I am a social psychologist whose primary research interests lie in goal pursuit and self-regulation. I graduated with a Bachelor of Social Sciences (First Class Honours) from the National University of Singapore in 2007, before obtaining a Ph.D. from Indiana University Bloomington, USA, in 2012. I joined NUS psychology in 2012, first as a postdoctoral fellow, and then as an assistant professor in 2014. I am currently an associate professor and the director of the Situated Goal Pursuit Lab (see more information below).

An active member of the scientific community, I serve and have served on the editorial boards of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Social Psychological and Personality Science, and Asian Journal of Social Psychology. Currently, I am an Associate Editor for Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology.

When I'm not teaching or doing research, I like to read on arts and find ironies in life. I also like to play a variety of card and board games. My non-psychology friends always claim that I have an unfair advantage because I can "read" their minds. Like many other psychology researchers, I simply pretend that it is true and play on.

The Situated Goal Pursuit Lab

Welcome to the Situated Goal Pursuit Lab (SPUR Lab)!

Goals are desirable end states people want to maintain (e.g., a thin figure) or achieve (e.g., academic excellence). More often than not, people pursue important goals in various intrapersonal (e.g., temptations, prior goal pursuit efforts) and interpersonal (e.g., others’ goal pursuit, social interaction) contexts. In the SPUR Lab, we examine how the various aspects of the goal pursuit process are dynamically shaped by the relevant context. Ultimately, the big-picture question my work aims to answer is: How can we enrich the social environment so that people can strive for their goals harder and longer, and find the experience more rewarding?

We adopt a multi-method approach, combining experimental designs with longitudinal studies, analyses of “big” datasets, and intervention programs. The various topics my lab examines are self-regulation, academic achievement, temptations, self-control strategies, national identification, intergroup conflicts, social cognition, and creativity. So far, our work has been published in leading scientific such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Social Psychological and Personality Science, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Emotion, Journal of Personality, and Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA. Some of our work has also been featured in international and local outlets such as Scientific American, Guardian, BBC, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Channel News Asia. Finally, research from our lab has been supported by generous funding from NUS and various government agencies (e.g., Institute of Adult Learning, DSO National Laboratories, and Ministry of Education). 

If you are interested in joining us, collaborating with us, or simply finding out more about us, please visit our website at: https://situatedgoalpursuit.com

Modules Offered

PL3235    Social Psychology

PL3231    Independent Research Project

PL3551    Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programme

PL4239    Social Psychology of the Unconscious

PL5305    Advanced Social Psychology

One remarkable aspect of the human species is our ability to strive for long-term objectives. Modern society places even greater demands for the successful pursuit of long-term goals--desirable end states people wish to achieve such as academic excellence, financial security, and physical fitness. As a social psychologist, my research is broadly concerned with the antecedents, the process, and the consequences of goal striving, with a special focus on contextual factors. More often than not, people pursue important goals in various intrapersonal (e.g., temptations, prior goal pursuit efforts, current emotional states), interpersonal (e.g., others’ goal pursuit, communication or chatter about goal pursuit), and societal (e.g., the upward mobility in the education system, immigrants in the local community) contexts. By studying how individuals negotiate their goal striving and long-term pursuit within these various contexts, resolve conflicts and achieve harmony among the various goals, and embed their goal strivings into complex person-environment dynamics, we can contribute to personal flourishing and positive interactions among different groups of people in the community.

To support my research objectives, I founded the Situated Goal Pursuit (SPUR) lab at the National University of Singapore. My research can be organized into four distinct, but inter-connected, themes: intrapersonal goal striving (Theme 1), interpersonal goal striving (Theme 2), goal pursuit and society (Theme 3), and social-cognitive processes (Theme 4). Figure 1 below presents an overview of the themes and the key research topics in each theme.  The four themes reflect my long-standing interest in basic research on social cognitive processes as well as my more recent commitment to conducting research with immediate social and translational impact. Together, my lab applies motivation science to such diverse topics as academic achievement, striving of personal goals, national identification, intergroup conflict, support for government, creativity, and psychologically wise interventions.

Key Words: Goal Pursuit, Self-Regulation, Self-Control, Interpersonal Factors in Goal Pursuit, Group Processes, Social Cognition, Creativity

OTHERS

• Publications-Edited Books

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  Hirt, E. R., Clarkson, J. J., & Jia, L. (2016). Self-Regulation and Ego Control. San Diego, CA: Elsevier.

   

• Publications-Peer Reviewed Journals

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  *Corresponding author (when not first author)

  Jia, L., Yuen, W. L., Ong, Q., & Theseira, W. E. (2022). Pitfalls of self-reported measures of self-control: Surprising insights from extreme debtors. Journal of Personality, 91, 369-382. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12733

  Jia, L., Lim, C. H., Ismail, I., & Tan, Y. C. (2021). Stunted Upward Mobility in a Learning Environment Reduces the Academic Benefits of Growth Mindsets. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of United States of America, 118, e2011832118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011832118

  Li, Y. & Jia, L.* (2021). Don’t miss the forest for the trees: New recommendations for exploiting guilt and shame in self-control conflicts. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 15, e12627. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12627  

  Yong, J. J., *Jia, L., Ismail, I. & Lee, P. (2021). Conditional Love: Attitudes toward Immigrants Depend on Their Perceived Instrumentality to Locals’ Basic Psychological Needs. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47, 1686-1704. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220984648

  Hou, M., *Jia, L., & Tan J. (2021). To tip off or not? Predicting gatekeepers’ reporting of deviant behaviors through desirability and feasibility considerations. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 27, 890-913. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2020.1863404

  Dang. J., Barker, P., Baumert, A., Bentvelzen, M., Berkman, E., Buchholz, N., ..., Jia, L., … Zinkernagel, A. (2021). A multi-lab replication of the ego depletion effect. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12, 14-24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619887702

  Sasaki, E., *Jia, L., Lwa, H. Y., & Goh, M. T. (2020). Gratitude inhibits competitive behavior in threatening interactions. Cognition and Emotion, 34, 1097-1111. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1724892

  Jia, L., Hirt, E. R., & Fishbach, A. (2019). Protecting an important goal: When prior self-control increases motivation for active goal pursuit. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 85,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103875

  Jia, L., Hirt, E. R., & Nowak, M. (2019). Adaptive indulgence in self-control: A multi-level cost-benefit analysis. Psychological Inquiry, 30, 140-146. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2019.1646051

  Jia, L., Hirt, E. R., & Koh, A. H. Q. (2019). How to have your cake and eat it too: Strategic indulgence in big-time collegiate sports among academically successful students. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10(6), 792–801. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550618789403

  Jia, L., Koh, A. H. Q., & Tan, F. M. E. (2018). Asymmetric goal contagion: Social power attenuates goal contagion among strangers. European Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 673-686. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2360

  Koh, A. H. Q, *Jia, L., & Hirt, E. R. (2017). Where do desires come from? Positivity offset and negativity bias predict implicit attitude toward temptations. Motivation and Emotion, 41, 431-442. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-017-9617-7

  Tong, E. M. W., & Jia, L. (2017). Positive emotion, appraisal, and the role of appraisal overlap in positive emotion co-occurrence. Emotion, 17, 40-54. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000203

  Jia, L. & Hirt, E. R. (2016). Depletion suspends the comparator mechanism in monitoring: The role of chronic self-consciousness in sequential self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 284-300. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000108

  Ho, S., Tong, E. M. W., & Jia, L. (2016). Authentic and hubristic pride: Differential effects on delay of gratification. Emotion, 16, 1147-1156. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000179

  Jia, L., Lee, L. N. & Tong, E. M. W. (2015). Gratitude facilitates behavioral mimicry. Emotion, 15, 134-138. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000022

  Jia, L., Tong, E. M. W., & Lee, L. N. (2014). Psychological “gel” to bind individuals’ goal pursuit: Gratitude facilitates goal contagion. Emotion, 14, 748-760. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036407

  Jia, L., Hirt, E. R., & Evans, D. (2014). Putting the freeze on priming: The role of need for cognitive closure on the prime-norm dynamic. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 931 - 942. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214530435

  Jia, L., & Smith, E. R. (2013). Distance makes the metaphor grow stronger: A psychological distance model of metaphor use. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 492-497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.01.009

  Karpen, S. C., Jia, L., & Rydell, R. J. (2012). Discrepancies between implicit and explicit attitude measures as an indicator of attitude strength. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 24-29. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.849

  Jia, L., Karpen, S. C., & Hirt, E. R. (2011). Beyond anti-Muslim sentiment: Opposing the Ground Zero Mosque as a means to pursuing a stronger America. Psychological Science, 22, 1327-1335. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611417256

  Clarkson, J. J., Hirt, E. R., Chapman, D. A., & Jia, L. (2011). The impact of illusory fatigue on executive control: Do perceptions of depletion impair working memory capacity? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 229-238. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550610386628

  Clarkson, J. J., Hirt, E. R., Jia, L., & Alexander, M. B. (2010). When perception is more than reality: The effects of perceived versus actual resource depletion on self-regulatory behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 29-46. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017539

  Jia, L., Hirt, E. R., & Karpen, S. C. (2009). Lessons from a faraway land: The effect of spatial distance on creative cognition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 1127-1131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.05.015

  Jia, L., & Singh, R. (2009). Asymmetrical attention allocation to dissimilar and similar attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 1259-1265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.07.012

   

• Publications-Book Chapters

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  Jia, L., Yu, R. J., Hirt, E. R., & Fishbach, A. (2016). Motivational tuning in response to ego depletion. In E. R. Hirt, J. J. Clarkson, & L. Jia (Eds.), Self-Regulation and Ego Control. San Diego, CA: Elsevier.

  Jia, L., & Hirt, E. R. (2011). The creative side of House: It’s the last muse on the right. In E. Cascio & L. Martin (Eds.), House and Psychology: Humanity is Overrated (pp 37-55). New Jersey: Wiley.

   

• Conference Talks/Posters

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  Jia, L. (Feb 2021). New Insights on Effective Self-Regulation. Symposium organized at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention (Virtual Conference).

  Jia, L., Neo, D., & Chen, P. (Feb 2021). Adaptive indulgence as a self-regulation strategy. Talk given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention (Virtual Conference).

  Ismail, I., & Jia, L. (February 2021). Motivational bases of intergroup attitudes. Poster presented at Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention.

  Jia, L., & Olcaysoy Okten, I. (May 2020). Journeying across the Political Spectrum: New Insights on the Motives and Beliefs Underlying Ideological Differences. Symposium accepted at Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, U.S. (conference cancelled due to Covid-19)

  Ismail, I., Lim, C. H., Tan, Y. C., & Jia, L. (February 2020). A multi-goal, multi-mean approach to understanding third-party participation in intergroup conflict. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana.

  Er, R. H. M., Ismail, I., & Jia, L. (February 2020). Putting other nations before mine: A multidimensional perspective to national identification. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana.

  Lim, C. H., Ismail, I., Tan, Y. C., & Jia, L. (February 2020). Fixed and growth mindsets of the environment: The role of environmental perceptions in implicit theories of intelligence. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana.

  Hou, M. & Jia, L. (2020). In service of the future: Temporal perspective and the reporting of deviant close-others. Annual meeting of Society of Police and Criminal Psychology.

  Jia, L., Ismail, I., & Lim, C. H. (Oct 2019). Committed and Optimistic: A Goal Striving Pathway of Citizens’ Support for Government Policies. Talk given at the Society of Experimental Social Psychology Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON, Canada.

  Jia, L. (July 2019). Committed and optimistic: A goal striving pathway of citizens’ support for government policies. Invited talk given at the Summer School for Personality and Social Psychology, Jinan, China.

  Jia, L., Neo, D., & Chen, P. (May 2019). Succumbing to but not Planned Indulgence in Temptations Demotivates Goal Pursuit. Talk given at the Society for the Science of Motivation Annual Conference, Washington D. C., US.

  Chen, P. & Jia, L. (May 2019). Beyond Sheer Will: The Strategic Regulation of Motivation in Goal Pursuit. Symposium organized at the Society for the Science of Motivation Annual Conference, Washington D. C., US.

  Jia, L. & Nguyen, T. (Mar 2019). Optimizing Goal Pursuit: Insights from Cognitive, Affective, Motivational, and Behavioral Findings. Symposium organized at the International Convention for Psychological Science, Paris, France.

  Jia, L., Hirt, E. R., & Koh, A. H. Q. (Mar 2019). How to have your cake and eat it: Strategic indulgence in big-time collegiate sports. Talk given at the International Convention for Psychological Science, Paris, France.

  Jia, L., Neo, D., & Chen, P. (Mar 2019). I guess I just wasn’t that into it: Post-temptation justification and its’ Consequences. Poster given at the International Convention for Psychological Science, Paris, France.

  Lim, C., Ng, X., Tan, Y., Ismail, I., & Jia, L. (2019, February). Breaking through the Glass Ceiling: Grit’s Role in Buffering Belonging Uncertainty among the Socially-Stigmatized. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, Portland. 

  Ismail, I., Lim, C. H., Tan, Y-C., Ang, S., & Jia, L. (February 2019). A goal systems perspective to third-party hostility against outgroups. Poster given at Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon.

  Ang, S., Ismail, I., Lim, C. H., & Jia, L. (February 2019). Adding fuel to fire: When lay third-party intervention escalates intergroup conflicts. Poster given at Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon.

  Hirt, E. R., & Jia, L. (May 2018). How to have your cake and eat it: Strategic indulgence in big-time collegiate sports. Talk given at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, San Francisco, California.

  Hirt, E. R., & Jia, L. (May 2018). Brief self-control activates selective motivational allocation. Talk given at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, San Francisco, California.

  Jia, L., Ismail, I. B., Seow, E. Y., Lim, C. H. & (March 2018). Committed and optimistic: maintaining strong support for the government amid criticism. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.

  Tan, Y-C. & Jia, L. (March 2018). Together we stand: shared attention on mortality salience reduces death anxiety induced. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.

  Ismail, I. B., Lim, C. H., & Jia, L., Lim, G., Ang, Y. T. S. (March 2018). Taking part and taking sides: examining third-parties in intergroup conflict. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.

  Lim, C. H., Ismail, I., Jia, L, & Ang, S. (March 2018). Am I more Christian than Republican? Manipulating category dominance in a new crossed-categorization paradigm. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, Atlanta, Georgia.

  Zenasni, F & Jia, L. (May 2017) Why and how we should improve creativity: The far-away land project. Talk given at Science, Policy & Society International Conference, Singapore.

  Jia, L. (March 2017). Depletion activates strategic motivational allocation. Symposium given at the International Convention of Psychological Science, Vienna, Austria.

  Seow, E.Y., Ismail, I., & Jia, L. (Jan 2017). Committed and Optimistic: The Effect of Commitment Dimension of National Identification on Rejecting Edward Snowden and Government Criticism. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas 

  Chionh, Y-J. S., & Jia, L. (Jan 2017). Investigating the effectiveness of implicit training of attentional bias, behavioral bias, and inhibitory control, in reducing cigarette smoking. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas.

  Lee, P., & Jia, L. (Jan 2017) Attitudes towards immigrants in Singapore: Singaporeans' pursuit of basic psychological needs satisfaction influences evaluation of immigrants. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas

  Yeo, P. S., Goh L., & Jia, L. (Jan 2017). Mere social connectedness: Beliefs about working with similar others facilitate self-control following ego depletion. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas.

  Jia, L., Hirt, E. R., & Koh, A. H. Q. (Jan 2017). How to have your cake and eat it: Strategic indulgence in big-time collegiate sports among academically successful students. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas.

  Hirt, E. R., Jia, L., & Clarkson, J. J. (May 2016). Red Light, Green Light: Depletion as a cue for adaptive self-regulation. Talk given at Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, United States.

  Tan, Y. C., & Jia, L. (Jan 2016). Facing death together: Engaging in mortality salience with others buffers death anxiety. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, San Diego, California.

  Jia, L., Ang, S. Z., Huang, X., & Chionh, S. Y. J. (Jan 2016). Depletion and BAS interactively predict mouse trajectories in responding to temptation objects. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, San Diego, California.

  Jia, L. Yu, R. Hirt, E. R., & Fishbach, A. (Jul 2015). Motivational Tuning in Response to Depletion. Talk given at Self-Regulation & Ego Control Meeting, Bloomington, IN.

  Jia, L., & Tan, F. M. E. (Feb 2015). Asymmetric goal transfer: High social power attenuates goal inference and contagion. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, Long Beach, California.

  Hirt, E. R., & Jia, L. (Oct 2014). A Spotlight Model of Depletion: Protecting high- and abandoning low- commitment goal pursuit in response to ego depletion. Talk given at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Columbus, OH.

  Hirt, E. R., Lewis, N., Clarkson, J. J., & Jia L. (May, 2014). Social identity on the defense: Differences in reactions to group threat as a function of mode of identification. Talk given at Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, United States

  Jia, L., & Tong, E. M. W. (May, 2013). Psychological “gel” for socially shared goal pursuit: Gratitude facilitates goal contagion. Poster given at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.

  Jia, L., & Hirt, E. R. (May 2012). The signaling value of self-regulatory resources in goal pursuit. Talk given at the Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.                    

  Jia, L., & Hirt, E. R. (Jan 2012). I know I cannot resist the temptation: Ego depletion as a cue to activate counteractive self-control. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, San Diego, California.

  Jia, L., Karpen, S. C., & Hirt, E. R. (May 2011). Beyond anti-Muslim sentiment: Opposing the Ground Zero Mosque as a means to pursuing a stronger America. Talk given at the Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.

  Karpen, S. C., Jia, L., & Rydell, R. J. (May 2011). Discrepancies between implicit and explicit attitude measures as an indicator of attitude strength. Talk given at the Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.

  Jia, L., & Hirt, E. R. (Jan 2011). The use of the conscious versus subconscious system of self-control depends on ego depletion. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas.

  Jia, L., & Hirt, E. R. (May 2010). Interaction of implicit attitudes and temptation-goal association predicts academic success. Talk given at the Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.  

  Jia, L., & Hirt, E. R. (January 2010). Can you resist the temptation of Facebook: Asymmetrical Facebook-Study association predicts academic performance. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada.

  Clarkson, J. J., Hirt, E. R., Chapman, D. A., & Jia, L. (January 2010) The impact of perception on executive control: Does illusory fatigue impair working memory capacity? Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada.

  Jia, L., & Hirt, E. R. (May 2009). I take a break when I am not watching. Talk given at the Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.

  Jia, L., Karpen, S. C., & Hirt, E. R. (February 2009). I like break because I want a break: ego depletion and the goal of resting. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, Tampa, Florida.          

  Karpen, S. C., Jia, L., & Hirt, E. R. (February 2009). Where the task is from affects how I do it: Spatial distance and creative cognition. Poster given at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference, Tempa, Florida.

  Jia, L., & Singh, R. (May 2008). Asymmetrical attention allocation to similar and dissimilar attitudes. Talk given at the Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.

  Jia, L., Evans, D. N., & Hirt, E. R. (May 2008). Epistemic motivation moderates priming effects differentially across situations. Talk given at the Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.

  Jia, L., & Goh, W. D. (May 2007). Are Long Words Holistically Processed? De-individuation Effects of Embedded CVC Clusters. Talk given at the European Cognitive Science Conference, Delphi, Greece.

FASS Writing Fellowship, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore 2018

Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020

Irving J. Saltzman Award for Outstanding Graduate Achievement, Indiana University, 2013

Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad, 2012

Grant-in-Aid of Doctoral Research Award, Indiana University, 2011

Jack and Linda Gill Outstanding Thesis Award (Runner-Up), Indiana University, 2011

College of Arts and Sciences Travel Award, Indiana University, 2011

The Society for Personality and Social Psychology Graduate Travel Award, 2011

Gordon Kato Memorial Summer Fellowship, Indiana University, 2010

Midwestern Psychological Association Diversity Travel Award, 2010

Commendation with Honors on Qualifying Exams, Indiana University, 2009

Mabel LaDuke Lauder Graduate Fellowship, Indiana University, 2007

Vice-Chancellor’s List, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore, 2007

University Scholars Programme Study & Research Grant, National University of Singapore, 2007

Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Prize (Individual), National University of Singapore, 2007

Wee Kheng Chiang Memorial Scholarship, National University of Singapore, 2006

Dean’s List, National University of Singapore, 2004-2006

Coronavirus lockdown: would you report people who break the rules? may, 2020. BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52525463?ocid=wsnews.chat-apps.in-app-msg.whatsapp.trial.link1_.auin

Gratitude Can Calm Our Urge to Compete with Others. May, 2020. Greater Good Magazine https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/gratitude_can_calm_our_urge_to_compete_with_others

'Strategic Indulgence' Key to College Success. August, 2018. Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/23/study-students-high-gpas-can-successfully-balance-academics-and-enjoying-sports

Strategic Indulgence Key to Maximizing the College Experience. August, 2018. Society for Personality and Social Psychology http://spsp.org/news-center/press-releases/strategic-indulgence-college-experience

The Connection between Pride and Persistence. August, 2016. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/08/the-connection-between-pride-and-persistence 

Feeling Grateful and Paying it Forward. April, 2015. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201504/feeling-grateful-and-paying-it-forward

Live Radio. August 1, 2014. Panelist on Campus 938Live on “Are our youth creative today?”       

Strong Social Identities Fuel Conflicts. October 10, 2011. PsychCentral. http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/10/10/strong-social-identities-fuel-conflicts/30199.html

The Importance of Vacation. January 3, 2011. Wired. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/the-importance-of-vacation/

Why Wanderlust Is Good For You, April 14, 2011. HowStuffWorks. http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2011/04/14/why-wanderlust-is-good-for-you/

Economy linked to Ground Zero mosque. Oct. 8, 2011. United Press International. http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/10/08/Economy-linked-to-Ground-Zero-mosque/UPI-74441318051242/

Why Does Conflict Arise When Social Identity Is Threatened? Oct. 6, 2011. Science Daily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111006173610.htm

Why we travel. March 13, 2010. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/mar/14/why-travel-makes-you-smarter

The Benefits of Vacation. Sep 4 2009. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2009/09/the-benefits-of-vacation/196905/

An Easy Way to Increase Creativity: Why thinking about distant things can make us more creative. July 21, 2009. Scientific American. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=an-easy-way-to-increase-c

Member, Association for Psychological Science

Member, The Society for Personality and Social Psychology

Fellow, Society of Experimental Social Psychology

Editorial Board

2020-Present              Associate Editor, Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology

2021-Present              Member, Social Psychological and Personality Science

2017-Present              Member, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

2016-2017                  Member, Asian Journal of Social Psychology

Ad hoc Reviewer

Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being

Asian Journal of Social Psychology

Basic and Applied Social Psychology

Behavior Research Methods

Collabra: Psychology

Cognition and Emotion

Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology

European Journal of Social Psychology

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Journal of Positive Psychology

Learning and Individual Differences

Motivation and Emotion

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Psychology and Health

Risk Analysis

Self and Identity

Social and Personality Psychology Compass

Social Problems

Social Psychological and Personality Science

Social Psychology

2023 Principal Investigator. Baseline Study for Health District @ Queenstown. NUS President's Office, National University of Singapore. S$4,499,950

2022 Principal Investigator. Extended Identity-Optimism-Support Model. DSO National Laboratories, Singapore. S$360,035.00

2021 Principal Investigator. Broader Views of Intelligence: Rethinking Our Approach to Educational Inequality. Humanities and Social Sciences Seed Fund, Office of the Deputy President (Research & Technology), National University of Singapore. S$20,000.00

2020 Co-Investigator, Team-Lead in Behavioral Intervention. On-Site Pilot Trial Using Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste for Energy and Resource Recovery at East Coast Lagoon Food Village. Urban Solutions and Sustainability Integration Fund, National Environment Agency, Singapore. S$1,639,920.00.

2020 Co-Investigator. Examination of Social Goal Chatter. Staff Research Support Scheme, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore. S$ $7,960.00.

2019 Principal Investigator. Complaining Strategically: Navigating Social Interactions to Maximize Academic Outcomes. Institute for Application of Learning Science and Educational Technology, National University of Singapore. S$18,900.00

2019 Principal Investigator. Regulatory Focus and SSG Career Development Course Use: A Brief Online Intervention. Institute for Adult Learning, SkillsFuture Singapore Agency. S$586,008.00

2018 Principal Investigator. Inspirational Immigrants: Harnessing the Positive Psychological Dividends of Immigration. Tier 1 Grant, Ministry of Education. S$59,640.00

2018 Principal Investigator. Using Implicit Attitudes Tests to Elicit Underlying Attitudes towards Public vs. Private Transport. Land Transport Authority. S$6,000.00

2016 Principal Investigator. Lesson from a faraway land: The effect of travelling and expositions to new cultures on creativity, USPC-NUS Grant, The Université Sorbonne Paris Cité and the National University of Singapore. S$23,200.00

2015 Principal Investigator. Toward a Multi-Dimensional Perspective of Group Identification, Humanities and Social Sciences Seed Fund, Office of the Deputy President (Research & Technology), National University of Singapore. S$40,000.00

2012 Principal Investigator. Staff Research Support Scheme, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore. S$7,994.00