lab director | post doctoral researchers | visiting scholars | graduate students | thesis students | research team
Igor Grossmann, MSc, PhD
Lab director
Igor Grossmann is a social-cognitive scientist studying sound judgment and wisdom across cultures. His work utilizes methods at the intersection of big data analytics, psychophysiology, diary surveys, and experiments. Grossmann studied at the University of Freiburg and at the University of Michigan, where he received his Ph.D. in 2012. He is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, Canada. His work has been published in such outlets as PNAS, Proceedings of the Royal Academy: B, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. His contributions have been recognized through numerous awards (e.g., SAGE Young Scholar award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, APA Dissertation Award, USERN Prize for Social Sciences). Grossmann is an Associate Editor of the journal Emotion, an incoming Associate Editor in SPPS, and co-hosts the “On Wisdom Podcast,” disseminating scientific insights from psychology, philosophy and cognitive sciences to the general public.
Email: igrossma@uwaterloo.ca
Anna Dorfman, PhD
Post-doctoral researcher
Anna Dorfman is studying decision making in various social contexts. Her interdisciplinary research combines psychological theory, economic paradigms, and innovative research methods including experimental games and virtual reality, to explore how people reason and make decisions when facing conflicts between selfish and cooperative goals. Anna received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Ben-Gurion University in 2016. She was a postdoctoral researcher in Organizational Behavior at the Coller Faculty Management in Tel Aviv University and a lecturer at Achva Academic College, Israel. Currently, Anna is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Waterloo, working with Dr. Igor Grossmann. She has publications in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Social Psychological and Personality Science, and PLoS ONE, and received multiple scholarships (e.g., Interdisciplinary Research scholarship from Ben-Gurion university, post-doctoral scholarship from Tel Aviv University).
Email: anna.dorfman@uwaterloo.ca
Amanda Rotella
Post-doctoral researcher
Amanda is an interdisciplinary researcher, broadly studying judgment and decision-making. Lying at the intersection of personality and social psychology, evolutionary psychology, experimental economics, and organizational behaviour, her research has three main lines of investigation. The first line examines uses a reputation-based approach to understand behaviours, such as when and why people make cooperative/moral decisions and use wise reasoning. Amanda’s second line of research investigates how personalities or attributes are calibrated and interact with situation influences. Lastly, her third line of research investigates how methodology influences behaviour in experimental studies. For her postdoctoral research, Amanda will be investigating when and why people use wise reasoning, and how this relates to strategy-situation fit. She uses a combination of approaches, including experimental economic games, self-report surveys, and meta-analyses to conduct this research.
Email: amanda.mrotella@gmail.com
Website: amandarotella.ca
Twitter: @AMRotella
Rui Zhang
Visiting scholar
Rui’s research examines the dynamic of psychological responses to cultural change in varying contexts. One such context involves societies that undergo rapid changes driven by the accelerated globalization processes. In another context of change that results from migration, he studies the psychological processes and consequences of biculturalism or managing multicultural cultural identities. His current research includes the effects of diversity ideologies and wise reasoning among biculturals.
Abdo Elnakouri
Graduate student
Abdo is a third year graduate student in social psychology. Broadly, he is interested in how self-regulation interacts with ideology and group processes. Abdo and Igor Grossmann are examining how ecological threats might lead to a widened scope of what is considered immoral. In another line of research with Ian McGregor, Abdo and Igor are exploring what leads to wisdom in religious contexts. When he's not working, Abdo enjoys traveling, learning, listening to music, and spending time with friends and family.
Email: abdo.elnakouri@uwaterloo.ca
Laura Thomson
Thesis student
Laura, also known as Kip, is a fourth-year Arts Psychology student currently working on their thesis with Dr. Grossmann. Their thesis work involves examining the effects of how taking different self-distancing perspectives differing of death impact one's cognitive expansion / restriction. In addition to their interest in death-related research, their other interests lie in themes surrounding LGBT+ individuals. They hope to one day explore various factors impacting this community and how it may affect mental health.
Mane Kara-Yakoubian
Lab manager
Mane graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours BA in Psychology (research intensive specialization) and a minor in Fine Arts (studio).
Email: mkarayak@uwaterloo.ca
Agampreet Bhullar
Research assistant
I'm currently in 3A Honours Psychology. I am interested in social psychology research having to do with wisdom, and am currently an RA for the lab.
Shaveta Gupta
Research assistant
I am currently a fourth year student working toward completing my BA in Psychology. I am in the process of honing my research interests, but broadly, research in clinical psychology and neuroscience greatly fascinates me. I hope to pursue clinical psychology after my undergraduate degree, but am open to other opportunities.
