Research

Does stress bring us together, or does it drive us apart ?

I am interested in the effects of stress on our ability to connect with, and understand others. To this end, I study how stress–its related psychological and biological markers–impact our ability to understand others’ emotions and intentions, and the way we process social and non-social information. I am also interested in how stress affects our social togetherness, and vice versa.

I am currently affiliated with the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit at the University of Vienna.

Publications

(2021). Acute Psychosocial Stress Increases Cognitive-Effort Avoidance. Psych Science.

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(2020). The effects of suppressing the biological stress systems on social threat-assessment following acute stress.. Psychopharmacology.

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(2020). Stressed Connections: Cortisol Levels Following Acute Psychosocial Stress Disrupt Affiliative Mimicry in Humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society - B.

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(2020). An Affect in its Own Right: Investigating the Relationship of Social Safeness with Positive and Negative Affect. In Personality and Individual Differences.

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(2019). Oxytocin Selectively Improves Empathic Accuracy: A Replication in Men and Novel Insights in Women. Biological Psychiatry: CNNI.

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(2019). Post-learning Stress Reduces the Misinformation Effect: Effects of Psychosocial Stress on Memory Updating. Psychoneuroendocrinology.

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(2018). Oxytocin and Human Sociality: An Interactionist Perspective on the 'Hormone of Love'. In Schultheiss, O.C. & Mehta, P.H. (Eds.), Routledge, International Handbook of Social Neuroendocrinology. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

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(2018). The dynamic interplay between acute psychosocial stress, emotion and autobiographical memory. Scientific Reports.

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Manuscripts: under review & in prep

(2020). The Effects of Acute Stress on Empathic Accuracy. under review.

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Curriculum Vitae

My CV is available here: gDocs.

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