do people compress them into compact narratives What makes some narratives more popular than others? Why do some types of causal relations get included more than others? How do goals shape the narratives people tell and hear? How do narratives co-evolve with culture and technology?

Outside of the lab, Lin enjoys long walks, old books, live music, and (almost) everything in nature.

Aravind is a first year masters student in Applied Statistics at NYU. He holds a BS in Statistics & Biology from Baylor University. 

His primary research interests focus on the implementation of AI to uncover hidden biases in political speech and media framing, exploring its impact on public opinion, identity formation, and decision-making using computational methods. His current project focuses on web scraping articles on media outlets like NYTimes & analyze the text using NLP methods to understand the effect of linguistic devices on obfuscating agency of perpetrators of violence. 

Outside the lab, you can find him playing chess, running, exploring NYC & making podcasts.

I am a second-year Master’s student in Social Psychology at NYU and I am a Fulbright Scholar from Turkey. I received my BA in Psychology and minor in International Relations at Özyeğin University, Turkey.

My primary research interests are social identities, intergroup contact, prejudice, political judgment, and attitudes towards sexual and ethnic minorities. I am mainly interested in any minority related topics. I focus on how majority groups shape the minority groups’ identity integration processes and political views, and how minority group members maintain their social identities. My ultimate goal is to explore the methods to strengthen intergroup contact.

Outside of the lab, I love playing squash, cooking Turkish vegetarian dishes, and singing literally everywhere (literally everywhere).